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This could have been a boring travel, a lots of morotway and stuff, but it became an adventure instead.
Friday morning, in a good mood and early (Well, 9 is early when you have vacation!), i took happily the direction of the garage to prepare mister R1150R for the ride of the week end. Goal: Lund. I planned my route to have some fun down, and coming at destination just after my friend finished to work.
It began all good, a little bit cold but no rain for the beginning and nice songs in the head. I stopped in Vetlanda to fill in the gas and texted my friend U who is from here to ask if i had to say hello to somoene from him. The answer i got was "hell no, just drive away!". Which i did. I took a magnific litle road through Myresjö, Fröderyd and the rain came. You know, these really dark clouds, like hell is falling down. The dream for a motorcyclist. The road becomes sliding and you never know how everything will go. I felt something pretty strange, that the back and the front from the motorcyclie were not acting like they were a part of a unit. Pretty strange feeling to describe, almost as easy as to descrie the "turning to the right" effect of an accelerating boxer motor. Anyway, though the rain, i decided to stop and check. That's what i saw:
Oh, i did think "you are a lucky girl, aren't you?". In the middle of nowhere, tropical rain and a flat tire. Very nice when you know that you are approximativly half way, so as horribl to go back home or to continue the journey. And don't think it was light and so, it wasn't. Maybe this second pic can show better my desesperated situation:
So, ok, i did not panic. Actually, i thought pretty fast that i have had luck. I was driving pretty slowly because of the rain and the road was straight, so even if i did not know what was the problem, i managed to stop without making a "motorbike and driver desintegration" and land in a tree or so.
I called the insurance to get some help and this was a funny part. Here is the discussion:
- Hi blabla insurance what can i make for you?
- hi, i got some trouble with my engine, which has a flat tire now and i would like to have some help
- ok, what is your registration plate?
- bla bla bla
- ok, so you are driving a BMW motorbike right?
- yes
- so do you have any extra tire with you?
i replied gently that i did not. I just forgot them this morning at home. But honeslty, funny, isn't it?
I waited like one hour along this road before my savior came with his red and orange and yellow truck. I saw 3 cars during this time. I stopped the first one to ask where i exactly was and i almost scared the 2 old people in the car: all leather clothes and wet girls are maybe scary. And the nice woman asked me "and you will wait in the rain?" well, i thought i could have taken an umbrella with me... Ah well.
The guy, the truck, my motorbike on it and me in, we drove to Växjö, which was the closest city with tire there. I saved actually 48 km on my motorbike driving, because it was taking me south. The time was going though and i realized that it would be a little short for me to be in Lund on time.
In the truck and driving to Växjö, the guy did call some different centers to know if they had a tire passing my motorbike and i learnt that it was a special size. Of course. BMW, why do you have to make all different all the time? Finnaly, he drove us to a harley davidson garage and i got help there. No immediatly of course: we arrived there in the middle of a friday afternoon, people have other things to do than to help me. They promised though to fix it before the evening.
I said good by eto assitanskåren, told my friend in Lund that i wouldn't make it today and got a nice yes from a friend in Ljungby to the question "can i take a warm shower at your place?". Because i was wet, not all wet but enough to freeze. You know the clothes are waterproof if you have the whole panopli on, inclusive the helmet. When i was waiting along the road for help, i had not it on me, because i thought i already looked enough ridiculous (yeah, i have some boundaries!). So all the extremities (hands, feet, head and neck) were freezing. I got a warm coffee and sat in a soffa, waiting for a new tire.
On this soffa, i got the company of an old man, waiting for his harley davidson to be taking care of. He was funny and i think he was super bored when i arrived there. He was driving from Kalmar to Växjö for this and waiting the whole day. So we chatted motorbike and he was a good company.
After a while, a guy came to me and asked me if i wanted to see what caused the flat tire. Oh yeah, i was curious! Look by yourself, right of the keys:
A long nail that went all in in the tire but luckily did not damage the wheel. So hop, just fix a new expansive tire and i was able to drive away at the end of the afternoon. 350 euros poorer but it was worth it, look:
And then again: BIG BLACK CLOUDS!! I was thinking that it was not my day, but it changed when i arrived in Ljungby, got a wonderfull warm shower and spent a super nice unplanned evening with my friend M. I had absolutely no power to drive south to Lund, like 180-200 km left for the evening and it was kind of a little party to meet M so unplanned, so i staid over there for the night.
Quite early on saturday, i drove south to Lund and it was a real pleasure to see the back part of the motorbike in the morning, all ready for a lots of kilometers:
I drove the little roads down and froze my ass. Too early to drive, it rained too. When i arrived at my friends place, i jumped into the shower too and i was reborn after some minutes under warm water. We had a nice saturday all together, even if i am not used to hang around with small children. These ones are pretty amazing, talking both french, spanish, swedish and a little bit of english at the age of 2 and 4, they have a gift! Plus that they talk all the time and they are pretty funny, so it made a good saturday.
I thought the whole night of my travel back home. Lund is a little bit more than 400 km from Linköping and the weather prognostics were not very good, so i was having bad dreams about the travel north. We woke up pretty early and short after 9, i was driving up.
The good thing with the size of the tank i have on this motorbike is that i need to fill in every 200-250 km which makes a reasonable time driving on a motorway. I was freezing my ass, and my body and my feet and my fingers and this humidity you got everywhere is killing you. I found a technic though to warm up my hands quickly: to wash them with super hot water some minutes and to dry them perfectly. During this time, i for sure don't forget to put my gloves in the warn air to get them warm again.
On this pic, i was recovering my long finger. The other ones needed some more time, but people were waiting outside, so i went out and sacrificed my 4 other fingers for a little boy (!! in the ladies bathroom!!) who urgently needed to pee. Is that charity?
The motorway back home was boring, super boring but i wanted to be home as soon as possible. So i tell you, i enjoid my warm shower at home and now, i plan to do absolutely nothing since it was a little bit too much emotions for me this week end.
When i was waiting for help with my flat tire, i asked myself "why do i do this to me?" because at the end, no one forced me to drive alone motorbike in a desert area under the rain. I could have taken the train down, cheaper and faster and dryer. But every time i get on my motorbike and drive, i feel a happiness inside of me growing, this is an indescrible feeling of freedom. Occasions are rare when you feel free for real and even if i was kind of desesperated a moment out there, i am greatful that everything went all good at the end.
When everything doesn't go at i wanted, it may open me some other interesting doors...
The song of the day is an egoistical song, a song for no one but the one who listens.
You can jump a ride
But don't ask why
And don't close your eyes.
