Freedom and the gas prices...

I'm a big fan of freedom.  I'm sure you are as well.

I can remember my first steps into freedom.  I was a little guy back then.  Times were different.  It was the seventies.  At six years old, I was able to walk down the main street to my friends house.  His house was a block and a half away.  But, it was a busy street with no sidewalks and I had to walk with traffic.   So, I was the bomb and I knew it.



I ended up with a hand me down Schwinn for my first bike.  While my friends all had BMX bikes, I was sportin' the Schwinn.  Have you ever tried to jump ramps on a Schwinn?  I hated that bike.  I had learned to ride a bike on this bike.  As I was learning, my brother had me play a game of follow the leader.  He was riding his bike ahead and I just had to follow.  Sounds easy enough.  It was a fun game you know.  He started zigging and zagging between trees.  I'm afraid I hadn't yet developed the coordination needed to zig and zag properly at this point.  So, head on into the tree I went. 

In just a couple of years, I would get my BMX.  It was a yellow and black Huffy.  I felt this was the ultimate in freedom.  I was like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider.  Although, not so psychedelic.  Where I grew up, there were a series of canals that connected the lakes.  These canals were my stomping grounds.  If I wasn't fishing in the canal, I'd be playing in the woods beside it.  Just after I got my new bike, I was traveling with some friends beside the canal.  It was a well beaten path.  Well, I was learning some new tricks on the bike.  I could ride wheelies.  I could bunny hop.  I could ride with no hands.  You know, the basic skills.  Well, that day I was practicing a new skill.  I had perfected it in fact.  I could jump off the bike and it would continue down the trail.  I would then run to it and jump back on.  Then, I started to brag.  "Hey guys, you gotta see this!"  Everyone watched with anticipation.  I pedalled faster than I ever had.  I jumped off the back of the bike and watched as it b lined into the canal.  I'm not sure if their applause was good or bad.  Now that I think about it, they may have been mocking me.  I looked like Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider.  I can still picture the yellow rim of the back tire spinning just under the surface of the water.  Of course, I went in for it.  That bike made it a few more seasons.

 

There was a ten speed added in there somewhere.  But, I don't recall any incidents with it.  Well maybe. My best friend back then and I rode our ten speeds to the local metro park.  There was a huge hill that was just paved.  You could gain some serious speed riding down it.  We hit that hill like the Tour De France.  I pulled ahead and turned around in time to see my friend had stopped and was doing some sort of Ritualistic Dance at the side of the road.  I had to investigate.  As it turns out, a bee had flown down his shirt.  I think they renamed his dance the "Soulja Boy". Good times. Oh! and the time I rode across town to visit a girl.  Her Grandpa was none to pleased.  He told her that I looked like a hoodlum.  It must have been the glasses.  It was a short visit.
 

My first taste of real freedom was my first car.  It was a '76 Firebird Formula.  Gas was affordable, even on my part time stockboy pay.  There is thrill like no other to know that you can just pick up and go. There is a new adventure around the next turn or the turn after that.  Let's see, where will the road take me today?

Fast forward to 2011.  Record high gas prices are threating my freedom and yours.  I have to plan outings so that they make sense.  I'll wait to go here until Thursday because I will be out that way already.  I've changed my driving style to maximize my MPG.  How has the gas prices affected your freedom?

Roadtrip To Charleston

So, The roadtrip went well.  The Route 1 Ends performed flawlessly.  As a matter of fact, she was posting 33.5 miles per gallon.  This is a very good benchmark to keep in mind when planning future road trips.  We put her up on the trailer to haul her back to Ohio.  My brother needed to clean his driveway up a little bit.  So, his truck and trailer now reside in southern Ohio.



I had an excellent time with my Dad.  I heard so many stories.  I wouldn't even know where to begin in telling them.  I'll touch on them from time to time in this blog.  We are alike in so many ways.  It is crazy.  We both had to deal with similar challenges, Although 30 years apart.  When my girls moved to Long Island a few years back, I had some challenges with loss.  I was used to them being here with me.  Well near me.  I had to learn to deal with this loss.  This was not that different from when my Dad had to let us go all those years ago.  He was dealing with similar loss it seems.  It seems it was a challenge for both of us. 



My brother was incredibly busy.  So, the timing of the trip could have been better.  I think that he felt he had to entertain us.  He is in charge of making sure the local newspaper get to the doorstep daily on time.  This means that he has to count on people.  Counting on people is a huge challenge.  The second day of the trip he received 12 complaint phone calls.  The guy on that route didn't finish the last 15 deliveries.  Crazy.  Needless to say, that guy was fired.  So, I offered to help on the Sunday Morning delivery.  I was able to help with the single copy.  This meant that we had to pick up the front page and the special bridge run booklet from the printer at 12:00 AM.  Once we recieved these, we had to scoot back to the warehouse to pair these two parts with the other three parts.  This week was a five part paper.  Once all the papers parts were together, I rode with June to deliver the single copy to local stores and paper boxes throughout the territory.  If I remember right,  we finished combining the parts and were rolling out at 3:00 AM or so.  We had about 40 stops.  We wrapped up the single copy at around 6:00 AM.  My brother then picked me up from the warehouse to finish his route.  He wrapped up this route by 8:00 AM.  Ideally, they like to be wrapped up by 7:00 AM.  When we got back to the house, I crashed.  But, I was up and moving by noon. 



We spent most of Sunday in and around Charleston.  Here are some random shots: