The official website of Melvin L. Clermont.

My experience pedicab driving during MegaCon at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 2/17-2/19/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:04:39 +0000

I’ve been to many a MegaCon in the past but never drove a pedicab during the event before. I arrived fairly early on Friday. The rides were pretty consistent because there were so few pedicab drivers in the South Concourse parking lot. Only 3 of us when I got there. The weather was warm yet overcast. There weren’t hordes of people clogging up sidewalks. Traffic was light. It was a pretty easy day to work. There were 2 other conventions going on at the time: the Imprinted Sportswear Show (ISS) and the Magical Classic. The True Value Company convention had registration going on and was being setup at the time. I got a couple of rides for ISS and the response was the same: they wondered who the freaks were at MegaCon. They had no idea what it was, never heard of it, and didn’t know what to make of

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving during MegaCon at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 2/17-2/19/2012.

My experience pedicab driving at the Keller Williams Family Reunion convention at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 2/11-2/12/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:23:15 +0000

The first day of this convention was also the last day of the Builders’ Show convention. If not for this convention, it would have been a disaster of a day. This was the first time that I know and heard of that this convention took place in Orlando. Nobody knew what to expect since attendance numbers were pretty low. But since it was realtors, and they have money, and their website promoted this as being something big, I had a good feeling this would be a lucrative convention and it very much was. While others were still focused on the Builders’ Show, I was focused on the Keller show and was getting rides pretty consistently for a few hours for both. Others were complaining that they weren’t getting rides, not making money, and nothing was going on and some of them left early. They just weren’t where they needed

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving at the Keller Williams Family Reunion convention at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 2/11-2/12/2012.

My experience pedicab driving at the International Builders’ Show convention at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 2/8-2/11/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:17:39 +0000

This was anticipated to be a large convention, larger than the PGA, but it wasn’t. As the convention went on, I heard complaints from other drivers and attendees that there weren’t as many people and it wasn’t nearly as busy as years past. This was my first time working one that I can recall. I can confirm from being on my pedicab that the parking lots and garages weren’t all that full. There were people taking rides but not consistently. And the aisles of the exhibition floor weren’t all that full of people walking around, either. Yet, with all those things in place, from a pedicab perspective, it was still lucrative. It just wasn’t as lucrative as any of us wanted it to be because we compared it to the PGA convention which had less people announced. The first day of that versus the first day of this was

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving at the International Builders’ Show convention at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 2/8-2/11/2012.

valentine’s day, megacon, pedicabbing, taxes, lottery tickets, tv, and ecw.

Melvin L. Clermont — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:23:10 +0000

had tickets to see titanic 3d tonight but i’m really not in the mood to sit through 3 hours of what i know will be bad 3d effects. the movie is good (at least it was back when i saw it years ago) but 3 hours is a long time. i didn’t feel like hopping auditoriums to see something else, either. as far as i’m concerned, it’s just another day and i’m gonna stay home and chill. do some writing, watch some tv, and relax. tuesday means bleach! that’s what i most look forward to.

to everyone out there wasting your time and money on a significant other who you likely won’t be with in a few months anyway (just being realistic, not pessimistic), don’t do anything special for them unless they earn it. just because retailers are shoving “spend, spend, spend” down your throat don’t mean you gotta do

Continue reading full article ----> valentine’s day, megacon, pedicabbing, taxes, lottery tickets, tv, and ecw.

a new bike, plums, tv shows, and documentaries.

Melvin L. Clermont — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:37:54 +0000

walmart.com said they had a bike in stock. that wal-mart was clear on the other side of town on the east side. i went today, thinking i could get a new pedicab bike only to see the racks empty and an employee said the bike was on order. that pissed me off and when i went to get another item on my list, that was out of stock too. i decided that they weren’t getting any of my money for anything else that i needed and when i was about to leave, they had something that no other grocery store anywhere had: plums. that’s right, that fruit isn’t on any shelf at any grocer that i’ve been to in the last month or two. i love plums and got a lot of them to chow down on while pedicabbing. i have no idea why no place else has them. they

Continue reading full article ----> a new bike, plums, tv shows, and documentaries.

