Sh...It Happens

We were on our way down off of Mt. Magazine Monday evening. As I said, it had been a great ride. At the bottom of the road that carved it's way down the mountain was a stop sign. The road was narrow, so I sort of stopped behind Buffalo. A car was coming up the hill to our left. I thought the car had a stop sign and it looked like Buffalo was going to pull out. I hit the throttle and then it happened. I hit the rear end of Buffalo's bike – hard. He was stopped, but not with his feet down, so when I hit him, it knocked both him and I down. My front fender jammed into his saddle bag and rear fender. His left saddle bag split right down the back and the left turn signal lens broke, along with bending the turn signal bracket. As his bike lay on it's side, he was loosing fluids. Cars stopped and helped us pick up both bikes, especially helpful was the guy in the car that was coming up the hill. (Later we realized that he was slowing down to turn without using his turn signal which was why I thought he had a stop sign and why Buffalo hedged about whether or not to pull out.)

So with his bike puking fluid, we thought possibly his kickstand had gone through his primary case and got on the phone to try to get his bike towed. Our first call was to the Harley dealership in Ft. Smith and the guy who answered the phone made it clear that we were bothering him, it was too late in the day (they were getting ready to close) and told us to call him tomorrow!! So then I used Google-411 to locate a local tow service. (We were in the town of Paris, Arkansas...not any big metropolis.) We got some guy on the phone who wasn't too sure he wanted to mess with it either when a couple in a Mustang pulled over and asked it they could help. Seems she knew a guy who rides and owned a towing service; she called him and said he would be by shortly. So this old guy named Ed Williams, owner of an auto body shop, shows up with his flatbed. He loads Buffalo's Roadking on the truck and I follow them over to his shop where the two of them proceed to check out the bike. But not after Ed brings us both bottles of water (it was about 90 degrees) and tells me to go sit inside his office, which I couldn't do, I was so pissed off at myself. Turns out the fluid puke was from the bike being laid on it's side and nothing is busted underneath that they can see. By now it is about 7:30pm, we're both spent and decide to find a place to stay. We relax in Ed's shop, checking out pictures he has on his walls and old bike pictures he pulls out to show us. Ed tells us about the trip him and some buddies are planning, to ride up to Alaska. Now realize, this guy is in his seventies! No trailer for this old boy and his buddies, they are doing the ride up and back. He pulls his bike out of the garage across the street and he has “Alaska or Bust” written across his windshield. Before Ed offers to ride us over to the Paris Inn for a room, we ask what we owe him. I'm thinking $200 to $300 would not be unreasonable. He tells us nothing, that it is the least he can do for fellow Harley riders. We argue with him, telling him no way, we know that rig costs money (it was practically brand new) and we want to pay him, we would never expect him to do it for free. He says if he thought we DID expect it for free, he would have charged us! So Ed leads us over to the Paris Inn and by the time we get there, Buffalo's rear tire is smoking and you can smell rubber burning. Apparently when I jammed my front fender into the back of his bike, I bent his rear fender clear into the damned tire! So Ed wants to mess with it right then and there, but we convince him it is late, he's done enough for us tonight and besides, let the bike cool and we will mess with it in the morning. Wouldn't you know, not ten minutes after we are checked in, Ed's back with a bunch of pry tools to loan us for in the morning!

Long story short, after a whole lot of cussing, bitching, swearing and name calling, Buffalo eventually gets the fender pried away from the tire. As per Ed's instructions, we leave the tools up at the motel office, where Ed will pick them up later, and we pack up and stop by Ed's place on our way out of town.

Let me say that I never ever want anything that bad to happen to us or anybody else. But there are a couple of good things that come out of something that bad. First of all, Buffalo and I realized, after the emotions and blame game was over that, with the thousands of miles we have under our tires, riding this great country of ours, if that is the worst thing that happens to us, we should consider ourselves blessed. Secondly, to have the opportunity to meet somebody so genuine, so nice and so exemplary of the good people in this country like Ed Williams is, well that reminds you of one of the greatest treasures the United States of America has to offer...people. In this day and age of rush here and there, of what can you do for me, to have the good fortune to meet Ed was truly a gift. It is a reminder that we all need every once in awhile in our lives. We hope Ed's journey is blessed with similar good experiences from wonderful people too.