My friend Bob had a gig in a park tonight on acoustic guitar. It was about 11 blocks away. I volunteered to take him.
I dropped him off (to a comment something to the extent of “Way to travel in style, Brother Bob!”) and he’ll call later for the ride back. I’ve been wanting to do the gig haul for a while, just for the sheer novelty.
Yesterday night’s rides were interesting. First, there was a Wedding. I’ll have more on that when I get photos back. The second trip of the night was with Bob, and we did the classic ‘home > Hyde Park > Downtown > home’ triangle.
First, we went to Hyde Park were both of us ran into people we knew. The new semi-enclosed patio area at Parilla Grill was nice. People were also out at Hyde Park Pub.
We hopped back on the Rickshaw and it was time to head to downtown. We decide to go to the Neurolux. On the way we see this Dodge Durango with an interior fire in the front seat area. Bob captured this picture with has camera phone:
The fire department got the fire out quickly. They did this with lots of water, and in fact we could see water coming out the bottom of the drivers door. Very entertaining for us, probably less so for the owner of the Durango.
We go the last block to the Neuro and they have a $3 cover. We weren’t hanging out there all night so we left. We decide to check out The Modern Hotel and Bar on Grove, but the bar was closed for the night. Oh well, onto Gil’s K9 (which is at 25th and Main) and then back home. On the way back home, the chain starts slipping continually worse and worse. We make it back but it was time to give the Rickshaw a rest.
All in all, a fun non-event ride.
(This entry backdated to July 19th. Actual date: September 4, 2008)
So, this dude Chad finds RickshawSeason.com while searching for Boise and Rickshaw. He’s getting married and wants to have a ride from his reception at The Linen Building in the ‘Linen District’ (or as I call it, the ‘Rhino District’) to the Grove Hotel. I talked to him, he sounds cool, so I’m all “Yeah sure, I’ll haul you.”
The Rickshaw has broken boards in the passenger bench (see Old seat fixed) so Kelly and I fixed that the day before. Everything was ready to go on wedding day.
I showed up about 30 minutes before the scheduled leave time. We ended up leaving about 50 minutes after my arrival. Watching other people’s reception once is kinda amusing, though I can see why the pros get paid for this.
Reception ends and it’s time to haul off. The bride and groom present me with an unseen challenge… …luggage! I really should have thought that through. Unfortunately, I had no bungee cords (I do now) and they had two bags. With bungees, I could have strapped luggage on the back fold down rack no problem, but that was not an option. Thankfully, there was room for one bag under the seat and the other went on the foot grate, less than ideal but doable. Here’s the picture as we’re leaving from the reception:
We took off, the bride and groom are stoked, I’m amused, and it was a nice night out and just late enough to where the LED canopy lights were starting to work nicely. I rode down Grove, up 10th, back down 8th (with lots of people on the patios… …nice) and then to a busy Grove with the fountain running. I ran the around the fountain 2 or 3 times and then rounded the fountain and dropped them off. It was an enjoyable experience and I hope I added something to their wedding night.
(This entry backdated to July 18th since that’s when the repair was done. Actual date: July 31, 2008)
A lame spot of the Rickshaw is the seat. It was made worse last year when a “hole” on the seat appeared (after a cracking sound). Well, Kelly took the seat apart, removing the cover on the back side of the seat, and we learned that:
Well, having a wedding that night, the “hole” was not cool. Seat replacement with new upholstery is in the plans, but not that day. So, it was time to rebuild. I went out to the garage, found a scrap piece of plywood, cut it, took it over to Bob’s for another cut (his power saw is way better than me with a hand saw) and then Kelly and I put it back together. She added some padding towards the front, though while not perfect, is a notable improvement over stock. The fabric has seen better days, and we’ll replace the whole bottom assembly next year hopefully. For now, it works, and hauled people that night and beyond successfully.
Before:
After:
