Escape From the Prison Planet

[DRIVEN]

Another slow week in Jamaica.



Been trying to tame a couple street dogs in my down time.


Brown one is pretty timid. Her brother will just about eat out of my hand. Two more days here. Hand feeding both is my goal.

[Ni10]

vacationing in Jamaica and getting paid. Dammmmm, I want your job.

[DRIVEN]

Not a vacation. But they are putting me up in an all inclusive resort, so there's that.

[DRIVEN]

Workin' man's blues, second verse: American left me stranded in Charlotte on my trip home. I'm in a hotel now, luckily. I'll lose exactly 24 more hours of my life on this delay, assuming the rest of the trip has no hiccups. That leaves me just enough time to do some paperwork and a load of laundry, then repack when I get home. Then off to Panama for a week. So much for a day off.

[Taterhead]

Sounds like your day off is being spent in Charlotte.

[DRIVEN]

Got home really late Saturday night. Started laundry and passed out. Got up, finished laundry, then did some yardwork. Came inside, ate dinner, did an expensive report, packed, passed out again. Up at 3:30 this morning and headed back to the airport. I'm in Houston now and if all goes well I'll sleep in Panama tonight.

[wayno]

If you like the pay and it is decent pay, you have to suffer every once in a while.

[DRIVEN]

Yup. As long as things go according to schedule it pays really well. None of us can control the weather.

[DRIVEN]

While I was our of town I got some deliveries. So, to restate the backstory on my Indian -- It's technically an imposter. It was built from genuine parts about 5 years ago but since it wasn't built in the factory it's titled as "assembled Indian Chief". That really doesn't bother me a bit because you don't ride the title and even most Indian guys probably couldn't tell the difference. The guy who built the bike did a pretty good job but deviated on a few parts. Not sure if the correct parts were simply not available or he just plain cheaped out. At any rate, that's where my mild OCD took over. This is the pile I ordered before I left and was waiting for me when I got home.

The lenses are just spares and the shift rod is an accessory part that wouldn't have been on a production bike but the factory rod is pretty plain and ugly. The more commonly seen accessory rod is the one with arrow head and feathers.


The grips are fairly indian-specific. Previous owner must have suffered from severe sweaty palms because the originals are really corroded.


The correct mirrors are more teardrop shaped than the rectangular ones it came with.


The final OCD purchase was the correct Indian script front caliper. Front and rear are the same but the rear is tucked under the pipe and not visible. Both the plain ones that are on it and the new script one were manufactured by Thunderheart -- only difference is the script. It wasn't cheap and I'm a little embarrassed about what I paid for it but it was the only one left in the country as far as I can tell. For some reason not having that script has really bugged me.



Anyway, I got everything swapped out but the caliper yesterday then ran into a little glitch so I'll need to make a run to the hardware store this morning for some washers. Hoping to find the time to get the saddlebags installed this week too but I've got about a million chores to get done before my next work trip.
This thing is filthy.

[DRIVEN]

A couple other things showed up too. If you remember that old Atlas table saw I brought home and cleaned up, you might recall I had to make a fence for it. It worked okay but I was never really happy with it. I lucked out and found a 70 year old replacement on Ebay along with a throat plate and a couple access panels for the base. Still need to clean them up but I'm just feeling fortunate to have located them.


Looking ahead to the future big block swap in my Cutlass, I worked a deal on these valve covers. These would be like the equivalent to the D A T S U N L-series cover that takes the chrome twist-on oil cap. Not impossible to find, but don't come up too often. They were '73-only, for whatever reason. Earlier and later were all smooth without the embossed letters. From '64-'90 all Oldsmobile big and small blocks were smooth except for '73.

[flatcat19]

[DRIVEN]

'Bout sums it up.

[wayno]

They have WW2 multi-engine airplanes flying in and out of the Boise Airport, I sat on the side of the freeway watching them for a while when I was passing thru on a Hang gliding trip, but that was a while ago now.
King Mtn is a great place to fly hanggliders, I soared back and forth over over a glacier waiting for a thermal on Borah Peak(tallest mtn in ID) before crossing the pass(doublespring pass) to dickey peak, I won that meet, the locals were very unhappy as Mike(Seattle's fire chief at the time) won the year before, they were very tired of people that had never flown there before and people they didn't even know winning competitions at their home site.
It's an amazing area to fly over and I am sure to take hiking trips, there are trails all over that state, and lakes up in the middle of nowhere to hike/ride?? too, what only took me 5 minutes to fly over would take all day to climb to on foot, maybe ride a horse???

[DRIVEN]

For sure, Wayno. There's a lot of country I plan to see on the TWs. Whenever I fly into town I see areas that I want to explore.

[DRIVEN]

My dad got everything wrapped up on my brother's pickup while I was out of town. I helped him put the canopy on and filled the back with spare parts. It's ready to go back home now.

[Ni10]

that's so out of state people won't stay in Idaho.

[DRIVEN]

We also try to keep the view from the freeway as unappealing as possible. Buy your gas and beef jerky then just keep on driving. Idaho is full.

[wayno]

My first thought was Idaho is full of what?

[flatcat19]

Sagebrush.

[Ni10]

My first thought was Idaho is full of what?

not a bunch of tents, needles and poop like Seattle WASHINGTON. Thank you Jay Inslee... pos

sorry for telling the truth but someone had to bring it up. lol