Breakdown - USA Four Corners Journal Day 12 -

I have experienced the first breakdown of this trip; the battery is dead. I’ve called Roadside Assistance. They are sending a tow truck to take me to the Harley dealer in Rimouski, QC. To be continued…

1:00 p.m. The tow truck driver, Jean Phillipe, arrived in an hour. He had all the right equipment, including a special dolly for holding a motorcycle on the flat bed. It took a little over an hour to get to Rimouski. They, Rimouski Harley-Davidson, took me in right away and checked the battery, regulator, and stator. The stator is fine. The regulator and battery need to be replaced. The wiring harness from the regulator to the fuse block might have to be replaced. They had to take the tank off to route the wires. It should be another 1-1/2 hour.

The rain has stopped and the sun has been trying to break through. I think I see something resembling sun.
I’ll probably have enough time to get to Madawaska today. I don’t know if I can get there by the time the post office closes. I just might stop there and get a fresh start in the morning.

10:30 p.m. They finished the repairs about 2:15 P.M. They replaced the battery and regulator. The tech didn’t like the connector on the wiring harness, but he didn’t have a replacement, so he put tape around the connectors to keep sand and water out. “100% Ok Guaranteed,” he said. The sun was shining as you can see in the pictures. I packed up and was on the road in a jiffy. I got gas first, then headed back down the highway to Riviere-du-Loup and Madawaska.

Along the way I pulled off to take a picture of a tidal pool along the St. Lawrence. I had to go back under the highway and around to get back on. As I rounded the curve, there was the falls I had seen in the morning.

After Riviere-du-Loup the clouds came in again. It didn’t rain until after I had checked into my motel and taken my pictures at the post office. We had thunder showers and two waves of hail. Fortunately I was in Rite-Aid getting my pictures printed during the first hail storm and I was in Jeff’s Pizza and Subs (just down the block from Daigle’s Furniture) during the second hail storm. The bike withstood the hail just fine and the saddlebags and top case did not leak.

I’ve got my envelope ready to mail in the morning. I’ve been working on the website this evening. There is some problem at the server end preventing all the pictures from transferring. Maybe it will work in the morning.

I’ll go to the Post Office, then ride to Ottawa tomorrow.

Riviere-du-Loup, QC to Madawaska, ME – 145 miles

Today’s Photo Album

I got ready this morning and went out to start my bike and bring it around to the front under the canopy. No go. Dead battery, So I pushed it around front. And called Roadside Assistance.

The tow truck arrived in an hour.

The driver, Jean Philippe, had all the right equipment. The special dolly for motorcycles worked perfectly, and he had a ton of straps.

He tied it every which way from Sunday.

We stopped for diesel enroute.

Jean Phillipe.

Rimouski Harley-Davidson. By 2 in the afternoon the sun was out.

I pulled off to take this picture of a tidal pool along the St. Lawrence.

When I was riding in the cab of the tow truck in the morning I saw this view of falls under a railroad bridge. Imagine my surprise when I rode under the highway, turned a corner, and there were the falls.