Special Thanks Around Millie’s Engine Issues
If you have been following our blog, you will know that Jenn’s bike Millie had an engine issue which started in Arkansas and fully manifested itself in Texas. The motorcycle community in Texas has been great – specifically the “Two Wheeled Texans” (TWT) forum.
Largely through TWT, we received direct assistance, people point us to other people, offers for small financial assistance, and housing, and just words of encouragement. We thank everyone involved in our drama and would like to make specific mention of a few people who went above and beyond noting that other wished they could help more but were prevented by full time work.
Special thanks goes out to:
2013-11-04 through 2013-11-26: Erik and Kaye (Kempner, Texas).
We want to provide very special thanks to Erik and Kaye as they went above and beyond and have shown true hospitality. Being complete strangers (not anymore) they provided us the use of their camper/trailer – much better than tenting for us – and a little less like having perpetual house guests for them. In addition, there have been no lack of home cooked diners around Eric and Kayes table which usually resulted in socializing over a few drinks including Erik’s home-brewed beer.
With the arrangement of “I provide the labour, you provide the parts” Erik has been a superstar with regards to getting Jenn’s bike up and running. This includes his wealth of mechanical knowledge, the use of his lift and tools (including some he had to make) and plenty of time spent on the internet looking for parts and bouncing ideas off of knowledgeable contacts.
Given that one of the parts we require is back ordered for weeks, had we left the bike with a Suzuki dealer (at $90-120/hr) this would probably spelled financial disaster for us as we would have spent a good chunk of money to get the problem diagnosed to find out that a new part was not available all the while paying for a room night in, night out. Working at a local dealership, Kaye was able order our Suzuki OEM parts at employee pricing. We would like to thanks Kaye for this, as well as Killeen Power Sports for the deep discount.
What else to say here? One week we are posting “please help us” messages on internet forums and three weeks later, we are saying difficult “see you laters” (not goodbye!) and the three wonderful dogs are certainly going to be missed. Just when we finally learned our way around the kitchen and mechanical shop, it is time to go…
2013-11-04: EMT Jeff (Austin, Texas).
Jeff, having finished his EMT (paramedic) shift at 7am in the morning, was on the rode by 8am (madman!) and drove more than three hours to pick us up. Having loaded up our bikes, we delivered safe and sound to our next destination by about 3:15pm. Jeff would not accept gas money but did accept a Sprite Zero. Thanks Jeff!!!
2013-11-03: “Maximus” Mike (Abilene, Texas).
Having never met Mike, he assisted with offsetting some of our unexpected costs of living costs by putting us up in a nice hotel room with his loyalty points. Mike even followed up to make sure that our room was acceptable and that we are well taken care of. Thanks Mike!
