Doing the Loop - Part 7

The plugs are inserted into the leaking tire but not with satisfaction.  Something seems wrong.  The tire is filled with air and everyone shrugs and it is agreed to go as far as this patch will take us, hopefully all the way to Tok.  We repack the gear and start our bikes.  The ensuing noise of Harley motors and "blipping" throttles is impressive and everyone getting gas at the station turns their attention to us.  But we in very cool biker fashion pretend not to notice and begin our pull out to the highway that will take us to Delta Junction.  

It is a beautiful area to ride.  For me it brings back floods of memories.  I had a best friend when I lived in Fairbanks back in 1967 that lived in North Pole.  I loved to go to his house, er, log cabin on Sunday afternoons.  We had incredible adventures both summer and winter.  North Pole looks so much different today than it did in 1967.  I am not sure I could find the way to where my friends cabin once was anymore.  We also pass Birch Lake which was a favorite camping spot for our family.  They must have moved the highway as it passes right by the shore of Birch Lake.  In my boyhood memories, it was about 100 yards away at the time.  We pass the braided channels of the Big Delta River.  All the sand bars are loaded with the logs and root wads of trees washed off the banks of the river far upstream.  It has always been so.  You would think we would have run out of trees by now.  

The road is a biker's dream.  There are sweeping curves and hills and straightaways.  The four of us are stretched out in formation.  It is fun riding. It is getting along toward late afternoon/evening.  We still have a good piece of road to get under us before we get to Tok.  Before long, we pull into Delta Junction.  

Delta on the other hand hasn't changed much since I was a kid.  Only 100 miles from Fairbanks there isn't a lot of reason for Delta to exist.  There is some barley farming, a lot of military support people live here because of Ft. Greeley nearby and of course, some people just like to live far away from everything.  The other big draw to Delta is that there is a wild population of bison here that pretty much roams around as they please.  I choose the word "roam" in the "oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam.." sense.  

Because there are bison about, we keep a eye out for them as we ride through this area.  It would really be awkward to say I died because I ran into a buffalo on my motorcycle.  "Huh?" people would say.

We gas up our bikes.  The girl taking payment for the gas looks like she has lived in Delta all her life.  I wonder what kind of dreams for her life she has or if she is satisfied with the life she is living here.  She gets up from sitting on the ground in front of the station smoking her cigarette.  She is nice enough and takes my credit card to pay for the gas.  

The tire seems to be holding air.  We are relieved and hope that it is a permanent fix until we get to Anchorage where it can be properly evaluated.  We have almost 200 miles before we get to Tok.  It's a good thing that the days are getting longer in Alaska.  The skies are dark and lowering in front of us.  We  hope we will not get into some rain, it has been a very long day that started in Denali Park.    

We are all gassed up and ready to pull out.  Unfortunately Sam has to leave us at this point to get back to Anchorage a day before we have to go.  We pray over Sam and he heads down the highway to Paxton the next wide spot in the road and then on to Glennallen and then Eureka where he has a cabin he is planning to stay the night in.

The three of us power up and head out to Tok.  We don't get real far before I see the sides of Greg's tire begin to get mushy looking.  By now I know not to question what is going on.  We've got to pull over for another plugging session.  

We pull over and begin the now familiar routine.  A little sprinkle of rain begins to fall but not very hard.  Todd gets down with the plugging tool and his marvelous little air compressor and goes to work.  As Greg and I watch Todd working, a couple of bikers pass us.  They slowly turn around and come back to us.  Apparently they are friends of Todd and were at the biker rally in Denali Park as we were.  They are also heading to Tok but decide to wait and ride there with us.  

 The tire is plugged and filled with air.  We five start out bikes and let Greg take the lead.  We all string out heading to Tok.  It is an interesting day of riding with other people.  We started out with three, then two of us, then four, then three and now five.  I have never traveled this way before.  

