Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Hilbilly Hybrid


I was scrolling through some of my old travel photos when I came across this one taken at a gas station south of Rapid City South Dakota.. The gentleman you see here built this masterful work of art using the front end of a Ford Escort and an 80’s era Kawasaki. He hailed from Alabama or Georgia, which was a total shock, and said that he and his lovely bride had been riding for three days on their way to the Sturgis Rally.
My first wife had a Ford Escort and it was an absolute piece of shit. I had to work on it constantly just so she could get to work and provide for me. It never occurred to me however, to cut it in half and bolt the frame of an old Kawi to it. But that’s why this dude is an accomplished, innovative engineer and I’m not. He is the Leonardo DiVinci of our time. It’s as if Henry Ford and Hiro Mitsubishi got together with some bath salts and a jug of moonshine to produce a state of the art motor vehicle which would make Ducati and Bentley envious.
He was happy to talk to me about his creation and said he had several more back home but, “Figured he’d bring the purdiest one out to Sturgis.” His wife, (in the pink) wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about riding this three-wheeled death trap two thousand miles and the stress was showing. The back of her neck was sunburned and tense and knotted like a bundle of rattlesnake knuckles. The tendons in her forearms were tough and sinewy , all steel cables and rusted pulleys. As I approached her from behind her central nervous system was clearly visible through the back of her sweat-stained shirt.
I was fascinated and found myself falling hopelessly in love, so I quickly dismissed myself and hurried into the gas station for a couple of Slim Jims and a Diet Pepsi.

1 comment:

  1. Man, luckily you did the honourable thing and retreated to the servo for a diet Pepsi [??] or you may have entered into a travelling menage et toi with Mr Hiro Da Vinci and the Pink Lady, oooee !!

    ReplyDelete