Getting Ready

For thirty years, Labour Day Weekend meant a trek to the Kitchener/Waterloo area for the Cyclefest motorcycle rally. This event was originally put on by the Waterloo County Touring Club at the Chicopee Ski Club. In 1998, it moved to a campground in West Montrose and the Waterloo Wings took over the hosting duties. In 2009, the 30th anniversary, the final rally was held signalling the end of an era.

The Waterloo Wings didn't quit, however. Last year, some of us gathered again in West Montrose while the club chose Wiarton for a meeting spot this year. Son-in-law Tom reserved us an RV site at the Bluewater Tent and Trailer Park right in the town.

We haven't been on the road since we got back from California at the beginning of July. In that time, some work was done on the equipment. I washed the RV, maiming myself in the process. All three tires were replaced on the trailer. The RV was in for service at Cambrian Ford where, in addition to the oil and filter change, I had the transmission and differential serviced and the tires rotated. They were unable to find steel valve stems of the correct length to replace the rubber ones but did find that two stems were not high pressure rated and replaced them.

This morning, I checked the tire pressures and moved a couple of monitor sensors that inadvertently were placed on the wrong wheels. One wasn't working and, in the process of changing the battery, I broke a soldered joint. Luckily, I had an extra I had taken off the trailer so I swapped them out. It was evident that the mechanic had bumped the pressure up to 80 PSI from the 75 I had been running. No problem since I wanted to see if the maximum pressure would have an impact on the fuel mileage and also to see if the ride would be too harsh.

I managed to get the lawn mowed but it felt like I had paid a price given the way my hip was feeling when I was done. Then I hooked the trailer up and loaded the bike while Sandy moved our gear into the motorhome. The trailer lights didn't work at first but did come on after I gave the plug a shot with Deoxit contact cleaner.

I spent the rest of the day catching up the blog so we would be current for the start this weekend. My apologies for getting this far behind.  By bedtime, we were ready to roll in the morning. It felt good to know we would finally be getting out of town again.