Here we are in Manitowoc WI. Today we will be picking up a "new to us," GreenSpeed tandem trike. We are still pinching ourselves to make sure this is real. Just a few blogs ago, I shared our goal of riding from MI to WA in a few years, mentioning that in order to do that ride ,we would need to upgrade to a GreenSpeed tandem trike. We prayed about it but figured this dream was in the distant future. Today is the day, but the Lord has been putting things in place for all of this, for awhile.
There are a lot of pieces that the Lord put into place to bring this blessing our way. Pieces we knew nothing about. About 6 weeks ago I got a call from a life insurance company telling me that while doing an audit, they had come across a small life insurance policy on my step Dad, who died 20 years ago, that had never been collected on. My sister and I were the beneficiaries on the policy, the company would send us the necessary paperwork, and after we filled it out, we would each get a check. I took some notes, and later went online to verify the companies, name address and phone. Sure enough, it matched. It was legit. What a shock. I felt like I was playing monopoly and landed on free parking. A few days later the paperwork came. I filled it out and sent it onto my sister. What a blessing from the Lord!! Now Tony and I had enough money to start a savings account for a new trike. We figured it would take us years to save and find the right trike., boy were we wrong. When the Lord blesses and answers prayer, he doesn't mess around.
We don't have a GreenSpeed dealer in our state, so a while ago, (before the insurance call,) I emailed the company and told them we would eventually be buying a used GreenSpeed tandem trike, also known as a GTT. What we should be looking for, what could be modified etc.? I got a reply from the CEO of GreenSpeed, Ian Sims. He wanted to set up a time to have a skype conversation. After doing some figuring out of time and day differences, things were arranged. The visit was a wonderful learning experience, complete with Ian's Aussie accent and a reference to "lovely shifters." He answered our questions and gave us a little tutorial on GreenSpeed tandems. Now we knew exactly what to look for on a used trike. Again, we figured a trike like this, at a price we could afford, was years away for us. We put it in the Lord's hands and got on with life.
Fast forward one more week. We received an unexpected phone call from an online friend that has also been looking for used GreenSpeed Tandem trike.
Our friend's requirements were pretty much the same as ours, but he needed a taller captain position and a shorter stoker. We both desired the GTT that had 5 couplers, which means the trike can be broken down into 5 pieces for transport. Normally the GTT comes with 2 couplers. There is even a hard cover case for the 5 pieces to go into that would make it possible to do international touring with it. Tony and I had agreed that if we found the right trike, and it only had 2 couplers, we could live with that. Our friend however, has family in Europe, and plans to ride there, plus some back issues, so 5 couplers are a must for him. To make a long story short, he had come across a very nice, 2 coupler, GTT that he had put a 10 day "buying hold," on. After giving it more thought he decided he couldn't compromise on the coupler issue. He was going to be calling the seller to let him know, but then he thought of us, and what a good fit the trike was. He told us all about the trike and said, that if we were interested, he would tell the seller that that some friends in MI, that might want to buy the GreenSpeed. Tony and I asked questions and said we would like 24 hours to think about it and would get back to him.
Here is a link to the pictures the seller had posted of the trike. With the British racing green color and the black fenders, we could see that this trike was a boy. If we bought him, he would need a boy name.
http://www.timswoboda.com/misc/tandem/tandem.html
That night we looked at the online pictures of the tandem, several times, evaluated finances, talked and prayed about the decision facing us. The price on the trike was exceptional, it met most of our requirements, could be modified and tweaked a bit for our tour. and the trike had only 1500 miles on it. It had never been ridden in the rain and looked like it came right out of a showroom. A deal like this wasn't likely to come along again. We hadn't expected one to come along so soon. Once we sold Rosie, we would be upgrading to this trike for about, an additional $1000.00. We bounced the pros and cons around like a volley of ping pong balls, and after praying, decided to sleep on it and talk more in the morning.
When I got up, Tony was in the kitchen eating breakfast. Between his bites of oatmeal he was grinning, that told me , he felt this was the one for us. I was in agreement with that, and by evening, we bought the trike. We were soon going to have a GreenSpeed, tandem trike! Later that day we discussed names. The trike had dignity, so the name had to as well. Since our Terra Trike was named Rosie, it would be nice if the name started with an R. Rambler wouldn't do, nor would Robert. Tony suggested Rollin, because we would need to keep him rolling.The name fit, and so "Rollin", he shall be.
The day after we bought Rollin, the life insurance check came. An affirmation from the Lord that he brought this trike and the money to buy it, to us. None of it came from our own efforts.
Then we had to arrange a time to drive to WI and pick the trike up. That turned out to be a challenge, as we found out the same day, that the tie rods in our car needed replacing, no trips for us until they were. Parts had to be ordered, but finally the car was fixed, a pickup date was set, and we were off.
We picked the trike up and headed for the Hostel Shoppe, a recumbent bike and trike shop in Steven's Point WI.(about 2 hours from where we bought the trike. ) There we had the boom adjusted for me, pedals and cranks swapped out and a new wireless computer put on. Took the trike for a test ride to make sure all was working well, and headed back to MI.
Interstate 41 is not a road I would recommend when hauling a trailer with a light load on it, unfortunately, it was the road we needed to take. The road made the trailer bounce like a rock, ricocheting across the water, so much, that I couldn't go over 45 MPH. This went on for miles and miles. Occasionally there would be a stretch of road that was better, but it didn't last for long, and we would be back to 45 MPH. It made for a long trip to the MI border.
We got home about 4:30 AM on Friday morning. We were too tired to unload Rollin, and it wasn't raining, so he had to stay on the trailer a bit longer. We headed for bed and some much needed sleep. Happy to be home at last.
Miles driven to bring Rollin into the family were 1102. Miles ahead in this relationship... innumerable.
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