A little help from my friends

This is going to sound like an advertisement, but it's actually a testimonial:

I've been a bit down these last two weeks. I'd hoped to break a Guinness record this summer, but I've been riding too slow for the amount of time I'd given myself -- and I felt that if I wasn't going to break a record, then this whole trip was turning into a frivolous misadventure that I could ill afford to take. But I kept going.

And then things got worse: I noticed I had a bit of an oil leak; my helmet visors were starting to scar and crack; the intense pounding of the road broke my video camera mounts; and the extreme range of weather conditions and ceaseless wind caused my saddle bags to rip apart (I was just lucky they didn't fall off completely). But far worse was the fact that every motorcycle shop I talked to said they wouldn't be able to service my bike on the spot, that they had weeks-long waiting lists.

So when I finally made it back home and called my local bike shop for help, I really didn't know what to expect. Would they be able to get me back on the road with minimal loss of time, or was my trip over and out, dead and buried?

Not only did Spruill Honda fix my bike in less than 24 hours; not only did they give me a tab for parts and labor that I could pay off later; but when I told them to just chunk those weather-torn saddlebags, they found some old ones lying around in their shop and put them on my bike -- free of charge.

You may believe that this country is full of mean-spirited people who are only looking out for themselves, but I'm here to tell you this country is full of marvelous, interesting people who will not think twice about helping you out in whatever way that they can.

And some of the most caring people can be found right in your own hometown.

Thanks Spruill Honda.