Moots Profiles
Every morning I sit at my desk picking at the emails that have sprouted overnight. My desk faces the open door of the sales floor, leading to the stairwell. Reliably, the third person to come upstairs every day is Caleb Franklin, lead finisher turned welder. Caleb is putting away his lunch for the day- which almost always includes cheese and crackers, and he’s followed by his ‘Short Tailed African Cougar Hound’ Luther –my favorite shop dog.
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Matt has one big leg. What makes his big leg bigger than his regular leg is a titanium rod in his shin. You wouldn’t notice unless he pointed it out to you, but his right leg is a bit bigger than his left.
Even bigger than Matt’s right leg is his heart. A strong, honest soul, he’s one of those people that can disagree without hurting anyone’s feelings.
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Dave and I share milk. He typically beats me to work by at least a couple of minutes, and is on his way to the coffee pot with a bag of Big Gear Grind by the time I lug my yawning self up the stairs.
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Too pooped to push…
The Sprinter has landed….at Kenda Fest 2008. Wow is all I have to say! 2400 miles from Steamboat and I’m here. Yesterday I made the push from east Ohio to State College, Pa. I left east Ohio yesterday morning and made it to two shops in the Pittsburg area. Great shops with loads of love for Moots. Once done with the shops the real fun began…..rain. Like I’ve never seen before! East of Pittsburgh it came down in buckets. I headed north to hit I-80 across the north side of the state. A random stop at a sandwich stop and I found myself fielding questions from a guy who had see the van parked out front and had to stop to see what in the world a Moots van was doing in the 4 stop sign town. He used to work at Belmont Wheel works in Ma….knew Moots and could not get over his encounter. Really nice guy, who has kids, rides and coaches soccer. Onward…..once on I-80 I was hell bent on making time in order for today to go smoothly….then the real rain started at about 5:30 pm. It rained so hard I had to pull off the road…I was also getting tired. Moots devotee that I’ve known for about 8 years lives in State College and had told me to stop by if I could. It was more like I had to stop due to rain and being tired….phoned Bill and was put up in style. Even got the quick tour of the area via bike. Nothing beats that!!! Many thanks Bill!!Today I hit the road early to make it to Connecticut to pick up Matty P (welder for Moots) who was visiting family and is also part of our crew at Kenda Fest…..It rain like the devil for most of the 6 hour drive. I drove through the Hudson Valley, which was inspiring….beautiful! I arrived at Matt’s parents house…his mom had a very nice lunch waiting…a great site for a weary traveler. The hospitality was incredible and finally I had company in the van!
We headed out to meet up with Matt Alford at the Kenda site….mud, mud and more mud. But it’s tradition I suppose? Good news is that the weather calls for clearing skies and wind to help dry out the expo area and trails. We set up the tent and headed to the hotel. I’m looking forward to the festival and possibly a ride or two on the mountain bike.
At the moment I’ve got a beer in hand and pool across the parking lot. Whew…..a long strange trip.
Stats: 6 Starbucks(Grande cappuccino, extra shot)
4 hotel rooms
5 apples
2 oranges
3 power bars
1.5 gallons of water
1 coca cola
1 Chipotle burrito…………………
I’ll post some festival photos tomorrow…..now how about Le Tour? Sastre’ or Evans??? The tt should be good!!!!
24 July 2008
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Comments
Yeah, see, Pittsburgh is just as cool as I am! What shops did you visit?
-Vaughn