Quote:
I think it's about 4 miles to the closest station, 5 to the Rotten Robbie's we usually use. I don't have a car, but at times esp. when the land owner's away, I drive his - a big ol BMW 7-series that gets used like a truck - picking up feed, hay, lumber, etc. I can generally skate on gas for short trips as long as I'm not using it too much, if it's a trip that's longer that's my idea, I have to put some gas in unless I just really can't do it financially. So it was his $66 not mine I put in
I have a bicycle (a single speed cruiser with a coaster brake I took from the "burning man refugee" pile and removed the useless stuff like rattly basket, expired light sticks, chain guard, fenders. I call it a "bully bike" 'cos it's just like the bullies used to ride when I was a kid
it's good 'n' heavy but I can get around on it pretty well. And the burley trailer I need to fix up, but that will need a different bike, one with a front brake for one thing, and lower gearing or just gears in general.
I'd like to take a light frame, some good wheels, and lace in this 3-speed Sturmey-Archer rear hub I have. Put a brake on the front and on the other side have the lever for the hub. As light and simple as possible but ... 3 speeds! Distances are long here, it's easy to put 20-30 miles in just pooping around doing errands. At least I can carry quite a bit in this backpack I have.
There's also the bus, $2 a ride or $6 and ride it all you want (or can stand) for the day. And it's an hour's walk to/from the stop.
I'd like to have a motorcycle again but I can't think about it until I have some kind of income that's above the 3rd world level. As a yearly average, I'm only making $5-$10 a day. On that level, even a gas-sipping motorcycle or a bike not pulled from the "boneyard" is a luxury.
(And yes I'm up this weird hour because after putting in a ton of work here, mainly on my coop, I put in I guess 5 hours at my cash-money job taking test equipment apart. So far I'm making about $100 a week doing this, miraculous because normally I'm in a "no work, no money" regime each year from Nov. 1 to April 1.
So, yeah, $10 gas won't kill us here and we don't have a lot of the anxiety that most people do over gas prices and well, further economic collapse because we're preppers. But if gas goes that high or even $5 (and I believe $5) if it can possibly be done with the bicycle by me, it will.