9/11/2011 Ride

[Hemibee]

Black Betty was ready for a run following the alternator/rectifier repairs and 9/11/2011 seemed like a good day to get out of the house and put a few miles on her.  There was a PGR gathering at a local dealership and I thought about riding over there for it but decided I needed the miles to clear my head and stretch Black Betty's legs.  If I attended the gathering I would get about 50 miles of riding round trip and that just wasn't going to do it for me.  The gathering wasn't just PGR, it was also going to include a church group or two and they were planning some family activities centered around the dealership and the dealership is one I said I would never set foot in again so that was the icing on the cake, a road trip it would be.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself here... drop back to Friday morning.  I needed to change the brake pads on the front so I go about getting that all taken care of when I hit a small snag.  I some how knock the caliper/pad clip in the left caliper across the garage floor and I can't find it.  So I'm about to throw a fit, I'm on the garage floor on my hands and knees looking for it when I find it with my right knee.  Of course I'm wearing shorts and that little sucker hurt something fierce.  Well I get it and the pads in place after a few choice words and move to the right caliper.  Well I must have done something right or I really screwed up, the right side went in with no problems.  Working the brakes and everything looks good so I pick up the tools, head inside to get my gear on to run into town to get her yearly safety inspected.

Well old man Murphy showed up, everything worked fine except for the horns. :twisted:    I'm glad I checked everything before heading out to get the inspection.  So back in the house to get out of the gear and back to the garage to try and repair the horns.  I worked the rest of the afternoon trying to locate the problem but couldn't find the cause.  The old relay had a cracked housing so I replaced it and performed an autopsy on it to see what may have gone wrong with it and if this was the source of my dead horns.  There was a good bit of corrosion in the contacts so I felt this could have been the cause.  I hit the horn button again and heard the new relay pick up but no horn.  Ok, I'll check the fuse again, it's got to be the fuse... nope the fuse in the fuse block looked good and tested good.  By this time I'm getting really ticked off so I figure it is best to just back off and look at the wiring diagram Friday night and hit it again Saturday morning.

So bright and early Saturday morning I'm back out with the plan to fix the horns or I will go buy new ones and completely rewire them so I know the problem is eliminated.  As I'm looking at the horns again I notice a wire coming straight off the battery and routed up under the tank and it looks like the same one feeding the horns and I can't find a fuse.  So I'm starting to remove plastics and stuffed up under the tank is a hidden fuse holder.  There's the problem, a blown fuse.  Made the change of the fuse and everything is working!  Black Betty passed the inspection with flying colors... The ride is on!!!!

Two of my partners in crime decided to tag along with me and we made a day of it by heading north and a little east.  



Of course if they let me set the route we will be stopping at any courthouses we come within a few miles of and this was no exception as I planned to stop in Palestine (Pal-i-steen, not ˈpaliˌstīn) to grab a photo of the Anderson County Courthouse.



Well it's lunch time so we head over to the highly recommended Hamburger Bar for lunch.  Remember old man Murphy?  Well he showed up again, the Hamburger Bar is closed and there are no lights on to indicate they will be opening soon.  So we head over to the restaurant we were told was the best Mexican food in Palestine, it just isn't very good if you have eaten at any other Mexican restaurants around Texas, or so we were told.  Well we were told right, it might be the best in town but it wasn't as good as the TexMex you would expect in Texas.

While we are sitting there eating I told Tim and Ed that I had not planned the route home, we would just have to play it by ear or I could get the GPS off of Black Betty and we could plan a route.  We agreed  to get the GPS, so I laid out a route to catch another courthouse and then turn south for home.

We left Palestine and headed to Rusk for this photo...



We have to be real careful in Rusk, we don't want to get locked up in the local State Housing.  Rusk is the home of the State Mental Institute, I'm not sure my partners could pass the test to remain free, after all they were following me and the routes I had set up.

We decide it's best to head south, I had enough courthouse photos for one 100 DegF day.  I pulled back in the garage with just a little over 320 additional miles on the clock.  My recliner sure felt good after this ride, I didn't realize just how hot I had gotten and how much it had zapped my energy.  

Tim and Ed, be warned because now I'm looking at what other courthouses we need to set up some rides for.

Here's the videos from the ride and a link for each to allow for larger video view, hope you enjoy.  Any and all comments, good and bad, on the videos are welcome as they will help me do better next time.

Part 1...
http://www.vimeo.com/29008763

Part 2...
http://vimeo.com/29017615