Paid to ride my Nomad (in a roundabout way)

[bobhamlin]

For business, I had to travel down to Dahlgren, VA yesterday for an afternoon meeting. About 30 miles east of Fredericksburg, VA, it's about 125-ish miles.

My decision: I'm on the clock for the drive, and I get reimbursed for mileage. Some threats of rain on the way down and definite threats all the way back. First time face-to-face with the client. Will they mind if I show up a little damp and rumpled? Hmmm.

So I took the bike. I went down 270 after the morning rush hour. It's amazing how spring (and light traffic) changed that part of the ride. Usually, it's dark or early dawning, and I'm concentrating on the brake lights of my fellow commuters-- not paying a whole lot of attention to the dark shadows that line the highway. Yesterday, those dark shadows were trees - green. BRIGHT GREEN!. I can't remember the last time I road that stretch in the daylight. (Yes, I do ride the opposite way on the return leg, but this stretch just looked new.)

The meeting was on a Naval base, so I stopped outside the base and donned my fluoresent vest (Each command determines the specific interpretation of "reflective" gear so I, for the first time at least, wear a vest. My rain jacket has reflective striping, but who wants to get into an argument with a (potentially-armed) greeter at the gate? Besides, the vest has a viewing pocket for my driver's license

On the return, I put my rain gear on in Fredericksburg when I felt a couple spits and weather.com on my Blackberry was telling me I was in for rain the rest of the way. The predicted rain never came, so it was a very enjoyable ride.

This was pretty much the first time I got any major time to ride teh Nomad outside of the commute. Very light traffic most of the way. The bike just purrs.

I hooked up my Blackberry to stream music through my J&M CB. I highly recommend trying the pandora.com site if you like music. You provide an artist - or type of music - and pandora uses some type of algorythm (explained on the site) to stream you the music you requested plus similar music. Very interesting how it interprets "similar" sometimes.

It was a great ride, and I got paid for it! If I could only figure out how to make riding the Nomad a full-time job and not have to worry about details like being productive during and after meetings.

[Cajunrider]

It's great to ride and even greater when you get paid to ride. Occasionally I get the opportunity.

[phenrichs]

I am jealous of your ride.

I too love pandora by the way.

[tazfl]

Sounds like you had a nice ride and like you said, you got paid on top of that. Sort of makes going to work a bit more enjoyable huh
now if I can just figure out a way to make that work for me

[pirate]

Riding and getting paid at the same time: sounds like the perfect combo to me!

[ringadingh]

Only in America! I never get paid to ride my bike, but thats ok too.

[Kawhead]

LUCKY DAWG!!!!!

[schoeney]

So how did the customer react when you arrived?

[bobhamlin]

Originally Posted by schoeney

So how did the customer react when you arrived?

I'm not sure he even noticed. It was the first time face-to-face. He wouldn't have been able to tell that there had been a helmet on my head for 2.5 hrs. I just might be a flattened hair kind of guy. Or that the indents on my hands came from glove seams. Or that the front of my shirt was wrinkled from my motorcycle jacket and not a seatbelt.

I was wearing my full-face, so there weren't any bug splatters on my face.

After meeting him/them. There would have been no problem.

[mercianbike]

They should have paid you double to travel on I-270, the Washington DC Beltway, and I-95. Those are not the kind of highways where you sit back and enjoy the scenery. If you do, you're dead.