WHAT ARE FRIENDS FOR
 
The definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. This is the feeling I got again last week at the Delaware Enduro riding with my life-long riding pal Bob “The Hobo” Deveney. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but I once again was HOBO’D by the best, my pal Bobby D!
 
Now when you ride with Bob, it’s always an adventure….. sometimes a painful adventure to say the least. Like the time I was timekeeping (as usual for him) at Michaux quite a few years back. At 5.0 into the run going down a wide open dirt road, the trail veered off to the left. I check my time and picked up the pace to climb the hill – just as I was to leave the road and jump on the trail, I was completely wiped off the bike at about 45 mph. It felt like a truck hit me blindside! I finally stopped skimming down the road and jumped up to get the bike. What happened – no one else was around! Just then I heard a loud moan off the edge of the road. There he was (the Hobo) 30 feet down the cliff in the fetal position, stuck under his bike! He was the truck that took me out! What happened was that he saw me pick up speed, then he put his head down and shifted through the gears trying to catch me, not looking up to see me turning up the trail – then cleaned my clock accordingly!
 
I carefully picked my way on foot down the cliff to my boy. I really felt like leaving him there to rot…. But since I’ve been stuck with him since high school, I felt obligated to a degree. Basically he hit me then sailed off of the cliff (at speed) sideways and landed the bike on an igloo size boulder, cracking his center engine cases. Also, this was on a Husky with the old metal tanks – he crushed the tank in half with his “cahoons”, thus causing the loud moan. After prying him from the bike, making sure he still had a pulse, I cursed him, then let him lie.
 
I continued on the course, got back on time, and was doing decent. Then with about 10 miles left to go, this lunatic comes flying by me at about 100 miles per hour (I was time keeping on a road)! Low and behold, it was the infamous Bobby D! How he got the bike up the cliff I have no idea! How the bike made it that far with a leaking gas tank and oil dripping out of the center cases I’ll never know! One thing I can say – he’s not a quitter, a little stupid, but not a quitter. After about 3 weeks his high voice came back to normal.
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FLASHBACK 2008 – Delaware Enduro. We’re sitting on the trail before the sluice, debating about how early to go into the section. Bob says screw it, he’s going in and takes off. Mikey Beeler and myself wait about 5 minutes then take off. 3 tenths down the trail there’s Bob, stuck behind Jamie Therkauf who just fell off a bridge in front of Bob (maybe Bob pushed him over, he wouldn’t admit to it). Now were all bunched up. We clear the bridge with Bob in front, racing into the sluice at speed. Anyway, Bob cartwheels the bike and locks up the sluice, holding up his only 2 friends left on the planet. He picks the bike up and grabbing a handful of throttle, totally soaks his only 2 friends left on the planet big time. I’m yelling at Mikey, telling him that HIS friend is a FFMF’er. Like I said, we can’t go anywhere, and now we can’t see anyway. Bob takes off and high-sides again. This time Mikey squeezes by him on the right. He wedges me on the left! Now Bob has a brilliant idea to walk his bike down the sluice – a typical C rider knuckle-brain move. Every time he takes a step he almost falls and shoots a 30 foot rooster tail of water at me! Finally after the 4th time he fell over I rode over his bike to get out the sluice! What are friends for!
 
Moral of the story: ONCE A HOBO, ALWAYS A HOBO!
 
"Super Bike" Mike McHale