Well, the wake up call came promptly at 10 a.m. I hadn't slept so well the night before and it was particularly hard to get up then. I really wasn't used to the 6hr time difference yet, and I oozed my way out of bed and into my clothes.
I really didn't know where I was going, but I found a small information center that had a map on the wall. I took a picture of it with my camera, and used that to get my way around.
So off we went.
Finding your way around Heidelberg is damn near impossible. They really don't believe in street signs over there and to make matters worse, women don't really allow themselves to be a part of the decision making process on where to go, or which way to turn. They do that so they don't have to be held responsible if you get lost. On top of that, they get to yell at you when you don't get it right.
"Lars, seriously, if we go around in circles one more time i'm going to punch you in the face"
"Shut up Kelsey"
Well, after enough wandering around, Kelsey fell into this hole:
Luckily it happened to be where we were supposed to meet up with the guy, so we waited. I watched as she tried to get herself out of the hole as I took pictures and video of her.
I called the guy and he said he was out and about and woudl be back in just over two hours. We made ourselves at home around his house and entertained ourselves thoroughly.
Some childish humor?
After we ran out of bad jokes, we sat down to wait:
Well, right on time, two hours later, the shipper showed up. He took us to the warehouse where the bike had been sitting for the past few months. It was nice to see it again, much in the same way you come home after a few days to see your dog, who in turn didn't chew up any of your valuables. For those of you who don't have dogs, insert wife or children in place of "dog"
I slid my hand over the seat as if I was petting his back. Then as you guessed it, I did what we all do when we see a new bike and twist the throttle and let it snap back a few times. Just to rekindle good memories.
I checked the oil and tires and topped them up, the shipper was kind enough to provide oil and air for me. He was busy and needed to get going, so we hopped on the bike and took off the first gas station.
At the gas station I noticed that we had no Tachometer. In fact I noticed that the neutral light didn't work. On top of that I had no headlights nor tailights! I checked the fuses and realized that the light fuse had blown. I thought that was a little odd and put in a new fuse.
Everything worked again and we were off! We jumped on the Autobahn. With no speed limits facing me, I twisted the throttle and brought it up to a 100mph. I soon realized that it was not enough. BMW's and Benz's were flying up behind me and flying right on by.
I wish I could have kept up, considering that I was on an Italian bike with a 916cc 4v v-twin engine, but with no windshield and a full sized broad on the back, 100 was the limit. I was already straining my neck to keep my head attached.
Looking down at the guages, I noticed the Tach had gone again. Seems like I blew the fuse again. Damnit!
Off the highway to fix the problem:
Luckily there was an auto-part store across the street and I bought 4 more 15 amp fuses. Just in case. I disconnected the battery and tried to reconnect it better, as I figured the negative cable might have been loose or something. As I worked, Kelsey relaxed, lied down, smoked a cigarette and messed with the camera:
I put in a new fuse, tightened up the cables and everything came to life again! In a bout of celebration, we took another picture. Look how ecstatic we look!
Everything was working great. I set the cruise control to 100mph on my hand computer and set off towards Denmark again. 50 miles later, we lost the lights again. WTF?! what on earth was going on?!
We pulled off onto a rest stop. Kelsey rolled her eyes and decided to rid herself of a problem she didn't really allow herself to be a part of in the first place. So this is her way of helping:
As a level IV Warlock, I decided to cast a spell on her. I tried to turn her into something useful, like a warm meal, or lice.
And in case you guys were curious, this is what my bike looks like in Germany:
Functional lights followed a new fuse and away we went again. The sun started going down and I stopped at a truck-stop to regroup.
I had 15 Euros to my name. A hotel was out of the question. There were some bushes and trees 200 yards behind the truck stop. We went over to check it out and I declared that we would sleep there that night. Kelsey wasn't too pleased about it, and told me to go fetch some newspaper at least.
I went back to the truck stop and out of the garbage pulled out some newspaper. I walked back and setup shop:
I stashed the bike in some tall weeds to hide it from preying eyes. Imagine being stuck in the middle of a country with no means of transportation, or money for that matter.
As the sun went down, the temp just dropped like a waterfall. I was wearing a T-shirt, with two long sleeved shirts on top. I also had a plastic liner from my Joe Rocket jacket. I could see my breath everytime I breathed. It was so cold. We spooned together as hard as we could, but holy crap it was cold.
We had to make a fire. We were quite literally freezing:
The fire was a godsend. It was small, but allowed the blood to circulate. I knew we couldn't sleep and have the fire last long enough to keep us warm, so I went back to the truck stop and looked for some blankets. All that I could see were towels. For 15 euros. EACH!
Now I don't condone this, but I was excrutiatingly cold and I was desperate. I walked up to the guy in the counter and explained my situation. I told him I would pay him ANYWAY possible. I raised one eyebrow as I said that.
He told me he had his fill, and that I could get off lucky this time. He gave me the towels and a fleece blanket.
Next to the fire and with a blanket, I slept halfway reasonably:
Kelsey wasn't pleased with the cold and when the sun finally came up, we slept out in the sun and got a precious few hours of sleep before we would start up again. Boy was she cranky
