Up and gone, before the crack of dawn. I know trailering is lame, but I was short on vacation time, so Mike(Speedjunkie) came by the house and picked me up. He was so excited for Shovelfest that he bought a new trailer and a new truck. We left at 3:30 Wednesday morning hoping to miss the major traffic times and not set-up in the dark.
Well, this little detour and stop did cost us some time. George Dickel Distillery near Tullahoma. Actually not that far from Jack Daniel's place, if you have time to do them both.
The tour ends with a tasting of course. I am fond of No. 12, drinks like a cognac in my opinion.
You guessed it, we about couldn't find the place and we set up camp in the dark.
Thursday morning, only the die hards around. The Things and their Knucklehead.
The campsite was pretty nice. There are several huge rallies held here.
Kentrrr was here, too. He's now retired and RVing full time.
It didn't rain on the campsite any though the weekend, but the morning dews were amazingly heavy
It's not Shovelfest unless George is cooking up a ton of breakfast.
And Brian won't turn down a meal.
Remember the Shovelfesters that aren't with us anymore. Rest in peace, Bevy.
I found an excellent inexpensive screwdriver for roadside repairs and adjustments. It's a Kobalt 10-Pack from Lowe's.(There are some on Ebay, too.) It really only holds eight bits though. And of course you have a 1/4 inch nut driver for your hose clamps. You can also open topo chico water bottles with it if you take out the middle two bits. They are on clearance, but it's still a great tool. .
It's flat and easy to carry on your belt, or in a pocket, jacket, saddlebag, or toolroll.
On the left you can see the bits it comes with: PH#1, PH#2, SL-1/4, SL-3/16, T15, T20, S1, S2. I don't have any Torx or Square drive fasteners on my bike, so I swapped mine a bit. I added a PH#3, needed for at least the airbox on both my bikes. A 5mm hex, because that fits the seat of my Kawasaki. Also for the Kawasaki, I added two JIS#2 bits, for all the rest of its screws. I kept the PH#2, PH#1, SL-1/4, and SL-3/16, as those seem to be useful. If I had a modern Harley, then I would have totally added a Torx 27, because every fastener on those seems to be that bit size.
Well here we are again leaking pushrods. I have had more trouble with the pushrods on this last build than anything. I have been too busy jacking with them and life to even blog about the trials and tribulations. So here's the story. The cool stainless steel Big Jim's tubes leaked and leaked regardless of seals tried. I swapped the fatter aluminum solid pushrods for slimmer steel versions thinking it was the pushrods hitting the tubes. No real change. Daniel thought that the oil tank needed a vent to atmosphere. I tried that, but it didn't help. So I drug the bike back to Daniel in Bartlesville. He swapped the stainless tubes for stock style and everything seemed great. The stainless tube didn't quite center up correctly. Then I noticed that the vent was putting oil out onto the transmission top and clutch basket. So I thought the vent was no longer needed and plugged it with a brass pipe plug.
Well I guess it still has too much case pressure, because oil is coming out the pushrods again.
And oil was even around the brass pipe plug that was sealed with teflon tape. And yes the oil is only about half up in the oil tank.
There was controversy on were to align the breather gear mark when we used the degree wheel on it on two different occasions. I am going to move it from one tooth off to two teeth and see if that helps.
Anyway, I manage to get all the way to Durant before I had to stop for a beer. The 9th Street Bar is a nice little place.
2 o'clock on a Friday afternoon and some random dude was playing country covers for tips and beers. He was pretty decent. Poor guy lost his Harley when he went to rehab.
Back on the road.
Red River bridge to Texas.
Hay bales and countrysides.
Made it to camp. Panhead Fred and Jimbo beat me, and sadly no one had any beer.
Luckily, Pibb rolled in directly behind me.
Pibb saves the day with a trailer full of Bud diesels straight from St. Louis proper.
There were a lot wildflowers, but most weren't where I could get pictures very easily.
Jimbo's primary belt was slapping and he needed to fix it.
Texas Mark got to camp.
He brought his son Eli, too.
The usual suspects.
Beautiful views of lake and sky as always.
Trent and Jason got there about dark.
I have no idea what Pibb was looking for.
Hanging out.
Shemp rolled in on Saturday and his bike wasn't quite right, so Mark got to work.
My wife did an excellent job of taking care of everyone at camp.
More chillin' from these two.
My boys did a little fishing and caught a few.
A hitch hiker on Pibb's trailer.
Campin'
More campin'
Everything was fine...
until the camera flashed and people got irritated.
Another SCfest in the books.
More on the singing cowboy in Durant, I was getting gas on my way back through on Sunday and I will be damned if the singer didn't show up at the quickie in a pick up truck and get on the trailer and start picking again. Unfortunately, I sent my camera home with my wife so I can't prove it.
