Joan was on a mission: she needed to do our weekly grocery shopping and has been looking for the liquid refreshment hard stuff... yeah: Caffeine-Free Diet Coke. For some reason, it is hard to come by in the 16oz bottles around here. She let me know that she'd be going to several stores and graciously invited me to not go along.
I asked if I could take her Xmax out to give it a thorough through-the-curves test ride... "Sure, have fun." Before going our separate ways, she asked if I wanted to meet her for lunch - she was feeling "tacos"... as in: Taco John's.
Deal! She left before me, knowing there would be a line... there's always a line... and it is over the lunch hour. I took care of the last of the stuff with the scoot, then met her at Taco John's. I found a small shady place to park the scoot, then walked the 10 cars or so back to get in the air-conditioned comfort of the CR-V. It is a hot one today. (Supposed to top out around 93ยบ.)
When our turn finally came, we ordered and had lunch in the Honda, parked next to the Xmax. The chow was good, the ambiance was "eating in the car", and when done, she sent me off on the Xmax. She likes to take her time when grocery shopping, I like to ride - this was a very workable solution.
I took some of our favorite roads here, heading south. I crested one hill on South Rockerville Road, and did a good, firm brakes test: a truck hauling a large front-end loader on a trailer, missed a turn off and was stopped on the road. After waiting for a couple minutes to see what he was doing, I creeped out to the solid yellow line to see that he was waving me around. Apparently, his plan was to back up towards the top of that hill to make the turn (my assumption)... seems like a big accident in the making. While I sat behind him, I kept an eye in my mirror in case something big came over the hill. I was glad to get away from that mess.
I had a lot of fun on the twisty roads - her Xmax is an outstanding scoot. It simply does everything better than my Vespa, even though the ergonomics of my Italian beauty are a better fit for me.
I eventually worked my way to Iron Mountain Road, with a plan to ride south on it, go through Custer State Park, then ride up past Crazy Horse on the way back to Hart Ranch. As I got to the Iron Mountain Road Store, there was a guy in the middle of the road waving for me to stop... seems a motorcycle and SUV collided on the next curve ahead. I pulled into the parking area of the store, got off, and found a seat in the shade to hydrate.
Just as I was pulling in, a Life Flight helicopter landed briefly, let two people off, then took off and circled overhead. There was already an ambulance on-scene...
Someone is having a very bad day. I overheard talk that it didn't seem life-threatening. I had no plan to join the gawkers. By the time I was ready to leave, another ambulance pulled up. I'll probably hear more about it on the 10:00 news.
I headed back on Iron Mountain Road - not a bad "Plan B"... with traffic stopped at that curve, there was no northbound traffic. I was able to really work the Xmax through those curves. Another stop at a scenic pull-out to get another drink of water. A guy and his granddaughter were nearby on a Harley and asked me about the accident - they had been in that area before it happened, but the work had already spread ahead. We visited for a bit, socially distancing; a nice guy, recently retired from the NPS as a mechanic at Mt Rushmore. We discussed the good points of retirement, and he is looking forward to doing some RV traveling. The granddaughter works at Reptile Gardens, one of the premier Black Hills attractions... she said about 70% or more of the visitors there are wearing masks, for which she is grateful.
Refreshed once again, I headed north on Iron Mountain Road; caught up with a couple Harley riders who left before I even geared up to leave the parking. No other traffic to speak of. Nice. At the north end of IMR, I turned towards Mt Rushmore. Still not ready for a stop there, but the road that runs past it is a great ride (Hwy 244). We've only ridden that one once this season. Again, very light traffic. I turned towards Hill City, thinking I'd ride Hwy 385/16 back to Hart Ranch. The traffic through Hill City was bumper to bumper, including the guy right in front of me (from Colorado... Colorado is the new Minnesota) who stopped at every crosswalk, even though there was no one wanting to cross. Rather than get stuck behind him on the highway, I turned off on Old Hill City Road that leads to Keystone - another Plan B, but with curvy roads instead of highway speeds. Not really a downside.
Once to Keystone, I went up the hill to get on Highway 16, for the opportunity to do some highway speeds with the Xmax. Yeah, it's great.
By the time I turned onto the road to Hart Ranch, I was feeling real good about the ride and the capabilities of the Xmax. And then, about three miles from the entrance to Hart Ranch: road construction (wasn't there when I left earlier). The lady flag-person told me to be VERY careful, as they had just put down several miles of fresh tar snakes with the paper topping - "It is very slippery, so keep your speed to a minimum. It was a fairly slow three miles, that felt like riding through a mine field.
Joan was already home when I got back and had started a couple loads of laundry - she is like the EverReady Bunny, only cuter.
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We had both planned to get out earlier, but another claims guy from Progressive called... Mike said he'd be handling all three of our vehicles and just had a few questions. We visited for a while - I think he understands our point of view on this and said he hopes to have things going on the claims very soon. Sounds like the cargo trailer will be considered a total loss, but that doesn't mean it will go away. More discussion on that as we hear.
He needed a photo of the VIN stamped on the frame. We didn't know there was a VIN stamped on the frame, and thought the number from the registration was adequate. Crawling under the trailer... sure enough - there is the number. Hopefully, that should complete everything they need.
I did call Winnebago Factory Repair Customer Service. Visited with a Michael there, and he gave me a dollar number for replacing the roof... I may have let out a slight "Holy shit!" when hearing that. He estimated 8 days in their repair facility.
Again, we will wait to hear from Progressive on this. Whew!
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