Some Problems

  Dorrego, Argentina
Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Late Sunday we developed a problem with the bike in that it stopped charging the battery.  This required that we return to Buenos Aires to have it repaired.  But first, with the help of a couple other travelers, and more than one Cerveca, we attempted to fix it ourselves.  The only good news here, is I managed to get all the parts back on very very early Monday morning.  I charged the battery all night and then pulled the fuses for every light and accessory on the bike in order to drive into Viedma.  I attempted to find a small truck to transport the bike the 1000 KM to Buenos Aires but was not successful.  The Harley Dealer in Buenos is closed Monday so I could not get any advice from there.  However, every mechanic I talked to said all I needed to do was buy a car battery, hook it to my bike battery, keep my lights disconnected and I could easily ride the 1000 KM.  An hour later I had a car battery in my tour packed, held in place with all of Karyn clothes, and with wires running to my motorcycle battery.  It worked great and we headed North running at about 130 KM.  The plan was to get within a couple hundred KM of Buenos Aires by 6 or 7 PM., stop for the night, and then travel to the Harley Davidson Dealer the next morning, arriving before they open at 10 AM.
Everything was working perfectly for 400 KM. Then everything went dead on the bike. Oh Shit.  Stuck on the side of the highway with a broken down bike.  It was only mid afternoon, so I knew I had a couple of hours before it became serious.  Spent the next hour checking all the fuses, unhooking the car battery, etc.  Even tried kicking the tires, but nothing seemed to help.  And no one stopped. Everyone honked their horn but no one even slowed down.  We then decided that Karyn would walk to town, which we estimated was no more than a couple of KM.  I was not happy to split up, but we could not stay as we were.  And Karyn was the only one who could speak any Spanish.  So off she went.  Pretty remarkable woman.
An hour or so later, someone drove her back in a small truck.  She said the police have been called and will be coming to hopefully help us out.  That's when she started crying.  I will never understand, now that our biggest problem is almost solved with police on the way she starts crying.  An hour before, walking alone the highway she was fine.  I guess I should consider myself lucky that she returned at all
Well the police arrived, sirens and all.  And so did the ambulance.  I guess they thought KarynŽ's request for help was a report of an accident.  It took a while to convince the police and ambulance that we were fine and that there was no accident.  The ambulance left, and shortly after police left after telling us that a tow truck has been called.  Once again, alone on the highway, but not for long.

STRANDED 6 KILOMETERS FROM DORREGO. 
      And on top of everything else, there was no charge for the tow truck.


I was very pleased to see the tow truck was a flat bed truck, which enabled us to load the bike with the winch and transport it to a small town called Dorrego without damage.  We were very hot and very tired, but we met a woman who knew some English and arranged for a friend of hers with a truck to take us and the bike to the Harley Dealer in Buenos Aires. 
The friend lived out of town so I had no idea what type of truck we were dealing with, but it was arranged that we would meet the friend in the compound where the bike was a 4 AM in order to be at the Harley Dealer shortly after they opened.  This is a very small town so I did not expect much risk walking through town at  3:30 AM
We got a hotel, had supper, and were in bed by 10:30 AM.  2 PM a knock on the door.  Karyn said "who is it".  No Answer.  Another Knock, Another "who is it" still not answer. and again another knock with no answer to Karyn's request as to who was there.
Karyn told me to answer the door while she hid in the bathroom.  I guess she  expected that any bad person would never think to look in the bathroom.  Anyhow, not knowing what else to do, and after sucking in my tummy and making myself look as tall and tough as possible, I opened the door.  This great big guy handed me a cell phone and indicated I had a call.  Now no one in the world knew where we were, so I could not understand receiving a call.  Maybe the person on the phone spoke English and was going to tell me to give this guy at the door all my money.  I was half right.  The person on the phone did speak English.  But the message was that the truck is broken and our estimated time to leave will now be 9 or 10 AM.  Around noon, the truck was still broken and we are now scheduled to leave at 4 AM tomorrow morning.  I have visions of being stuck on the side of the highway with an old beat up truck that has a Harley tied in the back.  We will see.  
I need to learn to just "chill out" sometimes so we are doing our best to enjoy our down day in this small town.  Doing some stuff on the Internet, Karyn got her hair cut (real short, looks great).  Could not do anything between 12:30 and 4:00 PM because that is Siesta time.  The town becomes empty.  But we know from last night  that by 7 PM the town will be very busy with lots of people, and we also know it will be 8:00 or 8:30 before the restaurants open for the evening.  I must mention, Karyn went looking for an English book and found a store where the owners wife is a teacher who had a couple of books.  She brought them to the store for Karyn, autographed them, and gave them to Karyn as a gift.  That type of kindness makes it impossible not to enjoy our day.
Anyhow, looking forward to getting my bike to Buenos Aires starting 4 AM tomorrow morning.  Watch for updates.