Earning the title this week.....

It has been toooooooo long for a post. This update took the title of the blog to heart and here are the latest adventures. I thought I was being philosophical or whimsical when I used the uphill and downhill title but this week was back to reality. I rode the moto up to Albany and hopped on the Clark and Suzy express and we went up to Helen, GA to stay the weekend and go see the last two stages of the Tour de Georgia professional bicycle race. The Saturday stage is run in the heart of the NE Georgia mountains taking advantake of some incredible steep and tall mountains. The stage we watched started in Blairsville and went 88 miles and topped out at 4700 plus feet with some slopes on the paved road reaching 24-27 percent grades. To walk up the hill is a chore. To race other professional cyclists tot he top of the mountain is insane. Fortunately we caught the $5 shuttle to the parking area and only had to walk the last 6/10th of a mile up to the summit to watch the finish line. Unfortunately we walked the 5km down the hill back to where we were able to park the car. Walking down hill is a little less effort than uphill but it still makes you use muscles that dont see a lot of use and mine are still complaining 4 days later. It was an exciting suprise finish with a relative newbie putting a hurting on a veteran rider and another up and coming star. The main thing I kept thinking was why did I leave my motorcycle in Albany and not bring it up to Helen for a little motorized fun. Someday I will bring it, but it was a lot of fun hanging out with my best buds at their awesome cabin. If you ever want a relaxing dog friendly vacation cabin in some beautiful mountains drop me a line and I will give you the website for reservations. Sunday unfortunately we were rained psyched out and didnt go into downtown Atlanta to see the final stage. We rolled straight back home and I spent the night in Albany and then rode the moto home on Monday. I only got rained on 5 different times, but each shower was only a couple minutes in duration and tolerable with the raingear I bring with me. Total miles for the weekend came to 755 on the motorcycle and roughly 480-490 in the car.

Tuesday I went to Orlando and picked up a car that my mother just bought to replace the RX-8 that is ending its lease. She picked up a used 04 Mini Cooper in BRG with the green grey black interior, sunroof and auto transmission. The original owner replaced the wheels with some slick looking 17" hoops and it is a pretty cool looking car. After handing over the check and signing on the dotted line I tooled home in the new-used wheels. What an fun little car. On the 4 wheel side I now drive a F-150 which comes in very handy when you need to haul stuff, but I have forgotten how much fun a sporty little FWD car can be when it is tuned for fun. I think my mom is going to have a lot of fun in her new car and the MPG will help also considering the wankel powered RX-8 was pulling 17-19 mpg. IF you are in the market for MPG this is a brilliant little car and the used copy my mom has is extremely tight and solid for being a 4 year old model with 60K on it. fun fun fun!!!!!

Today I scooted down to the south Florida area to scope out the area and check out a couple neighborhoods. I am headed down that way for business in the next month or two and I need to line up a new place to live. I have been spoiled with low living cost for the last 3-4 places I have lived, but it will take a little luck if I am going to find cheap and fun housing. I found a really cool place in hollywood that is right near the old downtown Hollywood area dn has a lot of old restaraunts and hsops that are making a comeback "revitalization effort" and it is only about 1 to 1.5 miles from the beach. Time will tell, I am going to call a realtor and see what is available closer to where I will be working and what is on the market right now in my price range. By the way I rode the moto today for a total of 390 miles sot he total from Friday thru Wedensday we are at 1145 miles so far. I feal like I am getting over considering I used about 29 gallons of gas in the moto compared to approx 63 if I used the truck.

So I have 4 more days of vacation left to do laundry, see my cousin coming in from NYC, check in on grandma, rest, relax, and recharge in time to go back to work Monday......I am going to need time off to recover from the time off.