Day 21, Thursday, July 7

It turns out that the BMW dealership is just 7 miles down the road from the KOA I’m staying at. How convenient. I took the bike there at 9 this morning and after test riding a few motorcycles (including a Triumph Rocket III, 2.3 liter in line 3-cylinder with 140 hp and 150 lb-feet of torque ... there are a lot of cars on the market with smaller engines) came back to the camp ground on a loaner motorcycle and spent the day working on my journal. Whoo Hoo! I’ve got it up to date once again! When I picked my bike up from the dealer this afternoon (after another $600 chunk of my budget got spent) they told me that they’d done the necessary maintenance and the clutch wasn’t/isn’t a problem. After driving the bike around this evening after they closed, I’m afraid I disagree. The clutch is definitely slipping. I just hope it’s either something they can adjust or that the fix can wait until I get over to Sacramento and can take the motorcycle to the San Francisco dealership. There’s gotta be more to do in San Fran than there is here in Salt Lake City. My initial plan was to pack up all of my stuff tonight and aim to tear out of here at about 4 or 5 in the morning tomorrow because it’s supposed to top 100 degrees here tomorrow. Unfortunately, since I’ve got to take the motorcycle back to the dealership tomorrow and can’t do so until 9, I don’t know how far I’ll get driving tomorrow (if I get anywhere at all). All I can do is to keep my fingers crossed.