This just hasn’t been my year for riding.  The bike is down…again.  At least it’s not because something went wrong this time.  We’ve been so busy there hasn’t been time for riding, so the bike is with a friend having some custom frame fabrication done to it.

I really am missing the rides on these beautiful days, though.  Fall is in the air, and I would love to be out there enjoying it.  Honestly I would love to be at The Gap right now, but we haven’t made a single trip to Deal’s Gap this year.  *frowns*  I knew it would be much harder to find time to ride once we had the little one, but I honestly didn’t realize how much it would change me.  Don’t get me wrong I still love to ride, but if I have to choose between taking a ride or curling up with my baby girl I almost always choose to stay behind with her.  There will be plenty of time to take a ride, but she won’t always be this little forever.

I admit I haven’t given much thought to the bike the last few days.  I’ve been completely consumed with the new truck.  It’s not new, but it’s new to us, and I’m absolutely in love.  It’s my dream truck that I’ve wanted ever since it hit the market right down to the exact color for both exterior and interior, so I’m definitely in love.  It took me 10 years to be able to afford it, but I don’t care.  This is the truck I’ve wanted for so long, and we finally got it.

As I stated in my last post we bought a 2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD LT 4×4 Duramax.  It’s  dark grey with the dark gray leather interior just like I’ve always wanted, and we’ve got plenty of room to haul the family and bike.  Now I need start looking for the accessories I want to add.  I really don’t need to do anything to the outside for now.  We’ve already got the sprayed in bed liner, running boards and Fierce Attitude MT 315/75r-16s.  I need to start looking at luxury car seat covers to see if I can find a nice set of seat covers I like.

I really wouldn’t mind seeing if I can find any sheepskin seat covers for the bench seat.  In the Summer it would prevent Ellie from getting burned on the leather seat, and if you have ever owned a car with leather seats you know how hot that leather can get, especially in the south.  In the winter we’ll have the heated seats in the front, but not the bench seat, so the seat cover would serve it’s purpose of keeping the seat warm and comfy while making it much easier to clean up kid messes, too (not that I plan on letting her eat in my new truck)!

I’ll have to do some more research on sheepskin products before I decide to go that route.  I do need to know how easy it will be to clean up messes that land on sheepskin, but otherwise I’m pretty much sold on that option.  Then I’ll be good to go for awhile with my truck.  I think the only other thing I want to add now is a set of towing mirrors, so I’ll have to start looking for those, too.

Bike back together?  Check!  New to me 2002 Silverado 2500HD Duramax to haul it long distances in? Check!  Things are starting to look up!  Maybe I’ll actually get a little riding in this Summer, and maybe I’ll even get a chance to do a track day or two this fall.  I’m super excited right now!

Why does it take the dealership so long to get something as simple as one little bolt in?  The bike is still down because we’ve been waiting three weeks for one bolt that is needed to put everything back together.

*Sigh*

I’m taking it as a sign we’re not supposed to be riding right now.  Who knows what we may be avoiding?  Ya know?  Oh well.  We’ll get to ride soon enough, but I’ve got a *new to me* truck to enjoy now, the ’02 Chevy Silverado 2500hd duramax we bought last week.

The bike still isn’t back together.  Part of that is because Ben has been working mega overtime lately, and he just hasn’t had time to work on the bike.  Another part of that is the rain we’ve been hit with the last few days, and last but not least is the cost.

Once Ben tore into everything he found a few other things that need to be replaced, and that means I’ve got to come up with the money to do it all if we want to get the bike back on the road.  It’s not just a matter of having the bike to ride for fun.  Now that Ben works over an hour away from home it’s cheap transportation, too.  Our gas costs have been reduced drastically thanks to the bike, but it does not good sitting in a gazillion parts in the garage.

I thought about taking out a loan to have the money to pay for it all right now instead of buying 1 part at a time until we get it fixed, but we don’t need some huge amount of money.  A car title loan would provide just what we need to get the bike back on the road, and the Rodeo is the perfect candidate to use for the title loan.

I need to sit down and discuss it with Ben, but I have a feeling this is the way we’ll end up going.  I’ve been checking out raloan.com, and I think this is going to be the best way for us to go.  We’ll just have to see what Ben thinks.