Sunday, a couple of months ago, Dennis and I are out riding and playing on curvy roads. Just having a GREAT time. We had rode for several hours, were east of a little town called Ira. It is in the Newton/Marshalltown area. We were leaning in a great curve, having a good time when we hear this nasty noise, we knew it was a tire. The tire pressure monitor showed we had lost 19 pounds in the rear tire. He brings the bike back upright, and slows it down, to almost a coast. We get into Ira and he looks for a drive way, or somewhere, not on a street, but with pavement to pull off. He saw one in front of a shop called Bucklin Rebuilders.
We get off the bike, start taking off helmets, etc. Dennis is on the ground checking out the tires. Sees a chunk missing from our rear tire. We put it up on the center stand (and this is when an elderly gentleman walks over) and Dennis sees the ‘bigger’ problem. The rear tire is SHREDDED! This older man asks what we are doing, just riding and taking a break? Says he has had a few gold wings, but never road one. Then we show him our ‘problem’. OHHHH, he says. ‘There is a guy in town that works on motorcycles, but I don’t think he works on Sunday’s or that he does tires’. We knew there was a guy in Ira that works on bike seats and is CHEAP, that was who he was talking about. Anyway, we thought this man, was just a neighbor to the business…we find out he is Mr. Bucklin! He has his rebuilder service, and he has a junk yard down the street on the other side of the highway. He was just so fun. We made some phone calls and Green’s Towing Service (Ernie and Louise) hooked up their trailer to head to pick us up. In the mean time we are sitting outside, visiting about things and his wife comes out to join us. Mosquitoes start getting bad, so he takes us in to his ‘haven’ which is his shop. He is showing us pictures of the place from 50 years ago, when he bought it, and it had a shop, gas pumps, and grocery store, then they lived upstairs. His wife said she got tired of going up and down 13 stairs several times a day. LOL, so he built the house that is next door. He said he didn’t do so good as he knows he built on top of a lake, just look at the basement he tells us.
So, we are chatting and waiting, and pretty soon, Mrs. Bucklin comes into the shop with a basket, she made a fresh pot of coffee (by now it is 9 PM) brought Ice cream and fresh strawberries! How wonderful. We had not had dinner, and even though I don’t like ice cream very much and don’t really eat fresh strawberries, I did and it was GOOD! Dennis, we all know, loves this.
Ok, Green’s show up and we are trying to decide how to get the bike loaded, as Ernie has just had shoulder surgery, so he can’t help. He has racks to drive on, but it’s a pretty good incline. So, Mr. Bucklin offers to hold the tongue of the trailer with his forklift, so the trailer is lower in the rear. He didn’t have to, as Ernie had a way to do it. Then they took the plywood pieces for the back of the trailere and put over the racks, to make it smoother. Here is another good one…Dennis puts on his helmet to drive the bike on the trailer. He said he didn’t trust anything! We are all laughing. So, there he goes, bike goes right in, no issues, and we all let out a loud cheer, and realize…oops, its late! We apologize. The Bucklin’s are laughing and said no, please don’t. The people in those houses (the nearest ones) ride and they are our noisy people, they will visit tomorrow now and ask what we had going on! The Bucklin’s are excited about this. Mrs. Bucklin takes Louise and I in the house to potty and shows us pictures of her family, and shares some stories with us. Meanwhile, Dennis gets the bike tied down, and we are getting ready to leave, and thanking the Bucklin’s and apologizing for inconvenience, etc. They hug us and tell us, no apologies, please! We were able to have a great evening and we had COMPANY! They also begged us to come back with friends! We are planning a trip out with some folks and taking picnic lunch and having the Bucklin’s join us, there is a park across the street from their house!
For something bad that happened, this was an awesome experience, we met new people and they had unexpected company. Ernie helped Dennis get the bike over to Cycle Clinic on Monday, and Jim had it done on Tuesday, several hundred dollars later, but we are back on the road! Thank you to the Green’s for always being ready, willing, and able to help member’s out with their tow vehicle and trailer!
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