A Day With Dad & Bernie

That’s my Dad, Stanley Herman Ferdinand Brand. He was born May 5, 1935 in an all German community in San Antonio, TX.  Today was going to be a project day for his wife Bernie and I, Dad was going to assist and supervise. He’s searching the back of his pickup truck to find a stud-finder for me. He found lots of things but not the stud-finder. 

My first priority was to fix the ignition switch on my BMW which almost stranded me 120 miles to the west yesterday. On the second day of this trip it started once or twice a day to not turn on the power the first time. At first I thought it was my kill switch that had been bumped but today, after filling up with gas it was completely dead and wouldn’t do anything no matter how many times I switched it on-off.  Luckily I had studied electrical engineering at Purdue and new exactly what to do. I pushed the bike away from the gas pumps (I was turning into entertainment for the locals), I waited a few minutes and began thinking critically: how was I ever going to get home again, and when or where could I find a replacement switch in southern Missouri and why am I riding a 36 year old motorcycle across country, and then I banged hard on the switch. It powered up and I never stopped it again until I got to Poplar Bluff!  Ironically it worked fine the rest of the evening and the next morning....

Researching the internet I found a new switch for $200 in the DC area but they didn’t respond to my inquiries for immediate shipment. I studied YouTube and BMW forums until midnight last night and came up with a plan to build a “Hotwire” harness I could use in a pinch for the rest of the trip. Bernie took me shopping at the local “Do It” hardware store and after $18 I had a crimp set, 3 male connectors and a foot of appliance wire which I fashioned into a hotwire harness and it worked!!!  Peace of mind was mine again. 

My sisters Staci and Stana have been sorting through a lot of old family memorabilia since Mom passed away about 8 years ago. Staci recently found Dad’s 1952 Alamo Heights HS Graduation program which I brought to Dad this trip.  He loves to tell the story about how his Guidance Counselor Mrs. Throckmorten told him he wasn’t smart enough to go to college. He apparently was somewhere in the middle of his high school class.  The picture on the left is of him after his freshman year as a cadet at Texas A&M.  He graduated in 4 years as a 2nd Lt. with a BS Chemical Engineering in the top 15% of his class.  I think he just wanted to prove Mrs. Throckmorten wrong!

After a day of limbing trees, blowing of the roof, and failed attempts at hanging abnormally heavy flower pots Bernie’s sister Betty, on the right, joined us for hamburgers on the grill, potato salad, baked beens and a few cold beers. That’s two of their 4 dogs, Palen and Nelson, who are still hoping for scraps after dinner. We had a really nice visit and I’m very glad I came. 

Day 3

I had a great riding day today and made it to Poplar Bluff by 4:30. Hours spent on twisty southern Missouri roads.  I forgot to take any pictures other than the welcome sign above and to a certain extent nothing was really note worthy other than the scenery. I had a very pleasant dinner with my Dad, his wife Bernie and her sister Betty before retiring to their backyard to enjoy the warm evening and continue our reminiscing.  Too bad I didn’t get any pictures of all that! Oh yea, and my motorcycle is starting to have electrical problems today and almost stranded me. More later....

Me vs. Weather

After a nice night of sleep I woke up this morning with a challenging weather radar.  My goal was to get to Joplin, MO about 360 miles away, while avoiding getting soaked. This weather pattern has been circling over southeast Kansas for a few days, counter clockwise to the south, as if it was waiting for me.  It seemed I would be playing a game of chess with the weather today. 


Several hours in I’m still dry so I get to enjoy my McDonalds in Pratt, KS outside on the sidewalk. No inside dining this morning.

 ☹️

Most of my day has looked like this, sometimes darker, sometimes lighter skies. I’ve been dodging the storm cells so far by changing my route, jogging north or south on county, state and US highways. 

At 1:30 I ran out of places to turn to avoid the rain so I took a little 45 minute break to let the sprinkles dry up while I mapped out my strategy.  I pulled up under a picnic awning at a small town park to keep me and my gear dry for the break. 

At 3pm, after about 50 miles of riding the weather puts me in check in Caney, KS near the Oklahoma border. A shroud of rain blocks me from going any further east for at least 2 hours and it appears Joplin won’t be clear until late this evening. 

It’s not checkmate yet. While there is absolutely no place to sleep in Caney, KS to seek shelter for the night I think I can get to Coffeyville, KS about 20 miles east later this evening.  Now I have time to blog, read and catch up with a few phone calls under an abandoned gas station awning while I wait out the weather. 

At the Caseys in Caney to grab some treats clearly social distancing is not happening here. As I’ve headed east from Boulder County where we have mask vigilantes to eastern Kansas now, I’ve seen less and less social distancing, even though you can tell many people are still a little weird about being near others.  I thought I would be safer in smaller towns on the back roads but this morning as I headed out of Dodge City I passed a huge meat packing plant.  Tonight I checked on-line and found that Ford County has two meat packing plants, has been a hot spot for Covid-19 leading the state with 1,299 Covid-19 cases. Maybe I should have challenged my assumptions about rural America?

Around 5:15pm the skies have cleared enough to make it to Coffeyville where I find this pleasant little inn for $57/nt. with a 24 hr restaurant just for guests.  They cater to railroad workers who come and go 24 hours a day. Besides having a grotto like pool and spa I had the best $13 dinner I’ve ever had, however I stayed out of the pool and spa and the restaurant was empty except for me. 😷

I’ll consider today a stalemate.