My experience pedicab driving in Downtown Orlando, FL on 2/4/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:03:20 +0000

Since I chose not to work the final day of the Orgill convention because the first two days of it weren’t that spectacular, I figured I’d ride downtown to see if there was any money in it after the Jimmy Buffett concert at the Amway Center. That, along with it being a Saturday night, and because another driver convinced me to give it a whirl, made me go. I don’t usually drive my pedicab downtown unless it’s a special event or if something is going on at the Citrus Bowl. I don’t hang out downtown either so I don’t really know where a lot of the bars and clubs are but I can learn. I wasn’t expecting to make a fortune but I started riding before midnight and only stayed a few hours. The money wasn’t bad and I had a good average to end the night so my time

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving in Downtown Orlando, FL on 2/4/2012.

My experience pedicab driving at the Orgill Spring Dealer Market at the OCCC in Orlando, FL on 2/2-2/3/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:36:48 +0000

I’d never worked one of these conventions before. No one did that I spoke to so it was a first for a lot of us. I always do my research on a convention before I decide whether to ride or not. There was no floor plan available online for this but they did have a video explaining what to expect at an Orgill convention. I fully expected there to be shuttle buses for attendees but I’ll give Orgill credit: they take care of their own. 97% of the people parked in the lot were exhibitors. That leaves about an equivalent amount of buyers who took the shuttles to and from their hotels. That pretty much killed any prospects of us drivers making any significant amount of money.

I arrived early on the first day, with a couple of passengers who wanted a ride since we were all going to

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving at the Orgill Spring Dealer Market at the OCCC in Orlando, FL on 2/2-2/3/2012.

Movie review of The Woman In Black.

Melvin L. Clermont — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:13:15 +0000

Flew solo to this because no one else wanted to go. I left home later than usual due to running late on some errands but I still arrived in time to get in line inside the theater (Regal Cinemas Winter Park) rather than outside. While waiting in line, I watched the latest episode of Bleach on my phone and finished reading a newspaper. While waiting inside, I started reading the Prologue issue to Marvel’s Annihilation series. This was the first time I’ve ever been to a screening where they asked people if they had guns or knives and security used metal detectors to scan people with. Some serious shit must have gone down at a screening somewhere to prompt that. I didn’t get the details as to why they started that policy.

I sat down next to a guy who was coughing a lot. It was a large theater

Continue reading full article ----> Movie review of The Woman In Black.

My experience pedicab driving during the Monster Truck Jam at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL on 1/28/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:40:32 +0000

I parked in my safe spot in Downtown Orlando and rode over to the stadium without a single pickup. It was kinda expected since I was still early. I arrived around 3pm. The problem with that was it was too damn early. It was only me and 2 other drivers who were there. One got there a little after I did, the other had been there even earlier. Rides were extremely scarce. I don’t think I got jack for about an hour and didn’t do much for about an hour and a half to 2 hours. A driver who arrived later asked me how it was going. Well, shit, it wasn’t. I was getting very discouraged since I’d never rode for a Monster Jam before and I was there on the recommendation of the same driver who asked me the question I mentioned.

It did pick up and when

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving during the Monster Truck Jam at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, FL on 1/28/2012.

My experience pedicab driving during the PGA Merchandise Show at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 1/26-1/27/2012.

Melvin L. Clermont — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:16:04 +0000

The pic is from 2 years ago. It’s been collecting dust on my hard drive since I switched over to WordPress and I felt this was an appropriate article to finally repost it after so much time. This pic was taken from the new Peabody hotel before it was anywhere near completion. Can’t say any more than that without getting myself into trouble. Just kick back and enjoy an old pic from my archives. I have newer pics on my pedicab Facebook page.

First, let me start things off by saying that I met with one of the people in charge at the Orange County Convention Center at their request and it wasn’t a negative meeting if that’s what you’re thinking. It was pretty positive in almost every aspect except one: I was asked to no longer write about people who attend the conventions and I obliged. So these

Continue reading full article ----> My experience pedicab driving during the PGA Merchandise Show at the OCCC in Orlando, FL from 1/26-1/27/2012.