I test drove and brought home a tadpole trike Wednesday afternoon.

September 19, 2013 – Thursday

64 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

We’re up and rolling early on Pentoga Road this morning. Yooper Brother Mark called last night saying the truck is parked at the plant filled with wood. Sargie’s going to take me to get it before work. If my knee were 100%, I’d walk the ten miles to town, but since it’s not, I’ll accept the ride.

Wednesday was spent working on the Blazer. Other than the occasional swipe with a rag and vacuum, the interior hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned since I left Alaska, a full year-and-a-half ago. I used Armor All on the dash and hard interior, then vacuumed, and finally, used carpet cleaner and went over the carpet. Four hours later, the inside of the car looked and smelled new. Hopefully, it will be done again next spring. For being fifteen years old, the SUV is in remarkable shape.

I cleaned up my inbox and graded what papers had arrived. The weekly rush is over and there should be a lull until this weekend when Monday’s assignments begin pouring in once again.

The garden is bearing late season vegetables, the annual boon before completely going to sleep for the winter. I pulled and hung onions and picked large cherry tomatoes and a few broccoli spears for fresh eating. 

The best treat was the discovery of a handful of late blueberries.

I traveled to Iron Mountain later Wednesday afternoon to meet with Dan and talk about the trike. It’s a remarkable machine… low, streamlined, gorgeous, and butt ugly. I guess that’s why these model of trikes are called tadpoles… fat in the front (two wheels), narrow and streamlined in the rear.

I met his wife. She wanted to meet the retired guy who dreams of walking 2,180 miles on the Appalachian Trail and of peddling a trike all the way to Alaska. We were immediately kindred souls, Dan, his wife, and me.

I rode it up and down his street and decided I’d leave it there to try more tadpoles at a dealer’s in the future. I liked it very much, but going into fall, the price, etc… I’d ridden it enough to know what it felt like and that I liked it. My thought is to ride several others and then make a decision.

Dan told me to bring it on home. When I asked if I might keep it over the weekend, he told me to keep it through the fall. They are downsizing and anxious to gain the extra room. An MD, Dan and his wife are making plans for a sabbatical beginning next year to do volunteer work in Vietnam. You might know it. I find a good doctor and probably a future friend and he's off to explore the world for a year. Who would ever do that? No wonder we hit it off so well.

So Sargie and I came home with a tadpole trike in the back of the Blazer last night along with reams of supporting paper work penned by the designer and builder. The doctor had it specially built to his specifications and as luck would have it, we’re the same height and build, otherwise, the bike wouldn’t “fit” me… it’s that exact.

No doubt, I’ll take some pretty good rides in the coming weeks. I want to be sure this isn’t a passing phase. I don’t need a bike costing over a thousand dollars sitting in my garage for years to come collecting dust.

We’ll be leaving for Yooper Brother Mark’s plant in a bit, then I’ll be taking Sargie back to Iron Mountain to work (and her car that was left in the parking lot.) One of the local groceries has a one-day sale I want to take advantage of, then it’ll be home to unload the truck and hopefully, a ten-mile ride on the tadpole.

But first, the coffee’s done. I wish someone would wait on me. It seems like a lot of effort to get out of the recliner and walk all the way into the kitchen. But then, that’s the story of my life.

The brilliant red berries on a collapsed asparagus plant lying across the new ever-bearing strawberry bed.

After all, a man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…