What’s the plan, Stan?

So I’m headed back to Ann Arbor — and this time I’m taking the truck. So the negatives are obvious… First the Harley gives me great joy and incredible gas mileage. Then there’s the smell factor, becuase the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky smell amazing from the seat of the Harley.

But then there’s the other side of the story. The truck gets horrid mileage, True. But, the truck has space to load with boxes. And I can talk on the phone and drive. AND… thanks to the new plugin, I can even blog from the road.

So the plan… at least one blog post per state.

Let’s see how it goes. The goal is to leave Saturday morning at 6:00 am. Ugh.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Uno! Ok – I can think of no better way to start this post than with a movie quote. After all, this is the Fred Posner blog, isn’t it? Ok, maybe it would be better if I gave the full Inigo Montoya quote but nonetheless, Buttercup is marrying Humperdink in a little less than half an hour.

New York City

After spending the weekend in Oregon with my family, Yeni and I joined my parents and cousins in New York City for a great weekend. Yeni had never visited New York before, and we tried to shove as much touristy goodness in 48 hours as could be humanly possible. What did we do? We went to Times Square, rode the Subways, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, checked out the Statue of Liberty, whispered in Grand Central Station, walked all through Central Park, saw a Squirrel-Rat, visited Lincoln Center, the Museum of Natural History, and shared an ice cream in Brooklyn Heights.

Not shabby, huh? We snapped a lot of pictures, and have them posted at my Picasa page. The weekend it self was amazing. The trip home sucked. Let me sum it up in three words: US Airways Sucks. How much do they suck? The enormity of their suckitude is beyond all knows means of measure. Comparable to a black hole, they simply do not allow any intelligent thought to escape. Continue reading

5 days / 750 miles later

Fred and Yeni riding in South Florida

Wow gas has gotten really expensive. Thank god for Harley-Davidson. I just came back from my weekend in South Florida and my wallet is still freaking out about gas prices.

On the way down, gas was around $4.05/gallon. On the way up, it was up to 4.20 in Orlando for gas. On the Harley, I get about 40 miles per gallon on average… so let’s think how much better life is with me riding the bike.

And now for some simple math…

750 at 40 miles per gallon is approximately 19 gallons. At an average of 4.05/gallon that’s a fuel cost of $76.00.

Now if I took the newly paid off Expedition, I would have gotten about 16 miles per gallon (high estimate for the trip). 750 at 16 miles per gallon is approximately 47 gallons. At an average of 4.05/gallon that would have been a fuel cost of $190.00!!!!

Crazy.

Mathematically, I think we’ve proven that I should ride the motorcycle more often.

Headed down to SoFla

Fred enjoying a beverage on Cinco de Mayo

Thursday will be mom’s [censored]th birthday and I’m riding the bike down to South Florida to celebrate mom’s birthday, grandma’s birthday, and Mother’s day in what I would like to call The Mother of May Weekends.

So besides a great weekend to catch up with my mother, father, grandmother, sister, and girlfriend (she’ll be flying in to try Joe’s for the first time), I’m looking to The Mother of May Weekends as a Sayonara to fat…

Why Sayonara to fat? Well, I had been really good about dropping some of that weight I had gained but over the last 2 months managed to pack on about 10 extra pounds. So, to quote my favorite song writer… Come Monday it will be Allright… Allright for the gym that is.

Let the workouts begin.

Thou shalt not ride on Sundays

Fred Joey and Genie at Cinco de Mayo

So I tried another Sunday ride this week… had a great run to Orlando’s house and then was hoping to get to Sonny’s for AYCE Beef Brisket (yum). Well, long story short, as we pulled into the parking lot, the phone started ringing and it was time to go to work.

Saturday was the annual Orlina Cinco de Mayo party and this year will have to be one of the best.

Good drinks, friends, and just a good time away from it all.

Sunday ride to nowhere

Fred in the MirrorSo I haven’t been sleeping well. No real reason that I can tell… happens time to time… we all have it now and then. So, I know the one thing that always makes me really happy is to get on the bike and just go. So Sunday I put on the leather vest, grabbed the camera, filled the thermos with some water, and headed out on the bike to — nowhere.

Didn’t have a plan at all… just started going south. I love riding like that. Especially on a great day — and Sunday was a beautiful day. Big white clouds, bright sun, low 80′s… was just a great day.

So, I headed south and when I hit south of Ocala, turned around and started back north again… taking 441 back to Gainesville. Of all the times I’ve ridden the bike (or even pedalled one) I had actually never stopped and walked on the Paynes Prairie  lookout… so I stopped off, snapped a couple of pictures and then got a call.

Fred Road KingThe positive of using the iphone is that it’s great music on the bike. I love my headset (when it’s not trying to kill me) and it just sounds great on the road. The negative of course, is you know when the phone rings. So I answer it and it’s someone wanting to see the house… and well… long story short (for once), my stress-free day was no longer.

I headed home and then went to Whataburger for dinner — where I ate wayyyy too much and am still feeling the burger this morning :)

Now, I’m back at work and getting ready for the flight to Michigan on Friday. Although after the ride on Sunday, I’ve decided that the next time I go to Ann Arbor, I’ll have to ride it.

Sure it will take like 7000 hours, but it will cost maybe 100 bucks in gas and I can’t imagine how great I’ll feel after riding that long.

Gotta love the Harley. :)