Welp, it's been awhile....
Obviously highly distracted by the new Honda and piling on all the gravel grinding miles, which really has opened my horizons, or at least my local options, and has been a blast.
But a couple days ago while poking along a secluded Forest Service road, a juvenile deer ran smack into me, and the Honda, and although neither of us went down -- neither me nor the Honda, that is; Bambi went down hard! -- I took it as a sign to get back onto the Vespa and into the open wheat fields, where you can at least see what's headed your way before it runs into you.
Gotta admit that when I first tooled off on the Vespa after racking up so many miles on the Honda, my first impression was "Jayzus, I rode this toy across the country?! It's a toy!"
My second impression was "Dude, where's my acceleration??"
But my third, when I pulled over outside town to snap my first pic, was "Lord, what a beautiful machine." And from that moment on the scenery opened back up as my attention returned to looking for glamour shots, something the Honda just doesn't lend itself to -- it's a badass, vastly more versatile machine, and in a lot of ways it just makes so much more sense. But it ain't pretty. And the looking for shots alters my perception and purpose, and that's a beautiful thing...or a means of appreciating beautiful things, I suppose.
And after a few minutes I found myself getting back in the groove: pushing the Vespa to the limit, which isn't hard, instead of holding the Honda back.
Love this little guy!