Andy's Clothes

Riding in Mass. Finding good trails in Northeastern land is hard to do. There were a few good trails in the park, but mostly bad trails. Right is Cory at Balance Rock state Park. A huge boulder balanced on no more than a fist sized perch.
Funny thing about this picture is the story of the clothes.
Andy always takes care of his friends, but is not used to the little things of day to day life. Back in VT Cory and Andy did laundry before leaving - Andy did laundry, Cory helped. "Cory, I think all your clothes are dry... do you need this bag" [implied to put your clothes in- hint not taken]. "No, I don't need some old bag."
Andy bagged his clothes up and gathered the dishes that they washed in the laundromat sink and re-packed the truck in the rain.
Cory was mulling around, yet his clothes remained in the wheeled basket. The dryer was on the back side of the laundromat so the clothes were out of sight.
After almost 2 hours of driving in rain on back roads with very expensive gas in the tank we realized somehow that Cory's clothes had been left. Friends were still in VT so we began the process of tracking down phone numbers to the people who we thought could go by and pick up the clothes. Finally we got hold of Anita's answering service and left message. They did not go by until the next day, but everything was still there.
Cory got to be Andy for a day on the bike ride as every bit of Cory's bike clothes were left at that laundromat.

Cory met a real interesting person at the laundromat, then another interesting person in Mass while asking directions. Neither person had smarts. Cory was on a roll. That is a story best left for Cory to tell.

Cory learned to drive a stick. The poor clutch on this Nissan did not need to go through that, but Cory did excellent.

Cory's Boy

Cory and Andy took a trip to compete in the final two events of the US Cup. These were in Vermont and New York. They both won everything and had a great time on the trip.

In between events the two took in some local charm and met some townies and made friends. They rode in Mass and went to the lake to clean up. Cory made a new friend. Cory named him Skippy, he liked that name and took it for his own. They figured he would keep it when school started also.
You can see the boy's foot twisted behind him resting on the tire - this is his braking system. It is a cheapo walmark bike, but he is proud of it none the less. The boy also comes with all the strange oddities of an old New England'er.

Cory and Andy were wading out into the water at the boat ramp to clean up after an epic mtb ride. Skippy was fishing and turned out to be interesting to talk to, and funny. Cory warmed up slowly but turned out to be Skippy's hero. Skippy liked to show off and could jump into the water real good. Cory had found the little brother he always wanted for a day. They showed Skippy some bike tricks that blew his mind and Skippy did he best tricks for them. Skippy took up a lot of dares that day.
Some hot little emo chicks appeared at the dock. These hens were strutting their stuff and expecting the guys to take the bait. They were very patient.
The girls at first did not look that hot, but Andy reassured Cory and Skippy that they were in fact cute and worth going over to talk to. The pale skin and heavy set thighs were a little bit of a turn-off for good Southern boys at first, but otherwise they could be quite the catch.
For Andy it was obvious that these girls wanted one thing and were there to meet boys. While just a little too young for Andy he encouraged the boys to take the bait. At first both were wanting to get Skippy to go talk to the girls. They told him that he had to learn about girls at some point and this was a perfect opportunity as he had us there to guide him along. He should not wait until there is an actual girl he wants to meet and impress to make his first ever attempt at talking to a girl. These would serve as practice girls and Cory and Andy as his posse.
The boy almost did a few times and Cory was hesitant to go meet, at first thinking these were ugly girls and then later just being shy.
Andy prodded and prodded. Cory started to de-robe but was stopped half way - you can't give them too much of a good thing right away.
Andy fed the boys line after line of pick up lines and possible ice breakers, but by now the girls had waited so long for this tall handsome gentleman to come over that no words were even needed on Cory's part. Finally the guys agreed to go over together. The plan was Cory's alone; he would go ask the girls if they wanted to see Skippy do a bike trick. The girls agreed readily, just glad something was happening. They cared nothing for the boy's bike tricks, but did enjoy talking to shirtless Cory.
Cory talked a long time and Andy and Skippy hung back but still gave support.
Skippy's dad showed up to gather him for supper.
Ohoooooo... We felt bad for Skippy. This father was a down-trodden shell of a man and not such a good people-person. His father would not let him stay longer, and this was Skippy's day to hang out with the big kids, the cool kids. Skippy left and we said bye to him.
Cory stood silent.