New tires, new chain, and the help of others.

See these two gentlemen working on my bike? They're just a few of the good folk at Spruill Honda who are keeping me on the road this summer. I would take them along with me, but they're big guys and would probably throw me off at the first rest stop just so they'd have a bit more elbow room.

Actually, they're really nice guys who taught me a lot about my motorcycle -- how to do some simple maintenance while I'm on my trip -- and provided me with some spare parts and tools in case I felt the urge to have something go wrong just so I could try and fix it before the tow truck showed up.

But let's not jinx anything, right?