Dr Bob's Wrap-Up Motorcycle Ride

	Travelogue -- Dr Bob's Wrap-Up Motorcycle Ride
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5 May 2018, 9:00 PM CT, Beaumont, TX

I'm back, and I did make it to Texas, I am less than 30 miles into Texas. I added 525 miles today. I was on the road 12 hours, a little more than yesterday with a little fewer miles.

I have been satisfied with my gas mileage. I have been riding 72 mph (per my GPS) most of the time, but going up to 75 to pass or to stay with faster traffic. My average so far is 41.4 mpg. I use cruise control most of the time.

And, I have to say, most Louisiana roads are terrible. I have made that complaint before.

I had anticipated rain for Saturday afternoon to evening or Sunday morning. I have been watching the weather for a few days. Just before getting off I-10 onto I-12 to bypass New Orleans, the sky was getting dark. I got the bike ready for rain. I cleaned the windscreen and then put on my special stuff that makes the rain not stick, it just makes little balls that go flying off the top of the windscreen, hopefully above my head. I do that to my helmet face shield also. I put my ZipLock bag over my GPS. I did not put on my rain jacket, though, it gets hot very quickly inside the rain jacket. If I need it, I will stop and put it on. I did unlock that saddle bag so I could easily stop and grab it. Normally I leave the saddle bags locked. On an Interstate, light rain is OK, I don't get wet, I don't need the rain jacket. That is, unless I have to stop, like bad traffic.

Well, guess what. Rain started spritzing shortly into I-12. Spritzing, I suppose that is sort of a sprinkle that my speed through it causes little balls of water. And guess further what. Traffic stopped. An electronic sign said a car was on fire. Fortunately there was an exit and I got off. I figured I would check Google Maps for the traffic and NOAA for weather radar. I found a Cracker Barrel.

I don't always block traffic like that, especially Handicap Parking, but I wanted a picture of my bike in front of the Cracker Barrel. I moved it quickly, nobody complained.

The time was about 1:00 PM so I decided I would have a lunch. Country smoked ham. I watched Google Maps as I-12 changed from red to green, and I watched NOAA radar as the green stuff passed over. I left about 2:00 PM.

I had no bad traffic, and only the slightest spritzing. Eventually I made it to Baton Rouge. Ding. A capitol city. I did my duty.

I don't know what all that black stuff is.

But I do know what some black stuff is on my water bottle holder.

It is kind of hard to figure out what I saw, I had trouble getting a picture to show it. But there is oil on the leather, especially to the right of the Harley Davidson logo. You can see the passenger foot board folded up. This is the right side of the bike. I first noticed it this morning. My foot slipped off the footboard. I noticed the water holder looked wet. I figured somebody spilled some water or coffee on it while I was inside the McDonalds getting an Egg McMuffin and Latte. When I got gas I cleaned it up and that's when I discovered that it was oil. I searched for where the oil was coming from, hopefully not the motor. I concluded it was coming from the air cleaner.

At later stops there was oil again, even after I had cleaned it up each time before. I did some Google searches, and found that this is a known issue, oil coming out of the air cleaner. My bike is a 2013 with the 103 dual cam. The most common thing they say is that the oil might be a little overfull. I checked it, and it was exactly on the full mark.

So earlier in the day I was a little concerned, then later I decided to not worry. Do any of you have a suggestion for me? Today was Saturday, Harley service is usually closed, and especially on Sunday, and most places on Monday. It looks to me like I don't have to worry about it.

After getting my picture of the Louisiana Capitol, I went to the river hoping to get a picture, but it is not easy to get there, so I satisfied myself just getting a picture of the bridge that I was going to be on crossing the river. The Mississippi River that is.

That's all I have for today. It was another travel day. Tomorrow will be for a while, but then I will be on US highways making my way to Brownsville. I will be in Texas for a while, five or six nights, not counting nights on my way back home. And maybe 1,500 miles, not counting the miles on my way home.