How to see America for $10 per day........

[bamabikeguy]

Simply put, I'm an 50 year old Deadhead, one of the Jesters in the parking lot, we used to MAKE gas money on tour, selling Long Island Iced Tea (limit 2 per customer).

I wrote a apocolyptic comedy in the early nineties, based on a premise that a one week electric blackout would break into anarchy, and we here in N. Alabama blow up all the bridges and eat a lot of chicken. Motorized bikes were the fictional calvary, that allowed us to trade millions of chickens for truckloads of corn/flour.

Last year, about two months before Katrina, I jumped into the business of assembling bikes, and I had already stayed off the internet for 6 years, concentrating on livestock production.


The first ride convinced me, and I have hit over 20 small town newspapers, spreading the word.


The point of this tooooo loooong topic is a friend sent me a "once used" 3 person dome tent, which I took along for the first time last weekend on a solo 400 mile tour in E. Alabama. TOO BULKY FOR ONE, TOO HEAVY.

I'll get a pup tent set up.

Point is, if you take a long journey via Holly Pond, AL, you are more than welcome to use that tent, camp out on the creek that runs through the middle of my fenced in 100 acres. Southern hospitality, FREE CHICKEN.

That is what I hope evolves from Tom's forums, a community that assists in spreading a simple energy saving solution.

I guess the forum is "CAMPING TIPS".......

ideas? suggestions?

 

[Tom]

I would have to agree. Maybe not quite as radically as camping out, but energy saving is huge to me.

I recently bought a 1981 mercedes diesel for 900 bucks with the intention of converting it to run on veggie oil. After much research, I realized that I don't really drive my car at all, I bike everywhere. I still hope to convert it someday, but maybe when I could actually use it.

 

[bamabikeguy]

Holly Pond AL to Charlottesville, VA 10/21/06

Tom,

One of my Golden Eagle customers and his cousin have rounded up 9 diesels vehicles, including 2 RV's and 2 BMW's and 2 Volkswagons, his 85 Mercedes gets 30 on diesel, 35 mpg on veggie oil, costs a little over $2 per tank, because of some paint store purchased additive. They were setting up a 250 gallon plastic holding tank when I visited them a couple of weeks ago, I think that is the real trick, hoarding enough oil, they said it is difficult to find new restaraunts to drain.

More of my Apocolyptic Calvary in case the idiots in charge succeed in driving gas prices over $5 per gallon.

What is really cool is he had 2 uncles arrested by Buford Pussor "Walking Tall" for moonshining, he knows the boiling temp of moonshine on top of the hill and down in the holler. (I think it's a 5 degree diff).

On my Cleburne County trip last week I scooped "fixins" from a sorghum syrup mill for about an hour, trying to get the inside info about sugar based ethanol from a long time syrup maker.

In Tullahoma TN is Dogwood Enterprises, selling $1.600 ethanol kits, my neighbors want me to go scope that out, we think we can build it a whole lot cheaper, use cornstalks for boiling the water, rather than wood.

Anyway, a friend is having his annual camporee shindig near Charlottesville, VA. Has your group membership gained any members in that general N. Georgia/E. Tennessee, Smoky Mtn area?

That is part of the "preplanning" in the Aussie coast to coast challenge next year, scoping out the terrains, gaining shortcuts from locals. I am usually pretty lucky in plotting paths through unknown territory, Missouri/Kansas/Oklahoma and Arkansas I can pass on valuable info.

So, IS ANYONE ON BOARD IN THAT GENERAL "CROSSING THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS" AXIS FROM N. CENTRAL ALABAMA TO CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.

I can arrange newspaper coverage after I plot a round trip route, happily spreading the MB/Golden Eagle word in Don Quixote fashion.

If so, be happy to hear from you......

pc

 

[Tom]

Born and raised in California. Hopefully you will find some people soon enough!

 

[istbenz]

travel

ok guys, i need some input. i'd love to take the bike out for a nice long ride (50 miles or so) but i'm not quite sure about what precautions to take. as i live in the 'lovely' city of jackson, i would like to ride out to some of the rural areas.

tell me how to go about this. do i ride on the shoulder? with traffic flow or against it? what about roads that have no shoulder? i just know how missippi drivers are and i really favor keeping my body in one piece.

i've got to stay away fromt this forum!!! it's distracting me from my schoolwork. THANKS TOM! no, really i'm just a putz and i can ALWAYS find something more interesting to occupy my time (my grades reflect this fact sometimes!)

i'd invite you guys to jackson but it's the hood and i can't wait to get away. if anyone is travelling anywhere around here, let me know and maybe we can do lunch. as a word of caution, don't come to jackson unless you are armed (i always have my 'friend' at my side).

wow, ive done a bit of rambling here -must study, must study, must study

peace

 

[Tom]

Ha, I spend at least an hour or two each day futzing around with this site. Im glad you guys like it.

For safety, ride on the shoulder with the flow of traffic. Make sure you bring some tools with you, and keep an eye on the amount of gas you have.

 

[istbenz]

thanks tom. i've always been one of 'those guys' that i have to watch out for i.e. not always sharing the road. (tsk, tsk, now i know). i learned to appreciate bikers and scooterists (is that a real word?) this summer when i had my wonderful motorscooter. i miss it

i'm just excited to get out with my bike before it 'disappears' (remember- the hood )

 

[Tom]

Maybe its just me but that link you posted doesnt take me to your photos. Maybe you could try posting again.

 

[bamabikeguy]

http://picasaweb.google.com/bamabikeguy

If at first you don't succeed, blame google.....

 

[gone_fishin]

hmmm...i just recently moved to www.funbeach.com

the first pic is where i lived for the first month on less than $5/day
(that's a brand new eureka tetragon 5, lemme know if you want any tent/b'packing advice)

the second is a "lucky shot" i just have to show-off





Image Hosting by PicTiger

when i get my bike done (starting my build next month) i'll have to try to entice y'all with stories of nice motorized beach-cruises. the local community is very environmentally "aware," & the peninsula is host to many national annual events, including the "rod run to the end of the world"...maybe we need a bunch of motor'd-bikes up here, eh?

btw-i'm a 49yo "head" myself...i partied backstage with the dead, at red rocks, '79 or '80...it's kind of a blurry memory 8)