SUNDAY JULY 30, 2000

      I took a shower & got dressed in long pants & a long-sleeved shirt, got my backpack packed up & was ready to leave for the concert. I said good-bye to Sue & her mom & rode off on the Harley at 3:19pm for my first long road trip on the Harley.
      I stopped at a gas station to buy gas & then headed out North on highway 405. I headed east on I-90 & got happy goose bumps looking at the line of mountains I was headed toward. I was thinking about the email I could write to Derek & I thought about how Paddy would be proud of me. The bike sounded healthy & was doing a fine job. The scenery was beautiful but I did not want to stop to take pictures because I still had a long way to go & wanted to get some distance under my belt before stopping.
      After passing through the Snoqualmie pass area the terrain was no longer green & the temperature was getting warmer. The area reminded me of areas I have driven through in Nevada.
      Holding onto the bike was quite fatiguing & I pulled off the highway in Cle Elum where I pulled into a gas station to rest. As I pulled into the gas station, I noticed that my right gas tank was venting gas all over the place. I opened the left side & it was almost empty. It was a good thing I had stopped because I was almost running out of gas in the left tank & the gas from the right side was not cross-feeding over to the left side (which is where the engine draws fuel from.) I parked in the shade & found a piece of bailing wire (convenient!) which I used to try to un-clog the gas line connecting the two tanks. Nothing I did seemed to clear the fuel line & I was getting gasoline all over my hands & the hot bike. I decided not to mess with it anymore & just fill up the left tank & move on. I figured that I had driven about 80 miles on that one tank so I would just have to stop every 80 miles or so to get gas until I can get a chance to really work on clearing the cross-feed line.
      After spending about 30-35 minutes in Cle Elum, I finally got back on the road. It was very warm & I was glad to have the air moving across me again. I stopped once again (this time at a rest area) because my hands, feet & butt hurt & I was getting thirsty as well. I drank some water & used the restroom before going onward. It was not much further after that that I crossed the bridge over the Columbia River & the traffic for the concert started backing up onto the highway. I passed the line of cars & cut in line up front. I was surprised at how far from the highway The Gorge Amphitheater actually was. I was in a line of cars on a two-lane highway that was moving about 35 mph - not fast enough for me to stay in 4th gear.
      Closer to the amphitheater, the line of cars came to a stop & we inched our way into the dusty parking area. A flag person told me to follow another bike through where people were walking & I parked right up front with the other bikes. I met a couple on a 1999 Yamaha Road Star & we chatted a bit before I locked up the bike & went into the concert area. I brought the backpack & my helmet with me.
      I found a place to sit on the grass that was still open & had an unobstructed view of the stage. I noticed that when I sat down it was exactly 7pm ­ the time the concert was supposed to start. Good thing I didn't stop for pictures or to eat! From where I was sitting I could see all the goings-on behind the scenes. I watched the people back stage & then K.D. Lang came on around 7:30pm. She played 10 songs & talked to the crowd in-between songs. Her drummer was awesome! Her part of the show was over around 8:15pm & there was about a 30-minute break in-between shows where the stage hands re-arranged the stage for Sting's show.
      Sting started his show around 8:45pm & didn't talk to the crowd much. A lot of his songs ran one right into another. He did about 16 songs & then two encores both with two songs each. He brought tears to my eyes when he played "Fields of Gold." He played bass for the entire 1½ hours of the show & was on stage until around 10:15pm without much of a break at all (before leaving the stage briefly prior to his first encore.) He played "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" & "Every Breath You Take" for his first encore. For the second encore he came out by himself with an acoustic guitar & did a version of "Message in a Bottle" that brought tears to my eyes again. The band joined him for the last song where Sting introduced them. After that song they all did a group bow to let us know they were done for the night.
      I walked back to where my bike was parked & ran into that couple again. Their names were Donald & Debbie. I checked my gas tanks & was pleasantly surprised to see the gasoline level in the two tanks had equalized! We waited for some of the crowd to disperse before leaving. I took a picture of Donald & Debbie & got their email address (which later turned out to be no good) before following them out. We drove around all the waiting cars ­ one of the advantages of riding a motorcycle! I followed them up until we got out onto the two-lane highway & they started passing the line of cars on a blind hill! At that point I stopped following them & joined the line of cars, inching forward with everyone else. I finally got onto the highway & there was still a ton of traffic due to the concert letting out. I got off the highway just after crossing back over the Columbia River to go to a gas station. I was pretty hungry but didn't see a restaurant. I bought some gas & a cinnamon roll at a Texaco station & called Sue.

