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Writer's picturetenbrunsel2

THE BIKER



đŸŽ¶tune of “The Gambler” with apologies to Kenny RogersđŸŽ¶


On a hot summer’s morning, on a road bound for nowhere,

I met up with a stranger, I passed him once or twice;

He peered through his glasses, and said without expression,

“For a taste of your water, I’ll give you some advice.”


So I handed him the bottle; he drank down my last swallow,

Payin’ no attention to the bikers’ honor code;

The day got deathly hot, but it didn’t seem to matter;

”Son, you haven’t lived ‘til Monte Sano you have rode.”


(chorus)

You’ve got to know when to crank ‘em,

Know when to yank ‘em,

Know when you’ve lost a lap,

Know when you’ve won;

You never count your ribbons,

While you’re headed for the finish;

There’ll be time enough for countin’,

When the bell lap’s done.


“Every biker knows, the secret to survivin’,

Is knowing how much pasta, you should try to eat;

‘Cause every ride’s a winner, and every ride’s a loser;

The best you can hope for is to die in your cleats.”


When he finished speakin’, he turned his eyes to pavement,

Wheeled up Monte Sano, in the midday heat;

Somewhere on that mountain, the Biker he broke even,

And in his final sprint, I found a chainring I could keep.


(chorus)


by Team Redneck circa 1999

*photo: “The Padrone is dead to me!”

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2 Comments


Barbara Robertson
Barbara Robertson
Sep 11, 2021
‱

Mountain of Health, eh?

You over came the boss?

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tenbrunsel2
tenbrunsel2
Sep 14, 2021
Replying to

Exactly, Barb! Monte Sano was a destination health spa for the elites. The chimney of the Monte Sano Hotel still stands overlooking Huntsville. The hotel of course like so many old wooden buildings of the 1800s “sucame” to fire. There was (the railroad bed still exists, today a part of the maze of hiking trails on the mountain) a narrow gauge passenger railroad that wound its way up the mountain from the old Huntsville Depot, downtown. I spent many days on the mountain, biking up and over the 2 mile climb and hiking every trail from my backyard. I named Walker’s Spring, Flourish Trail and Peter Meade Grotto and have three geocaches still active there (Walker’s Spring, Geology Cache and


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