Monday, June 7, 2010

From Why to Whynot

While we were in Norfolk Mark received an email asking him if he could date stamp a receipt.
The request was a little unusual so Mark asked me what I thought.
I thought it was a bit unusual and asked Mark what he thought and why would someone want a date stamped receipt. My first thoughts would maybe for customs.
I have had customers who needed a receipt for that purpose.
 
Mark laughed and said he thought maybe the person needed an alibi.
So he emailed them back to find out why they needed a time stamped receipt and was he providing the guy with an ailbi.
The email back explained he was part of the "iron butt association".
Pray tell you ask, what is the iron butt association?
My thoughts exactly.
Well, the iron butt association is an organization of serious long distance bike riders.
Mike, who lives in Washington State, would be riding the Why to Whynot ride.
 He would go toWhy Arizona  and from Why he would ride to Whynot NC and this all had to be done in 50 hours.

From his timeline we knew he would show up on Saturday morning.
There was a point that we thought he missed his mark and we would not see him.
Turns out we were wrong. The phone rang and he was stopping by to see us. He had been in the area, over to the Whynot General Store for gas and a receipt there.

Mike spent the better part of his time talking with us about what we do.
He was intrigue with the whole pottery thing and once or twice laughed and said to Mark- you really were a hippie.
Well-Yea....
So after clocking in some time here he would go find a place to eat and sleep.
Then the ride home would be slower, more scenic and restful.

We also had a visit from Tom Starland who writes and publishes Carolina Unleashed.
Tom was here when Mike showed up.
We all enjoyed the look of the bike and the bug covered wind shield.
This bike was packed to travel.
I don't think there was an unused space.

I caught Mike on his way back out the drive and don't we all wish, just a little, to be going with him.


This make me think of Kari , one of our potters in the show; Clay and Blogs: Telling a Story, and her husband.
he is off on his own journey while she is busy with pots and kids.
Happy Trails.

2 comments:

Linda Starr said...

I just don't have any iron butt any more so that trip would be way too fast for me, now the way back that's another thing.

Anonymous said...

i cannot get over the coincidence of our posts this morning. there is something to be said for an iron butt or a cycling ass, whichever you prefer. i had a friend once that borrowed a motorcycle for a week or so and he thought he was gonna go out on the highway for a long ride and about 15 or so miles away from starting he said he had to turn around because his arms hurt so bad he couldn't hold them up while riding (i guess he wasn't a potter either) so i guess you need to have iron arms too, but iron butt sounds way better. funny stuff meredith.