Trip Preparation Continues

Today was a busy one. But first a little dental update.

When I was about twenty, I had my two top wisdom teeth pulled to make room for the bottom ones to come in. And they did. For years, my dentist has been telling me they should go and I have been studiously ignoring him. Last checkup, he said they had cavities and weren't worth fixing so he sent me to an oral surgeon. Had that appointment last week and decided to wait until the end of the bike season in October since I don't have many days at home until then and they weren't bothering me. Famous last words. Yesterday I started having throbbing pain I associate with an abscess and the right wisdom tooth seemed to be the culprit. Got in to see the dentist today and he gave me antibiotics to get me through the first trip which starts on Wednesday. He also told me he thought October was too late, so when I got home I called the surgeon and got a date on April 27th.

On the helmet front, I went into a local vendor and checked out the CL-Max. This is the only HJC helmet made without ear pockets for speakers. I looked at it and figured I could cut them in, however, I called J&M in Tucson for advice. Charlie got my call. Nice guy, Charlie, and he's been to Sudbury before. He also said to use any HJC helmet EXCEPT the CL-Max. Time for a rethink. Who wants a heavy modular helmet anyway. Sherm told me he was getting an HJC CL-33, so I checked it out. Sort of geeky after the manly half helmet, but it will look right with the GoldWing. And it has ear pockets. Wandered around town looking for CL-33's and came up empty until I tried the local Honda dealer. They not only had them, but they had them in silver. And they were the cheapest Canadian price I have seen. So we now have the helmets and I will install the headsets tomorrow.

Can't install Streets & Trips on the Lifebook over a network. That sucks, since the little computer doesn't have a CD drive. Tried copying all the files over and running install. S&T said to get lost. Looked around for a USB or PCMCIA CD Drive. They all want to read and burn DVD's these days. Much more than I need but probably what I will end up with tomorrow.

I have never had an MP3 player before, but I can plug one into the Wing and have it play through the stereo. Bought a little Rio unit and set the computers up to feed it. Selected about 200 good road songs, moved them to the Lifebook and loaded them into the Rio. So something is working right. And the Rio uses the same USB cord as my camera so I only need to carry one.

Tomorrow I get the CD drive, install S&T, install the headsets in the helmets, change the hooks on the trailer safety chains and we pack our gear.

Wednesday we will head south with the trailer to get the bike. Weatherman cancelled the Wednesday rain. For now. I don't know how these next days will play out but I hope to get several hundred miles on the bike and get the crankcase and final drive oils changed before we load the bike in the trailer and depart for Iowa Friday or Saturday. We'll also figure out the packing in the new spaces. We'll unload at a certain Iowayan's place and two-wheel it south from there.

So, all in all, we are on track and almost on schedule.