An early start this morning saw us leave our hotel before breakfast. I wanted to get well clear of Melbourne before the traffic hit. On the way out of town I fuelled up, knowing I'd then have plenty to get to Glenrowan but acknowledging that waiting that long for breakfast wasn't going to happen.
It didn't take us too long to get out onto the Ring Road and then left onto the Hume Freeway, breakfast of McDonalds at the first roadhouse we saw. The transmission oil leak discovered yesterday was still playing on my mind so I decided to stop at Phils Garage in Albury on the way through to see if he could nip it up.
Once on the Hume there's not much to do but click up k's, we stopped briefly in Glenrowan and continued on to Lavington (Albury) and found Phil's Garage quite easily. Phil was very accommodating with respect to tightening up the exhaust bracket bolts but sadly was concerned with the performance of the front forks of my bike, vigourously suggesting that it would be a good idea to check it out and change the fork oil before continuing on our way. I am conservative when it comes to mechanical things, so despite being in Albury before lunch, we weren't leaving until much later. So much for the Iron Butt day.....
I called my wife and updated her, it was time to wait until Phil could work his magic. I had no idea how long it would take, so ploans went out the window and Zanderhar and I walked to the local shopping centre to get out of the heat and have some lunch. We lingered there as long as possible and while ther I called my local dealer and spoke to him about what was going on, in case something needed to be addressed when I returned.
We went back to Phils and waited, and waited, and waited and shortly before 4.30pm we were on our way. I decided to detour into Canberra rather than head to Goulburn, it was a little closer and I was keen to get off the road before dark. I called my wife to let her know we were on our way and she booked some accommodation for us.
After really quick stop for food and fuel at Gundagai, where I noted that the oil leak was resolved. I also noted that the bike was indeed handling better with the now "stiffer" feel to the front end. Soon after we stopped we were on our way, racing the sunset to Canberra arriving just before dark. The Hotel we stayed at had valet parking and for a fee you could park in the secure area downstairs. I wasn't about to leave the Harley-Davidson out for the night and offered the valet a deal.. If he could park it I'd pay the fee. He was horrified and I didn't pay :-)
All up though, Zanderhar and I were pretty disappointed we didn't get the chance to complete the nealry 1200k hop home in one day, although we did manage 650k's or so, so it wasn't too bad.
