[ponyakr]

how many of you gto owners have used your goat for a tow vehicle? i have. after i started construction work as an ironworker, i had a little more money to spend. that brings up another ? how many of you have walked across a narrow I-beam, hi off the ground, where if you fell off it meant certain injury or death? it can be a frightful experience til you get the hang of it. if it was on the ground, you could walk it easily without fear. but put that same beam 50'+ in the air & its a different situation. sometimes its safer to just get down & "coon it", even tho you know you'll catch flack from fellow workers. i remember once i was up about 100' carrying an arm load of angle iron braces. the shortest route to my destination was a 30' beam with about a 6" flange. by then, i was confident i could walk a beam that wide, so i started across. but as i approached the center, the beam began to shake, side to side. i stopped & looked down to see if i could throw the angles down without hitting someone. but then it quit shaking & i eased on across very slowly. i found out that the bolt-up crew had not gotten to that beam yet to put the extra bolts in it & tighten them up. so it only had a couple of bolts in each end, with the nuts hand tight. thats why it started shaking when i went across. thats been 40+ years ago & i still recall it vividly. on that same job an ironworker had fallen off a beam to his death, so we didn't take it lightly. it was just part of the job. meanwhile, back to the goat tale. with all my new found extra income, i decided i needed a ski boat. no, i didn't have a clue how to ski. but i'd played b-ball & i knew people who could ski who were not athletic at all. so i had a trailer hitch installed on the ole goat(thats rite) & went to pick out a new ski boat. then i had to pick out a motor. well, i'd seen boats about the size of mine using 40hp motors, so thats what i bought. hey, what did i know? so i was all rigged up & we planned a big ski trip for the weekend to a popular, nearby lake. i've mentioned it breifly on an earlier post. so there we were. me & T.J., my former girlfriend & my old b-ball teamate from hi-school. & the girls were lookin good in their new string bikinis. this was the perfect setting for embarassing myself(which i did). the girls & the other guy popped rite up & skied all over the lake. then it was my turn. who remembers your 1st time on skies? if i could'a used the ole goat to pull me up--no problem. but instead, all i had was a 40hp outboard. i was over 200lbs & the little 40hp just did'nt have enuff grunt to get me up. how embarassing. another guy from our hometown saw my delimma & came over to help(or to get a closer look at the girls). he said his 65hp would pull me up. he was rite. after a couple of broken ropes, it jerked me rite up & over the handlebars. it was a very embarassing day, but i finally got the hang of it & went back the next week & traded the 40hp in for a 75hp--no more grunt problems. i finally learned to ski on 1 ski & bought a huge rudder for it, with which i could spray some awesome rooster tails. & the ole goat made a nice tow car. with posi unit & radial tires, there was never a slip pulling the rig up the boat ramp. & if there had been any ski rig races, i figure i'da won those easily.