Stopover in Calera

We left Robbinsville and travelled along the Cherohala Skyway on our way back to Calera. We are headed further south, going to Seacrest Beach in Florida to finish up the trip. We stopped by the house on our way with plans to drop some things off and stay overnight before continuing on our journey. When we got off of I-65 at our exit, Jim went to down shift and realized that his shifter was not changing gears. He looked down and saw that the connecting rod was no longer attached to the gear box. He made it home in fifth gear! When we pulled up to the house, Jamie & Zoe came out and greeted us. Zoe jumped up and down doing an excited "dance" when she saw me, obviously very happy that I was back. Jamie didn't allow her heartfelt emotions to show outwardly to the same level, but I am certain that she was also very, very happy to see us too. :>) We met that night after dinner with the canine club and I was able to see how much Zoe has improved while I've been away [hat tip to Jamie and Zoe for hard work!].

The next morning Jim realized that our back tires had almost no tread left and needed to be replaced. He took my bike in to get a new tire and pick up a new shifter rod for his bike so that he could replace it. After fixing it, he took his bike in to have the shifter checked and get a new back tire. In between he went by work and checked on things there. That night we unpacked and re-packed the items that we would need for the last week of our trip. The next day we left for Seacrest Beach. Ginny Laine drove "the cage" and brought Sarah on her first motorcycle trip [riding in her car seat in "the cage" of course . . . not on our motorcycles!]. We were able to dodge the rain and stayed dry the entire trip down!