Rallies 2011 – wrap up

Life is getting back to normal once again. We are falling back into a routine and our cats are happy we’ve sprung them from their ‘prison’.

The trip was 24 days, we spent 21 nights in hotel rooms and 2 nights with friends. We enjoyed 3 free nights at hotels thanks to reward programs from Super 8 and Choice hotels. The GPS shows 5,724 miles traveled. The route took us through 19 states; LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, VA, WV, MD, PA, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, ME, VT, NC.

We only had one problem with the bikes and that occurred on the final day of the trip just 120 miles from the house when a relay failed on Reagan’s auxiliary electrical system. As a result of the relay’s constant on-off cycling it appears her SkyFi3 XM radio receiver has suffered catastrophic failure and will need to be replaced.

There were only a few occasions where we were “unplugged” and they were usually temporary. Together we improved our abilities to work from the road. I tell people as long as I have an Internet connection I can work from anywhere in the world. That is usually true, of course, wanting to work is sometimes a different story. :)

We are considering a SS2000 in September so that I can check off Ohio and Michigan and complete my US map. The trip will depend on work schedules and temperatures. We’ll have to wait and see.

This has been a great summer and once again we got to enjoy parts of the US that we hadn’t been to before.

UPDATE: Sometimes taking something apart can fix the problem and not just make it worse. Honestly, that’s what I thought years ago when as a child I would take things apart. Of course, getting them back together was a whole other story. Today though it worked. I removed the back cover of the SkyFi3 and pulled out the battery. Then reinserted it and tried to turn it on, nothing. I plugged in a USB cord since it had a slot and the screen started to flash as it lit up and shut off. I then removed the usb cord and to my surprise the unit started to power on but then shut off. Thinking the battery was dead, I went outside, repaired the relay problem and plugged the SkyFi3 into it’s cradle. Presto!!! It booted up and locked onto an XM station.

So really the only bike related problem of the trip was a $5 relay. It actually took more time to remove the plastic access panel than it did to hook up the new relay. Reagan’s satellite radio is fixed. Hoooray!