October 3rd (dia tres) - Destiny and her ways
Waking up late as usual, we've showered and hit the road by eleven after a very disappointing continental breakfest of five muffins each and a few cups of coffee, the only thing on the menu. Prepared for another long day, we begin by searching out for the BMW dealership in Cincinnati for some last minute work on my bike (Just before departing I had the entire engine rebuilt, and one of the conditions was to have the head of the engine retorqued to spec.) So we learned a valuable lesson: call ahead when you plan on getting somewhere. We wandered around this city and wasted at least an hour tracking down this dealer only to find out they were closed for the new "Winter hours," while we couldn't understand this as we wiped sweat off our brows.
It seemed I was out of luck, and I had already pushed the bike past the thousand kilometer mark when I had to get this work done. Needless to say, I was a bit worried.
Ending up in the bad parts of cities every single time we enter a city hasn't help ease the stress either ;-) We both seem to have this knack for ending up at the wrong places, where even the corner stores are locked behind bullet proof glass during a monday at noon! They are nice enough to provide a little drawer where you can slide the money to the cashier to pay for your gas though. Oddly enough the people in these areas of town have been the most helpful, providing directions and advice on just about anything.
Either way, we needed to get to a BMW dealer to get this engine torqued. We looked ahead to the next cities we'd be passing through and all of them were closed as well. So I did the best thing I could think of, I called home to my dealer in Montreal to ask what could possibly happen if I continued to ride like this and what do I find out that they had already re-torqued my engine before I departed! All of this wasted time and worry because I never ask exactly what work they do on my bike and just pay the expensive bills without question. I am learning.
Everything seems to happen for a reason. We could have found a BMW dealership that was open, we could have waited 2 hours for the engine to cool until they could check the torque on the bolts... But Destiny has once again shown her way. We may have lost an hour, but we have gained two. Not a bad deal today. The dice are still rolling though, and hopefully this luck will hold out.
Back on the road! We're a long way from Mexico and our bodies are being pushed to the max. A week before leaving Montreal my wisdom tooth decided to get infected and since then I have been on some pills to remove this infection, however it does nothing for the pain it's been causing me... the headaches... lacking the ability to chew... I wonder what it must feel like to not have this pain. But I have become accustomed to pain over the years, I am able to put it out of mind and deal with it, we don't seem to have much choice. I am alive, I am on the road, I am free and nothing can take this away from me now.
We've hit the central time zone and gained an hour, but we still end up riding until twelve thirty this day. Approximately thirteen hours today. We briefly look for some food without luck and just collapse exhausted hoping for a real breakfast tomorrow!