Sept 20/08 - Saturday night drags...

Saturday, Sept 20th/08

Rod’s bike is in the hands of Route 66 Motorsports. It’s a large shop that deals with Honda, Yamaha and Harley-Davidson. Well appointed and clean as a whistle. Paul Johnson, the very congenial service manager called at 8:00 a.m. this morning to give the diagnosis. It’s a blown head gasket. Not the end of the world but they won’t be able to get parts until Tuesday. It could be worse and it sure could have happened at a much worse time and place (like in the middle of Death Valley). We let the hotel know we need to extend our stay and consider our options.

Double up on ‘Paladin’? Who gets to drive? Rent a car? Extra costs?

In the end, we decide to rent a car for Sunday and Monday so we can do some sightseeing and double up on ‘Paladin’ for Saturday. We decide to walk over to the bike shop to check on Rod’s bike and pick his maps up that were still on the bike. Somehow, we hadn’t considered the almost 100F temperature that made the two mile long walk a hot & dusty affair.

We go into the service bay area where Rod’s bike is on the bench and being attended to by master mechanic for Honda, Bob Lemon. No operating theatre could be more pristine and well organized and we trust we are in excellent hands and leave with lighter hearts.

Late Saturday afternoon we double up on ‘Paladin’ (Okay – I let Rod drive) and head into the historic area of Kingman where they are having the annual street drags. Cars, motorcycles, pocket bikes, 4 wheel ATV’s and trucks all souped up to the nines and LOUD … VERY LOUD !!! With everything from Nitro burning monsters to the everyday daily driver. From professional race cars to junior dragsters, there is something for everyone.

Later in the evening we just kicked back, played some crib, watched a movie and early to bed.