Day 27 - Missoula, MT

At 9am today my hopes for a good resolution were killed. Although I had called the dealership and got a recorded message saying they were open on Monday's it turns out the service department doesn't work on Monday.

Walt and Don arrived at about 10:30. We talked things over and tried a couple things. We put the thermostat back in since that didn't appear to be part of the problem. The dealer also told us that BMW has a service bulletin about fork gaiters causing overheating problems. So we cut those off too.

Walt and I went out for a test ride. It appeared to be working better. We rode for about 20 miles at high RPM and the problem did not reoccur. Just to make sure again we left it idling in the parking lot. We wanted to verify that the fan turned on again. It did. BUT a couple minutes later the temperature warning light turned on again. That was a knife into our hearts.

Conference time again. To avoid stranding us yet again I decided it would be most prudent to wait one more day and have the service department check it out. Don decided to continue on his own an alternate route home.

In some respects this is the end of the trip. Now we are just trying to get home safely. We're still 3 or 4 days away from home. Walt and I will stay together until we get home or my bike dies!

Maybe this is the more true adventure part of the entire thing. We have to change plans, live day by day and be prepared for the unexpected.