Aloha - Oregon

[MikeO]

6th May

I rode up the Interstate to Jorge & Sheila’s house. It was 100 miles or so – no pictures – if you need to see what it looked like, go and take a picture of your local motorway then cut & paste into here .

I arrive to find Jorge had just left Never mind – the package on the doorstep is from BMW of Chicago – I go and buy the oils for the service and get to work on the driveway. Jorge arrives as I’m cleaning the brakes – we move the bike into the garage and continue. I’m introduced to Cricket, a Shar-Pei / Pit bull cross (with some Bassett in there as well…)

Jorge has my dream job. He works for a well known sports clothing manufacturer. His current project is designing a sports bra. Part of the research for this involves studying videotapes of naked women running on a treadmill – Yes!

As has always been the case with ADVriders, the garage has some familiar residents…

Sheila’s soon home from work, and prepares dinner whilst her husband helps the weird guy from the other side of the pond – we manage to do most of the work before dinner, leaving the change of Poly V Belt and throttle body balance for later. A good day’s work

 

[MikeO]

Wooden wonder...

7th May

Jorge & Sheila are out early to go to work (which most people I meet seem to have to do ), so I ride over to the Evergreen Aircraft Museum, home of one of the more bizarre aircraft I’ve seen…

…the ‘Spruce Goose’…

Devised as a solution to the massive losses being suffered by shipping in the North Atlantic at the hands of Dönitz’s U boats, the Hughes Flying Boat was, and is, the largest wooden aircraft ever built. It became a huge money pit, soaking up $18m of Federal funding, as well as $7m of Howard Hughes’ own money. It flew, in 1947, just once, with Hughes at the controls. It was then, on Hughes instructions, parked in a specially constructed, climate controlled hangar, for the next 23yrs. The costs of this ran to more than $1m per year. After Hughes death, the ‘Goose’ was sold to a local entrepreneur, who displayed it, alongside the Queen Mary, in Palm Beach, California. When Disney acquired the company, they lost interest in the flying boat and it was transferred to its present, purpose built, home.

The museum is home to an eclectic collection of aircraft, from a Messerschmidt Bf109G…

…to a SR71 Blackbird…

…to a B 17 Flying Fortress…

It’s an excellent museum.

On the way back to Jorge & Sheila’s home, I stop off at what looks like an innocuous little suburban house…

…which turns out to have a garage full of BMWs.

The garage belongs to Steve Prokop, an independent servicing agent. He listens to my engine, attaches his balance gauge, tweaks the throttle bodies and, like magic, the engine smooths out and the high frequency vibration disappears…

…he then turns into the perfect mechanic by refusing any payment – what a nice bloke

That evening, sitting on Jorge’s deck, with Mount Hood looking alternately like Mount Doom, or Mount Fuji, depending on whether it’s cloudy or not, I try a Cuban drink, comprising of rum, lime juice, sugar, mint and, as I find the next morning, a headache…

We spend the evening with Jorge & Sheila’s neighbours, eating & drinking – it’s a very convivial evening, rounding off a good day…