Saturday, April 10, 2010

Frugality

This is one thing, since I lost my job and starting college again, that I have had to become accustomed with, frugality. I'm lucky with the connections I have, that my favorite sport and passion, I'm able to wheel deals pretty easily. Ya know sell something at a good price and be able to get something new for about what I sold my old stuff for? To make a little $$ cash I have been cutting grass and other few odd jobs. This week I shuttled some Appalachian Trail hikers up to Carver's Gap. We left the shop Thursday about 130pm and my exploder looked like this.....................
To be perfectly honest I didn't think I could get them all in. If I had not had the box on the roof, it would not have happened! It was 58 degrees and drizzling rain when we left the shop lot. I told this bunch that it's usually 15-20 degrees cooler at the top and the looks they gave me seemed to look as if they didn't believe me. As we get about half way up the mountain it starts raining hard. The passenger in the front seat looks up on the visor at the temp and it's below 50 and dropping, I just smile. We reach the summit, open the doors and the wind is HOWLING! They start trying to get out their pack covers, long pants and anything else they can find to stay warm, it's now 43 degrees........brrrrrrrrrrr. After about 20 minutes everything is done that needs to be done, I jump back out to close all the doors (yes, I was inside where it was warm), wish them luck then head back to the shop. If I had a big van like MOTO-VAN I used to own I would get into the AT shuttling business. I used it for when I had my KXF-250 MX bike and I kick myself for selling it at least twice a month.
I could have converted this thing into the hillbilly mansion instead of having the hillybilly hotel in the exploder as I do now. Meh, you live and learn.


Maybe I could try to load the exploder like this when the weather warms up?

Enough entertainment......in other related riding news; the pack races at Lamar have commenced again. I attended this past Tuesday hoping for a crowd that was bearable and it was, lots of good folks there I like to ride with. There have been several "other" rides happening too on Tuesdays as well but Lamar is closer to me and I can ride there from home for my warm-up which helps a ton. There was a beginner ride by the NTMBA this morning at the VA Creeper Trail but Austin wasn't up for it (is this really my kid?). I like to casually ride up there 2 or 3 times a year. It's easy to get folks addicted to cycling when you take them up there. Nothing like getting someone new involved into our sport ya know!!! I think today hold in store, putting rear brakes on the exploder, whatcha think??

LAter G.......................................

1 comment:

Riding with dogs said...

don't seat it dude, when it comes to serious hobbies most kids don't follw in their parents footsteps. I don't know if I'll ever become interested in analyzing the stock market all day like my Pop.