MONDAY JULY 31, 2000

      It was shortly after midnight when I called Sue from a phone booth at a Texaco station on the way back from the Sting concert. That is when I learned that she had been sick all day throwing up & running to the bathroom with diarrhea. Good thing she didn't come to the concert! All they had were portapotties with long lines of people waiting to use them! We talked for a while & then she suddenly had to get off the phone & run to the bathroom again. I ate my cinnamon roll & headed back out onto the highway.
      There was still a ton of traffic on the highway from people leaving the concert. It was 28 miles to Ellensburg & I did not see a Denny's advertised at the first exit I came to so I rode on. I did not see a suitable place to eat at the next exit either & I was not tired so I decided to keep riding on. Very shortly after I passed the last exit for Ellensburg, the engine suddenly revved up & the bike lost power. I let off the gas & coasted off to the shoulder of the highway. Before the engine died there was a nasty clicking sound. I could tell that something transferring power from the engine to the road had broken. (DUH!)
      I got off the bike & checked with a flashlight but found everything on the outside intact. I suspected the primary drive belt snapped. That can't be fixed without replacing the belt. I turned the bike around & started pushing it back toward that last Ellensburg exit on the shoulder in the opposite direction of oncoming traffic. Fortunately the terrain was very flat but I still was sweating profusely. I had to push the bike up over an overpass to get off the freeway going back on an on-ramp. I was thinking that I would just check into a motel & look in the phone book for a Harley repair shop. But the first motel I saw had the NO VACANCY sign lit up so I walked the bike over to a second motel near the exit. That motel was also full so I parked the bike temporarily & filled my water bottle. I was drenched with sweat & drank a quart of water.
      I contemplated what to do while I cooled down. I finally pushed my bike over to a phone booth but that one had a phone book with the pages torn out of the yellow pages that would have had motorcycle repair on them. I walked the bike over to another phone booth & this one had a phone book with those pages in it. There was only one listing for a Harley shop & they offered 24-hour emergency road service so I called. I got an answering machine so I left a message describing the bike & where I was. Then I decided to push the bike over to the truck stop where there seemed to be some activity.
      There was a Subway sandwich shop that was open 24 hours so I bought a sandwich & asked about motels. There was not another motel within pushing-a-Harley range & it was doubtful there would be any vacancies anywhere because there were a lot of weekend events this past weekend. I talked with a lady who was icing her eyes to wake up while I ate my sandwich. I was scoping out the area for a place to lie down. After I finished my sandwich I pushed the bike over to a corner of the parking lot where there were some concrete blocks. There were some humps in the middle of the blocks but I lay down to one side of them & used my backpack as a pillow. At this time it was about 2:15am. As I lay there I did not close my eyes. I was looking up at the stars & thought about how fortunate I was that it was not cold or raining. The night sky was beautiful. I watched a couple of satellites traverse the sky & then went back to Subway to get a drink. I brought the drink back to where I was parked & lay down once again on the concrete block to look at the stars. I closed my eyes several times & dozed off & on.
      I kept shifting positions because I was not comfortable in any one position for very long. I noticed that the sky was starting to get lighter in the East around 4:20am. Shortly after that, a young couple letting their dogs out for a run came over to where I was & we started talking. They were very nice & friendly & we talked at length.
      Eventually Glen (the male half of the young couple) loaned me a wrench so that I could remove a couple of parts in the way of taking the primary cover off of the bike. I moved the bike closer to where they were parked & took the cover off. My diagnosis of the problem was correct ­ the primary drive belt had broken. I put the cover back on returned the tools to Glen & then waited for the Perkins Restaurant to open.
      When the restaurant opened I used the phone inside to call the Harley shop again. Again I got the answering machine so I left a message saying that I would be waiting at the Perkins restaurant. I also said that I would not be going anywhere until he got there & that I now knew the problem was a broken primary belt. Then I ate a nice breakfast with lots of coffee. I told the waitress that I would like to remain in the booth for a while drinking coffee until this guy arrived. She said that was not a problem.
      I had just finished my breakfast & bought a newspaper when the Harley repair guy, Ben, arrived. I was quite surprised to see him at 6:45am. I quickly paid my bill & we loaded my bike onto his trailer. We drove to his house in the town of Thorp which is where his shop is. He was very nice to me & seemed to know a lot about Harleys. Within a short time I was certain he was a great mechanic ­ more reliable than those guys at Rolling Thunder. I had him do a lot of extra work which he was willing to do without a credit card. He normally would only take cash but was trusting me to mail him a check for the balance due!
      While I watched Ben work on my bike, we talked the whole time. I could feel my lack of sleep whenever I stood up. I paid him some cash & he gave me his card & the bill for the rest before I left. I was back on the road around 10am I think. I took the back way into Cle Elum where I got some more gas. I couldn't get out of Cle Elum for a while due to construction crews not marking the detour turns clearly but I finally got back onto the highway.
      I rode back into the green terrain & got fatigued on the bike again. I was looking for a place to pull over when I suddenly noticed a Kodak moment so I pulled off onto the shoulder of the highway & took a panoramic picture of the spectacular scenery. I got back on the road & my butt hurt. My hands were sore & I couldn't wait to get off of the bike. I was very relieved to see the Highway 900 exit for Renton. There was road construction which slowed my progress but I was so close to home I didn't care.
      When I got home, Sue was still laying on the couch, not feeling well. I told her my story & gradually worked my way to bed. I had to take a shower before I could go to bed. Both Sue & I lay down to sleep for a little while. I fell right to sleep until Ruth called & woke us up. Sue couldn't go back to sleep after the phone call but I could. Sue let me sleep until around 5pm when I got up for a while. I tried to do some stuff on the computer & managed to update my calendar/schedule. I went to the store to get a few things & when I came back Sue was feeling better & washing her truck. Sue left to go for a swim & I cooked a frozen pizza. I ate while watching the news & then went back to the computer. Sue got home from the club & I was really running low on energy & had to go back to bed. I went to bed around 9:35pm. I woke up a few times while Sue was getting ready to leave but I didn't even get up when she kissed me good-bye & left to go to the airport.