Ex-squeeze me? A baking powder?

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I think that based on what I've said here and with my videos on youtube, it's a well documented fact that I ride my motorcycle to and from work, daily, to save on diesel fuel for my truck.  Having said that, "BOY DO I HAVE A STORY TO TELL YOU!"

Basically I was cruising down HW 29 as usual, doing around 60 or 65 mph for the 45 to 60 minute trip.  I usually run Pandora thru my phone, and up into my ears with ear buds, but this time I just wore my ear plugs instead, wanting some calmness in the morning ride.  This morning was the second morning it was super cold, a sign of more to come I'm afraid.  I was fully dressed in everything that I can put on.  Gloves with liners, winter and rain liner in my jacket, sweat pants and water pants over my blue jeans, and my new neck cover that my brother bought me for my birthday.  It's a lot of put on but it all does it's job in keeping the 60 mph wind and cold away from your skin.  I actually work up a light sweat by the end of the ride, to be honest with you.  My co-workers would never believe that though.

Anyways, I'm buzzing down the road, and I see a situation in front of me that will forever live in infamy in my tiny little brain.  I see a car and what seems to be either a moped or scooter pull out in front of me, quite a ways up the road.  No biggie.  I know that I'll catch them pretty quick, so I roll out of the throttle and let the bike start to coast, and sure enough, I'm all over them within another 30 seconds.  I quickly notice that the 2 wheeled vehicle is a Scooter, and this guy is dressed for the cold too.  He has a thick Carhardtt jacket on, with the hood blowing in the wind under his helmet, and it looks like blue jeans and just regular boots.  He is riding this Scooter, huddled down, trying to protect himself from the wind with this tiny little windshield.

The car in front of both of us is only doing about 45 mph in a 55 mph zone.  We both get anxious for the guy to either speed up to the speed limit or for us to start looking at ways to pass him, just as the left blinker comes on as the guy dives into a side street. Thank God!  That would have been a long 20 miles for the rest of the way to work.  Right as he's turning, my guy nails that Scooter for all it's worth, and shows me assholes and elbows as the engine is screaming down the road.  I grin as I let him get a head start, so that I can blow by him at Mach II and let him hear the 1400cc scream back at him.  He's up the road quite a ways, and my right wrist gets twitchy, so I crank on it and pop 3rd and then 4th gear in, and I make an appointment to take that last name from him.  This is where things get a little confusing, to say the least.

I'm blasting down the road at what I consider a high rate of speed, and I'm not catching him as quickly as I had previous expected.  FINALLY, his tail light starts to grow as I slowly pull him back to me, like a huge catfish on the end of a line.  Things are blurry in my peripheral now, but the bike is running smooth and sounds great so I keep twisting the throttle.  He's running the right side white line strong, which is pretty typical of Scooters and Mopeds, so I pull up even with his back tire to my front tire, on the left side.  The next stretch of road is straight and is where I typically pass slower moving cars because it gives me what I consider the safest area to do so.  Right as I'm about to go for it, something just didn't feel right.  It felt like I was already at my passing speed, as we were riding even, almost side by side.  It felt almost like the bike didn't have much left to give me.  Sure enough, I glance down at my speedometer, and WE ARE DOING 75 MPH, CRUISING!!!

WHAT???   Okay, hold the phone.  Nobody told me that Scooters could go that fast!  What the hell, man?  Did you know about this?  A Scooter?  REALLY?

So, long story short, I never passed him.  I have a personal limit of 80 mph, and I just don't feel comfortable going over that on a motorcycle, so we just rode on down the road, cruising, together, hand in hand, at 75 mph, until he took a right turn about 10 miles later.  I mean, what is the deal? How does that happen.

So that was my lesson learned on a Tuesday morning.  Scooters.  Never underestimate them, because they can whoop your ass, if need be.  And I know that he is probably getting around 50 miles per gallon or some crap, but I just would not feel comfortable going that fast on that small of a bike, with only 13" tricycle tires, okay. I'll take the sacrifice in fuel mileage for not only comfort, but safety in riding the bike that I do.  It was just a crazy morning, and I felt like sharing it with the world, so here I am.