 We get about 40 miles down the road and you guessed it, the tire goes flat.  We all stop.  Greg is really feeling bad about all the delays his tire has caused.  I reassure him that I am glad it's him and not me.  He thanks me for the kind remarks.  It rains a little more and the ground is wet.  We fear the worst is coming  as the sky is still dark and lowering.  Todd gets to work again and fixes the tire with another plug.  We determine that the "Slime" that was originally put in in Nenana is both good and bad at the same time.  It sealed the tire in Nenana and got us to Fairbanks where we could have gotten help if it were not Sunday on Memorial Day weekend.  There were no alternatives in Nenana so the Slime was it.  Now however, the Slime is interfering with the bonding of the rubber cement and the plugs.  We get a few miles on and the pressure of the tire blows out the plug.  The tire is fixed and filled with air.  We head out again.

We get about 40 more miles down the highway and the plug blows out.  We are a finely tuned machine at this point.  I marvel that Todd doesn't insist that we get down on the ground in his place and make us do the grimy work.  He actually seems to enjoy this.  Who are we to take away his enjoyment?  Actually he is living out the Black Sheep's code that you will help a fellow Black Sheep in time of need.  He does for real.  

We are not far from Tok at this point.  We are hoping this plug will get us all the way there.  The clouds lift at this point near Tok.  The ground dries up and it looks great.  It is about 8 o'clock at night.  As we finish the repair job, another three bikers roar by.  They turn around and join us.  They are from the Anchorage House of Harley.  They want to know if we need help.  One is a mechanic who works at the house of Harley.  Since it is just a tire, we don't need his expertise but they too agree to ride into Tok with us.  Now we are 8 riders strong.

The approach to Tok is pleasant.  There are houses several miles out from Tok along the highway with green grass yards that make you think you are just about to see Tok in front of you.  I do not ever remember seeing such civilization this far away from Tok ever.  I guess in my mind green grass is a sign of civilization.  

We make Tok before the tire goes flat again.  We all pull into the self serve gas station and fill our tanks.  We are quite a bunch.  The House of Harley guys have more customized bikes, custom paint and handle bars that are referred to as "ape hangers" which means they stick up rather high in the air and you have to reach up to hold the grips.  I cannot think of a more uncomfortable way to do a long distance ride.  I think my hands would go asleep before I got to the edge of town.  However, they look very cool. Most of our bikes are pretty standard except for an Ultra CVO which has ALL the chrome and extras from the factory as standard.  Very expensive.

There is kind of a collective sense of relief among us who have dealt with this flat tire matter all day.  We have a huge conflab at the self serve gas station about the day, riding, all the uncertainties and what it took to get this far.  We are all hungry as we haven't eaten since the hot lava experience in Fairbanks.  We all know there is ONE place to eat in Tok, and that place Fast Eddy's.  We all agree to meet there shortly.

Greg and I have made previous arrangements to stay the night at Tok Assembly of God.  The pastor and his wife, Chase and Stacey Musick, are marvelous people.  Very gracious, kind and they have a cute little boy.  They have patiently waited for us all afternoon as we have taken much more time to get to Tok than was planned.  We put our stuff in the rooms they have made available to us which have honest to goodness beds in them.  We anticipate how good that is going to feel after this long day.

We invite Chase and his wife to join us for dinner at Fast Eddy's.  We hope that Fast Freddies can seat 10 people this late at night.  Off we go, one more time before bed. 

If you have never been to Fast Eddy's, it is a most happy experience to eat there.  It is so unexpectedly good, you would pay more for what they offer just because it is so nice.  Honestly, I wish we had as nice a restaurant in Kenai.  

They don't seem to mind all of us bikers coming in and making noise so late at night.  We are all staved and the food comes out just the way you like it.  We force Chase to eat something with us and pick up his bill.  We have a great evening of conversation and fun but can't stay too long as we are beat and ready to try that bed.

At dinner conversation that night there was a rumor floating around that there was a guy in Tok who was a motorcycle mechanic and who could change motorcycle tires.  Could this be true?  In a place like Tok, you don't take anything for granted, we would check on this  in the morning.