2018 Gettysburg motorcycle trip
Day 10
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June 16
 The antique center didn't open until 9:30 so there was no need to get up early. We did the breakfast thing. I even had some biscuits and gravy. If it has a negative affect on me I should be home by then (it did, and I was).
 These guys had parked under the canopy last night. They are going from Delaware to Los Angeles. What a ride! A couple of the bikes were old...hard tail, spring seats. One of their buddies was trailering his bike in a truck. Given the heat he will be the most comfortable.
 Springfield, OH. 9:17, mileage 98,471 - We gassed up down the street. Debby gave me the address to the antique center and we plotted a non-interstate route. It ended being a peaceful ride on the outskirts of Springfield.
Here we are at the Heart of Ohio Antique Center. This place is huge. 122,000 sq. ft of antiques. We spent three hours checking out every aisle. We even had lunch and the food was good. Donna found a few things to buy. She found other items but they were too expensive. A $10-15 Pyrex bowl was $46. A $2 old reader from the turn of the century was $17. I think everyone was disappointed with the prices here. Their prices were much better in 2010. Since we remembered this place with fonder memories than the other antique center nearby, and since this place was kind of a bust, we decided to skip the other place and head home.
 Jerri's microphone decided to separate itself from her helmet so Mike did some field surgery. The clamp-on microphones are finicky. John and I have both hard mounted our microphones to the helmets with machine screws.
I-70 was a stone's throw from the antique center and soon we were highballing westward.
Sixty miles later we exited Ohio and were welcomed with crappy Indiana interstates.
 Spiceland, IN. 14:36, mileage 98,580 - Goodbye bumpy I-70 and hello IN-3. We will take this road all the way to North Vernon, then US50 home. We want to avoid Indianapolis and the construction on IN-37. Donna bought a big container of carmel and cheese popcorn. She bought one on the way back home in the fall of 2016 and I ate most of it. She is keeping a close eye on the popcorn this time.
 The ride down IN-3 was peaceful. Traffic was light. The sun was hot but it was bearable as long as you kept moving. An occasional cloud would tease us. It felt good to be getting closer to home.
 We were several miles north of North Vernon, enjoying the ride, when the song on the MP3 player quit. That's odd...I don't remember the song ending that way. I said something to Donna but the intercom was dead. Then I noticed the ABS light flashing. What is going on? Then I glanced at the voltage gauge and...
...Uh oh. This isn't good. Apparently the alternator had quit. I wasn't sure how long I'd been running on battery power or how much longer I had left. My plan was to hopefully find a parking lot or convenience store. That way there would be plenty of room for John to jump me and charge the battery. Hopefully that would get me to Brownstown and another charge would get me home.
Mike and John are looking at something you rarely see...a sick Goldwing. My hopes were dashed at bridge construction on US750. When the construction light turned green my bike died and it was dead as a doornail. We pushed it to the side of the road. As I was checking to hopefully find a bad fuse Deputy Shawn Minton stopped to check on us. He pulled in behind us to warn traffic of our hazard. All my fuses checked good, and there was no room to jump my bike. It was rollback time. I walked back to the police truck where John and Deputy Minton were talking. I asked him to call a wrecker. He said he'd get me a guy who would do me right...and he did.
 Soon Ronny Clark of Clark's Towing arrived. He is a super nice guy. I have an apprehension of motorcycles and wreckers. When John and Debby wrecked their Venture in 2010 the wrecker driver took a damaged bike and completely destroyed it. I had no need to worry here. We loaded the bike and trailer on the rollback and got it securely strapped down without a scratch. As aggravating as it was to break down we were actually very lucky. It was only 50 miles from home. We could have been in Pennsylvania or somewhere else far away on our fall trip. Due to the mileage on the bike I was pondering changing the alternator this winter. No more pondering now. Donna and I rode the last 50 miles in air conditioning. Ahhhh.
 When we got home Ronny backed the truck to the garage door and put the ramp into the garage. We rolled the trailer, then the bike, right into the garage. We were all safely home. When I asked Ronny how much I owed him he rubbed his chin then said, "Oh, just give me some money for gas." What?? I gave him $200 and I still felt like I had gotten a good deal. Thanks Ronny Clark and Deputy Minton!!
 When we finally got into the house Buford was jumping at the door. He missed us, and us him. He gave Donna kisses then grabbed the bag with the dog toys in it we'd bought in Pennsylvania. We didn't come home the way we expected, but we were home.
390 miles. Click here for thoughts from the trip.
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