Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Playing "What if" can sometime really cause headaches!!

I was recently talking to a friend about Goldwings. We are both thinking about getting one sometime in the near future. He said he never rode one and would like to do so, to make sure he liked the feel of the bike. I rode a friend's Wing, but only for about 10 miles or so, down to Walmart and back. But still enough to give me a big grin. :-) I suggested he look into EagleRider, which sometimes rents out Goldwings.

After that, I took a look myself. The local EagleRider does rent out Goldwings, at $150 a day. Yikes! I was looking around their site some more, and saw that they have some special prices on one way rentals, basically to move bikes into different locations in the country. Mostly from Orlando and Los Angeles to DC. Ho hum... Then I saw they also have some in Nashville, TN. Who knew they needed rentals down there? I looked down at the various time periods that they were offering, just out of curiosity. I saw they had one in late October. For some reason that rang a bell. Hmmm, a little more digging up and I found these posts from Kosherblog: Here and Here. A kosher BBQ contest being held in Memphis on Oct 21st. Pardon me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard. Hmmmm, wonder what flights to Nashville cost? Call up Orbitz.com... Yikes, unless I want 3 layovers, it's like $200. What's this? My fingers already typed up the Greyhound bus schedule... I could get an overnight bus there for $45. Let's see, if I left after work on Thursday, I could pick up the Goldwing in Nashville on Friday morning, ride around, then either crash at a cousin in Nashville, or ride over to Memphis. Either way, do the BBQ in Memphis on Sunday, and ride back Monday (maybe Tuesday too). Wow, this is great!

Then reality started sinking back in. That'd mean leaving my wife and kids alone for 5 days or so; during school too. Hmmm, a little bit selfish I guess, especially since they probably wouldn't be going on the Ride to Remember in Omaha next May. Sometimes it's nice to dream, and with internet research now, I can fill in the details on the dream so easily. Flight availability, costs, schedules, same with trains and buses, hotel reservations. I had even thrown up a few routes from Memphis back home on Google Maps. It makes the dream even more tempting. But the priorities (family!) come first.

And Laya, since I know you are reading this... it's NOT meant to try to nudge me into sending me off. I was just thinking about how even 10 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to pull together all this information, schedules, prices, availability, maps, etc., in a matter of just a few minutes, and that's what I'm mainly talking about. But hopefully you'll excuse me if I try to make BBQ Brisket that Sunday! :-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ya know, after your comments here and by email, I'm going to have to try a GW one day. Just to say I've ridden one...