Got your attention aye? Saturday afternoon in St Louis I experienced the worst hail storm I have ever seen! After the meeting concluded about 4 PM I ventured out front of the hotel to check on my bike parked that had been parked safely beneath the entrance canopy since Thursday night. Standing and talking about the rainy weather I looked down and noticed the dreaded oil spatters on the rear wheel that had dripped to the ground since the bike had been parked....yep...final drive issues with Elizabeth were apparent.
I quickly placed a call to Ryan Manley the service manager at Gateway BMW and graciously agreed to wait for me to ride over. The all afternoon rain had stopped so I found a chase car and driver in Ray Zimmerman and we took off the 8 miles over the the dealership. After checking in with Ryan and quickly determining that Elizabeth would be spending several extra days in St Louis, we hopped into Ray's car and headed back to the hotel. Immediately we encountered seriously blackened skies and the sound of tornado sirens wailing. Searching the horizon for the familiar funnel clouds of late we were trying to get back to the hotel and the safety of the underground garage there. We did not make it.... About 2 miles from the hotel huge hailstones began to to pummel us and Ray's 2012 Corvette...convertible Corvette too! Of course the top was up but when you have no where to hide from an intense hail storm with stones ranging in size from peas to baseballs..it gets intense in a hurry! Immediately the windshield smashed and sent shards of glass into our faces! It took us about two minutes to get back to the safety of the hotel and the hail had quit about that time...and the damage had been done. The hotel and surrounding area suffered severe damage but there were no immediate injuries. However downtown St Louis suffered as well with at least one fatality near the stadium.
So here I am this morning with a flight home booked on Southwest and working to figure how I will get back to get Elizabeth hopefully next weekend. I now have a new appreciation for the term "Awe....Hail Yeah" and you got to love those failed final drives!!
I quickly placed a call to Ryan Manley the service manager at Gateway BMW and graciously agreed to wait for me to ride over. The all afternoon rain had stopped so I found a chase car and driver in Ray Zimmerman and we took off the 8 miles over the the dealership. After checking in with Ryan and quickly determining that Elizabeth would be spending several extra days in St Louis, we hopped into Ray's car and headed back to the hotel. Immediately we encountered seriously blackened skies and the sound of tornado sirens wailing. Searching the horizon for the familiar funnel clouds of late we were trying to get back to the hotel and the safety of the underground garage there. We did not make it.... About 2 miles from the hotel huge hailstones began to to pummel us and Ray's 2012 Corvette...convertible Corvette too! Of course the top was up but when you have no where to hide from an intense hail storm with stones ranging in size from peas to baseballs..it gets intense in a hurry! Immediately the windshield smashed and sent shards of glass into our faces! It took us about two minutes to get back to the safety of the hotel and the hail had quit about that time...and the damage had been done. The hotel and surrounding area suffered severe damage but there were no immediate injuries. However downtown St Louis suffered as well with at least one fatality near the stadium.
So here I am this morning with a flight home booked on Southwest and working to figure how I will get back to get Elizabeth hopefully next weekend. I now have a new appreciation for the term "Awe....Hail Yeah" and you got to love those failed final drives!!
How many miles on that rear end? I hope the warranty will fix it for you.

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