Scooterless

Yes, I am scooterless. I changed my oil, my gearbox oil, my spark plug and cleaned out my air cleaner. The scooter was stalling at stop lights and stop signs, so I figured that it would help to do these things. It didn't. So we sprayed some carburetor cleaner through the carburetor and it really did help! But the scooter did stall out twice, but it wasn't at an idle. So I had read somewhere that there was a small adjustment screw near the carburetor, and I gave it the slightest little twist. That seemed to do the trick. So I rode to town and ran a few errands and all seemed well. Until the next day. Suddenly, my scooter wouldn't start. It would turn and turn and turn, but would not start up. My husband thought that maybe the adjustment I'd made to the screw had something to do with it. So we called a scooter shop, and they told us that the valves most likely needed adjusting. So we took it in. They called us a bit later, stating that the motor was in fine shape, no adjustments were required, but that it most likely had a bad CDI or stator. Unfortunately, they don't keep those in stock, so we are now waiting for the parts to come in from Kymco. They ordered the part exactly a week ago and the tech told me it takes between eight to ten days to arrive. So, I am waiting VERY impatiently. I am squirming with annoyance, because I truly enjoy riding my scooter. I know that even when it's freezing cold here, I will be riding my scooter. I prefer it over my car. I keep hoping that they will miraculously call me today and tell me it's ready. Sigh. Trying to be positive.

Lake Pleasant

This past weekend, October 4th, we decided it was time to do some routine maintenance on our bikes. Brian changed his oil and I changed my oil, my gear oil, my spark plug and cleaned out my air cleaner. It really needed it! The scooter was starting to stall at stop lights and stop signs and it seemed to be getting worse. I hoped that servicing it would help. When I saw the condition of the air cleaner, I was sure that it was why the scooter was stalling. I blew it out and it was so dirty I could feel chunks flying off of it and hitting me in the face. It was also a bit oily. So I put the air cleaner back in and hoped for the best. No luck. It continued to stall. I did some research and found that the problem could be a dirty carburetor. That would be my next project. Sunday, we went to breakfast and then headed up to Lake Pleasant. I'd never been there, so I was up for some new sights. It was a pretty nice ride-but it was a little on the warm side. Still, it was enjoyable. We sat at the lake and drank a bottle of cold water, then went to Scorpion Bay and ate at Dillon's. IT was pretty good food. We were both tired and decided to just head for home and relax. All in all, though, it was a nice, little trip. I don't know if I'll get to take much of a ride this weekend. Brian has to work. I'd love another weekend where we can go out and camp.

Salome Highway, Lake Pleasant

So, two weekends ago, we took a very short ride. We went to Wickenburg for Breakfast and then to Aguila and Salome. The weather was pretty nice and we had pie in a place in Salome, and then we had dinner at a little restaurant in Wickenburg called Screamers. I had no idea that Aguila was so big-and so was Salome. Of course, they are not HUGE towns, but there was much more to them than I remember. I did notice, much to my amusement, that there was a Family Dollar in both of these towns. Those people are EVERYWHERE! But, I guess that's very convenient for the local residents.

Jerome and the 66

Okay, so I got a little off-track. I haven't posted like I should have! So let me tell you about the big trip about three weeks ago. We, my husband I, decided one Friday to take a trip to Jerome, AZ. I was very excited for this trip. It is gorgeous up there! So that's just exactly what we did. We tried to get all packed up the night before. WE didn't take much for clothes, just a change, a jacket for each of us, our sleeping bags and a small, two-person tent. Early Saturday morning, we were off. We rode to Wickenburg, up Yarnell Hill and into Prescott. From Prescott, we went up the 89A to Jerome. What stunning scenery! And I really, really love driving up that winding road! When we arrived in Jerome, it was PACKED! Beautiful motorcycles lined the streets and leather-clad bikers stood in the doorways of the local saloons. Everyone was laughing and happy and it created such a fun atmosphere. So we backed into a parking space along side the big bikes. It was really amusing to see scores of Harleys and other bigger bikes and ONE, little scooter. We walked around a bit, but it was difficult because the sidewalks were quite crowded. After a bit, we popped into a small cafe and had a soda and some pie and ice cream. While we were sitting there, I noticed the amazing view out the front window-you could see into the valley below. The rocks and mountains are all red and the sky was a glorious blue with puffy, white clouds scattered about everywhere. After a while, Brian, my husband, suggested that we ride on up to route 66. I agreed that it sounded like a lot of fun. So, we got back on our bikes and headed back down to Prescott Valley and then up to Ashfork. We spent a little bit of time having dinner and cruising around Ashfork, but the sun was going down and we needed to start heading west to find a place to camp for the night. Unfortunately, there weren't any paved roads that would take us to directly to Seligman, the next stop on our little trip, so I had to jump on the 40 for a short distance. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but my scooter will do about 62, and I figured that would be enough for the nine or so miles we had to go. And it was. We stopped in Seligman at a small gas station to use the restroom. Then we decided we wanted to see more of this town in the morning, so we rode west to try to find somewhere to camp outside of town. It was very, very dark and we could only see what the headlights allowed. We pulled off in a few places and finally found somewhere that seemed quiet enough and had a few trees to block us from being seen too clearly on the road. There was nearly no traffic and we hadn't seen any trains (we were near some tracks) and so we put up our tent and laid down for some rest. We could see the stars through the top of the tent. They looked amazing! We heard a train go by in the near distance. It wasn't too loud and I figured that such a train passing in the night wouldn't be enough to wake me. So I slowly drifted off to sleep. Some time later, maybe less than an hour, I heard some horrendous noise. It sounded like a semi truck was coming off of the road and headed straight for us. I knew that that wasn't the case here, but it still sounded terrifying. I already knew it was a train. And this kept happening, all night long. About one train every hour! Why were they sometimes SO LOUD and sometimes SO QUIET!? Then, some time during the night, a pickup pulled off of the road near our camp and then they drove off. That scared me pretty good too. Needless to say, we didn't sleep very soundly that night. I woke up around 6 am and got up and looked around a little bit. Brian said that we were right next to the BNSF mail line-and just a ways over, there was another train track-which is why we were hearing a 'quieter' train from time to time. We took a few pictures and packed up and headed to Seligman. It was a quiet, little town early in the morning, but by 9:00am, tour buses began to roll in and the streets filled with people from Japan, France, Germany and other places. They were all fascinated by the little shops and all of the Route 66 memorabilia. We hung around, walking from shop to shop and then headed on out of town going west. It was a beautiful drive, but we were going to have to hurry a bit because my husband needed to be home fairly early to rest up for the next day, as he had to go to work early. We cruised along and stopped briefly at the Grand Canyon Caverns, buy only to have a quick look, then we pulled into Peach Springs, again, just to stretch a bit and then we rode to Hackberry and browsed in the General Store. There were several bikers there as well. Finally, it was off to Kingman for some lunch. We were all out of time so we decided to head back down toward Wickenburg. Unfortunately, there only way to get there quickly was highway 93, and you must travel about 18 miles on I40 to reach it. And what a terrible road the 93 is! People were in such a hurry! They were passing us constantly, even when it wasn't safe to do so. One guy ended up forcing two cars off of the opposite side of the road! We finally made it home safely. It really was very enjoyable! And the weather was fabulous!