The day started out pretty normal for us. We had a hot breakfast at the Sleep Inn, got our stuff packed, and headed down I-95. We ran into heavy traffic just below the Georgia border. They squished three lanes down to one. Fortunately we could get off at the exit and stopped for gas and coffee at a Huddle House.

I was able to talk with Marvin at Eurowing. We discussed the problem of the motor vibrating and hitting the swing arm. He’s convinced the tech at the Harley dealer in Mississippi messed with the rear motor mount. I have to agree that the motor isn’t in the same place it was before they took it apart. Marvin suggested I put a piece of wood between the primary and swing arm to stop the vibration.

I picked up a piece of dead palm frond and hammered it into the gap. It worked like a champ. The knocking stopped and the vibration is now minimal.

Have hammer and palm – Will travel.

I was pretty convinced by my conversation with Marvin that I could fix the problem with my bike and decided it was not the right time to buy a new bike. I need time to do some more research before I buy something new.

It was just a very hot ride. The temperatures were in the mid-90s. We had lunch at the Wawa in Starke, FL.

We stopped for coffee at Dunkin’ in Ocala.

Just after passing the exit for US-98, the right trailer tire started throwing off pieces. By the time Beth was able to pull over, the tire was completely destroyed.

We put on the tire we took off yesterday and limped along to the next exit.

We followed a few back roads until we found a country store and stopped to call in the cavalry.

Our niece and nephew live nearby in Dade City. Mike brought his work truck (an electrical line truck) and Lindsey took me to Walmart to get a new tire and wheel. Mike put on the tire and set the air pressure. We are very grateful to them for helping us.

We got home around 8 pm after more than 12 hours in the heat. We unloaded the essentials and collapsed.

Today we did the revised trip planning and got reorganized. I moved my phone and GPS mounts to the Tri-Glide, and Beth did laundry, shopping, and revised the food menu. We are not taking the trailer, and we’ll just have a cooler for lunch fixings. We pick hotels with good breakfasts, fix our picnic lunch, and do simple dinners. Our preferred evening meal is bag-o-salad from Walmart. We have various toppings we can add to the salad. Of course, hors d’oeuvres generally include beer and almonds.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we will get on the super slab and head up to Asheville to resume our trek on US-19.