In another act of randomness, this is what I seen in our local Walmart at 10:30 pm, on a Sunday night, sometime over the summer.

Yep.  That's a lady.  And yep, she's walking her full grown Pitbull mix.  That's where we're at, on a random night, in Anderson, SC. 


Thanks for reading guys!  To go back to my website, click here!


Take us home, Lzzy.



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Mellow Mushroom

"Mellow Mushroom, Pizza Bakers, Anderson, SC"

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I don't even know what to say about this place guys.  Where do I start.

Now, I'm not a food critic.  I have no expert opinion about any of this, but lets just say, I eat a lot, and most of the time, it is outside of my home.  So all the OPINIONS expressed here are mine, and reflect my views only.  I can say that we were really, really excited about getting a Mellow Mushroom in Anderson, SC.  We usually have to go to Greenville, SC and go out to eat with our family at the restaurant they have there.

It was just an overall disappointment, and I was left, honestly, wanting to go eat somewhere else so that I could go home full.

The restaurant is located in downtown Anderson in a newly remodeled building.  The city is trying really, really hard to revitalize the downtown area, and since I moved to Anderson in 2005, the changes have been noticeable, and it is coming along quite nicely.  So, the actual building and ambiance was nice.  It's in a good location, and it should do quite well when foot traffic returns to downtown Anderson.  I can say this.  It's just loud in there.  Something about the smallness of the restaurant, and all the concrete, brick and metal, it just had a lot of echos, and we could barely hear ourselves talk to one another at our table.  And, just so you know, I'm 27 and not on social security, so I really don't mind loud noisy places, but this one was noticeable.

The service was much to be desired.  It took us forever to get a waitress (which was strange considering they looked overstaffed by about 5 people), and when we did find one, she just acted like she hated being there, and didn't really care if we ate or not.  Throughout the meal, she never topped off our cups, and asked only once if we were okay after another lady brought us our pizza.  The rest of the time, she was in the back talking to her friends and play with her phone.  I don't expect much from a pizza joint, but it was very unprofessional.

The food.  I'll give them this, it is very good.  But the portion sizes, what the hell man??  It was just the two of us, so we ordered the 10" pizza, thinking that would be plenty for us to eat on a Tuesday night dinner.  It didn't come with anything.  No bread sticks.  No garlic knots.  No side salads.  Nothing.  Just with a $10.75 bill!!  Really?  And when we got the pizza (half was cheeseburger for me, double-cheese for my wife), it was barely four slices!!  We just paid $10.75 for four slices?  But like I said, they have crazy nice pizzas. The cheeseburger pizza is out of this world, and they had tons of specialty pizzas that I would not mind trying, such as but not limited to:  Loaded baked potato, Hawaiian Pizza, Triple Meat, tons!  But the portions sizes are just not what I expected.  They have bigger pizzas, yes, but also bigger prices.

The thing that blows my mind, is that I can take that $11.00 and go to Little Caesars, and come home with a Large Pizza and Crazy bread with sauce, and still have some change left over for a 2-liter Mountain Dew!

This is why I'm fat.  Good food at good prices.

I don't know.  Call me old fashion. Call me a cheap.  Whatever.  I work for a living. I give away my life for a wage in exchange for a trade that I perform, and I just look for the biggest bang for my buck.  And my final bill being $12.75 after tax, and then leaving a $2.00 tip, just doesn't work for me.  If I had a family, I would like to feed them.  And if I don't, I wouldn't mind having some leftovers to stick in the refrigerator.

Would I go back there?  I'd have to say yes, but as a group with family, and order bigger pizzas, and mostly because I enjoy our downtown area now and what they are trying to do with it.  I'm going to write off the bad service as an do-over, because the place is fairly new, and maybe they just need some time to weed out the bad personnel. 

That's all I got.  Be sure to check back, because I will always have more reviews to come.  Like I said, these are purely opinions, and express my views on that particular night only.  AND, if I do go back, and it's freaking awesome, I will report back here, and let Mellow Mushroom redeem themselves.  Or....................they can just pay me to take down this post.  hahahaha!!

Thanks for reading guys, and please remember to always look twice and save a life, motorcycles are everywhere!

~Gil

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Take us home boys:




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