Another Adventure

I’ve been going to dinner once every month or two with some teachers from the first school I taught at for a couple years now.  Since her retirement this summer, the counselor in the group has sought to make these dinners “adventures”.  Last month, as you may have read, we took a ride on the Pedalhopper.

This week it was Frontrunner, up to Roosters restaurant in Ogden.  It was a blast.  Five of us met at the Murray station, boarded there and headed to Ogden.  We picked up another member at the downtown station, and one more in Layton.

The trip took just over an hour, and then we had a 10 minute walk down historic 25th Street to the restaurant.  The food was great and the company was awesome, we had a great time.

I’m liking these adventures, thanks to Becky for coming up with the ideas and arranging things for us.  I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Pedal Hopping.

Last night I went out with some teachers from the first school I worked at.  The counselor in the group hooked us up on this thing called the Pedal Hopper.

It’s kind of like a San Francisco streetcar, but powered by people.  You have to have at least 10 guests to power it, we had exactly 10 though it holds up to 16.  We decided that 10 was perfect since there are only 10 seats with pedals and any extras would just be extra weight to pedal around.

For $180 you get a 2 hour trip, stopping at 3 pubs.  You even get to pick the places to stop, keeping in mind you only have 2 hours and you have to pedal wherever you choose to go.  Which isn’t easy even though there are 10 of you, my legs are still mad at me.  At our first stop we decided to change our route, cutting out 4 blocks out of our trip.

There is, of course, no alcohol allowed on the Hopper itself, but you do get the driver, music (your choice or their party mix) and it even has a disco ball.

The driver had a bell that he would ring twice for “pedal”, and continuously for “pedal your butts off or we’re gonna get killed” when we turned left through intersections.   Since we drove right in traffic, we got a lot of stares, waves and horns honking, most of which were not the “move out of my way you morons going 5MPH in traffic” kind of honk.   Pedaling it, even up hill, wasn’t really hard work, it’s geared well, just tiring.  My legs would give out just about the time we got to the next stop.  Except for the last leg, which was all level or slightly downhill.  It was a blast.

At the beginning of the trip.

In the middle of the trip.

After dark, close to the end of the adventure.

Sorry about the video quality, all I had with me was my phone.

Bicycling

Just got back from a bike ride. Only 8 or 10 blocks and already I can feel 743 muscles I wasn't even aware I had. Might have something to do with my not getting on a bike since I got my driver's license. Back when Jimmy Carter was president. Back in the day, we used to ride our bicycles everywhere. When I was around 10, a whole bunch of the kids in the neighborhood, 10 or 12 of us, rode the path the British took from Lexington to Concord. 14 miles round trip and now I can hardly make it a mile. Oh well, at least I still liked it, may take a while but I'll be back up to 14 miles eventually......

Ferragosto 2007

A couple of years ago, we were actually part of the festival. It was a ton of fun, but the timing sucked last year and things just never came together. But being a spectator can be just as much fun - and you get to leave whenever you want to. So, I'm planning on heading down there on the 18th, and think it would be great if the rest of the family (and non-family members) headed down there too. Here's the details :

Italian Car Show ~ Ferragosto 2007
When the word ‘Italian’ comes to mind, it may bring thoughts of beautiful women and fast cars, among other things. The Italians are known for their fashion and style and on August 18th there will be an opportunity for everyone to get a good glimpse at fast, stylish, Italian cars.
Join us for Ferragosto 2007 ! The Free festival will open Saturday, August 18th at 11:00 am and will be held at 300 South 450 West, Rio Grande Street across from the Pioneer Park and the Rio Grande Depot.
Enjoy the creativity and elegance of Italian designed automobiles, listen to live entertainment and taste savory dishes that are uniquely Italian. Bring the whole family to this free cultural street fair.
The Italian Festival is looking for Italian cars to share, contact Ronan Glon 801-815-9218 or alfa.105@hotmail.com

So I hope to see you all down there and if you are interested in going with me let me know. I'll probably park the car at the "U" and take Trax down there.

A day at the Races.

Alex had a few free tickets to a classic car race out at the Larry Miller complex out in Tooele (sorta), so Saturday we headed out there. We left around 9 in the morning and got there with questioning the parenthood of only 12 other drivers on the road, gave the parking dude a hard time because we didn't want to park where he wanted us to and headed in to see the cars. (If you want to see them, and all the other pictures, click HERE.) We got there in time to see the whatchamacallit car race (not stock-car). After that we wandered around a bit and looked at all the cars, watched the go-cart races and some kid on a dirt bike catching some really good air, I got some good pictures of that. We ate lunch at the concession stand, and of course had to critique it. Our conclusions, for your dining pleasure, was that the food was considerably better than that at the Delta Center (I refuse to call it that other name) yet every bit as expensive. The garlic-fries got a 2 thumbs up, might have gotten 3 if Danny had ordered any. Oh, and there was live entertainment too; every couple of minutes the manager yelled "Don't stand in the doorway, the door needs to stay closed so the bugs don't get in". The best part came next. For $20 you can ride in the passenger seat of one of the racing Mustangs for a full lap around the track, with a professional driver at the wheel. Danny wasn't sure if he wanted to go or not - he would have had to borrow the $20 from one of us and he wasn't sure he wanted to. But, before he could decide, they informed us that you could not go if you weren't wearing full shoes, and he had sandals on. (The lady getting us to sign the liability waiver even loaned her shoes to another lady so she could go.) Anyway, it was a blast. We got up to almost 150 mph at one point, and they were going around the corners squealing like all get out. Alex and I got in 2 cars side by side. He got the lead right off the line, and it was neck in neck until we rounded the 3rd corner. I (ok, my driver) took the inside corned and edged past Alex, taking the lead for most of the race. Except for the last corner, where Alex took the inside and passed me, getting to the finish line first. When we stopped they sent out people to unbuckle us, and we found out why - our hands were shaking so bad we couldn't have undone them if we'd had to. Fun, definitly worth the $20. We then wandered around some more looking at more of the cars, and headed out to the stands to watch the stock car races. We left around 12:30, it was a great morning.