Aug 1 2017. We started the day with a plan to fix the axle and get on to Port Orford. The first attempt was to have Steve run 8 miles up the road to the town of Glendale to the only hardware store and see if they had a 1.5 inch 20 millimeter thread nut. If that didn’t work we were going to use a chain press and safety wire the hell out of it.

Steve went to start his bike and ….no-go. Choke was stuck closed. He had to disassemble it.

While he was working on his bike, JB took Chris’ bike to the hardware store. Not surprisingly the hardware store turned out to be more of a liquor store than a hardware store. On the ride back JB remembered passing a semi-repair shop the night before about seven miles away in the town of Azalea.

The guys in this shop reminded us of the people of Huntington. Stuart was on duty and knew about the TAT and spoke of his desire to complete it one day.
Stuart started digging through his junk drawer looking for a nut.

He couldn’t find one that fit but he said no worries I’ll make one. He grabbed a nut that was close and drilled out the threads and then began to tap it.

He drilled a safety wire hole in it and broke two drill bits doing it.

Voila! a new axle nut.

When we returned to put the axle back in we needed a spacer to prevent the nut from bottoming out. This is where Steve’s Honda tools came in handy.

Some locktite, thread tape and a little safety wire and she was good as new.

At this point Steve had repaired his choke, JB’s bike was ready so we were off to port Orford a little later than we wanted to be. We had estimated we had to leave by 11 am to get the uhaul picked up in time. We were only 108 miles away. The final leg was steep, with winding turns and lots of rock slides.

It seemed like it was taking forever but we finally came out the other side of the mountains.

The approach to the Pacific ocean was concrete and we crested the final hill around 430 pm. We rode directly onto the beach with joy in our hearts and minds.

We made it. Exhausted and energized at the same time. The sense of accomplishment and to know that we were now part of a very small group of people to actually go coast to coast on dirt bikes is forever etched in our minds.

Would we do it again? To soon to tell. We still have five more days in a uhaul back to Florida.