Modern Vespa

Moved from the "Gallery" section:

Last of the faux spring weather yesterday afternoon and now the new scoot's in pieces in the garage as I take on the new belts and rollers.

I've lived in this small town for 26 years and have cruised all around her backroads, but already the new scoot has taken me new places...like this little cemetery just five miles south of town...the headstone final dates ranging from 1880-1916. No town or church around....

Oooh, love visiting old cemeteries. 8)

Nice scoot, too!

I've used cemetery visits as excuses for exploring more than once.

Heh, I was just uploading pics of another cemetery from today's ride before opening this up...yeah, these are good places to reflect, not only on our own mortality but on history, and around here that history seems otherwise hidden or forgotten, at least from us townies who don't own local farms.

So today, breaking in my new tires belts and rollers (yay!) in a (failed!) attempt to wait out a rain storm, I parked and walked around another completely secluded plot, this one attached to a tiny, old, Lutheran church, surrounded by nothing but fields. I've driven this back road once or twice a year for 26 years but never took the time to stop and wander around and really take the time to *look*.

Again some of the death dates go back to 1880, ten years before Idaho was a state, with some birth years as far back as 1812. ...and I realized nearly all the last names were Norwegian. I've lived in Idaho more than half my life and had no idea that most of the farms were settled by Norwegians.

Anyway, new tires, belts and rollers worked great. My old rain gear, however, did not fare so well. I'm really enjoying how the Vespa is pushing me deeper into the world right outside my door.

Brief break in the Sunday crap weather...

tdrake, what's the rush?

Nice picture.

Must have been all the "that thing's gonna git you killed!" I heard when I bought the bike!

But, in the meantime, while I'm still sunny side up, I discovered yet another little church in the same area.

Just another day trying to catch the hour or two of dry roads....[/img]

Nice photos...despite the weather.

Great fun exploring on a scooter. 8)

Spring f&@:!#%g break.... 😡

But, screw it...by noon it was nearly 45 and I hit the road anyway for a beautiful ride under huge clouds, and I found yet another cemetery. 8)

That was the good news. The bad news is that from the cemetery hilltop I could see a massive black cloud pummeling my way back, and although I wound up staying dry, the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and I absolutely froze my ass off.

...I'd removed the windscreen to see if it made the bike more stable, and it does -- I seem to be just a weeeee bit too tall for it -- and to keep the screen from channeling air onto my hands -- but dang I learned the hard way that keeping your core/chest warm is muy importante! Screen goes back on!

Top of the canyon, coming up out of about 2,000 feet of elevation gain via pristine, swooping, winding turns.

And as soon as I pulled out of this spot I realized my speedo was toast, but it was euphoria while it lasted.

Beautiful country scenes. I can get lost on travels like those. I prefer open roads to city riding. Thanks for sharing.

35 miles out the door...

Step by step, venturing further from home...stumbled on another cemetery ten, fifteen miles away from any town, off on a gravel road that either used to be somewhere or has long been some nowhere people called home.

It struck me today that what seems to this townie a lonely place to spend eternity is, for the people who lived and worked out here, right in the middle in of everything they loved.

About a mile away the gravel turns back to pavement and drops 1800 feet into the canyon...a dozen or so perfect winding blacktop hairpins.

Sllllllowly coming into full on mind blowing green here. Also, not beautiful new-to-me OEM exhaust, oooh, aaaah...a much nicer way to zip thru these silent spaces....

Once again, I can't believe I've missed out on all these beautiful afternoons, just tooling around taking it in.

Gettin' all arty and sech.

Great pics. Really makes me want to move out west again.

Thanks! Come winter I'll be wishing I was Texas.

Set out about 4:30 this afternoon with zero designs, choosing direction when I came to each crossroads, and deciding where to go based on the wind (it would be windy out in open) and recent rains (I could ride some gravel without getting dusted out), but I had low expectations and started out thinking I'd still like a dual sport bike to access more gravel roads since that's most of what's around here....

But I took a couple random turns out of a small town (Troy, Idaho), about 10 miles from here, basically just looking for pavement, which wound up leading me onto a road I never knew existed and one that I swore I've dreamed of, just tucked away from the beaten paths I've driven literally hundreds of times. About six miles of secluded, winding turns and beautiful views, and everything so mind blowingly vibrant and green now.

I mean, come on: look at those turns! And they just go on and on.

Gotta admit, I went to bed wondering whether the entire scootering/motorcycling/PTW thing was a huge mistake, or whether I'd had my fun and now it was time to grow up and move on.

Blame it on a combination of too much time reading accident reports on this board, having a really wet, cold ride in the afternoon, in which, I swear, I drove smack into one of the only two rain clouds for hundreds of miles (coulda swore it was moving in the other direction!), and then into the other on the way home...utterly soaked...and then watching the quite excellent (and sobering) "Road" (stream it on Netflix!) before bed last night.

And so, of course, I had the most sublime, dialed in, beautiful ride today. It's one of those springs that just seems to amp up its beauty each day, until you think it can't possibly get better, and then, of course, the next week is even greener, more redolent, vibrant, alive....

Once again, after all the rain I knew the gravel would be compacted and dustless, and so it was, and so I got a good 30 of my 100 miles away from everything but dirt and sky and tractors.

BTW, the Cannonball folks will be driving past the bridge, below....

2,000 miles in two months -- what I told my insurance agent I'd ride over the entire year -- and it's not even summer yet. Down side is my rear Heidenau K58 is nearly worn out!

Very nice pics, td.

As to the wondering whether riding a PTW is a mistake or not, and reading accident reports: I believe that the great majority of all PTW accidents are entirely preventable by the rider. Yes, there may be some "acts of God" accidents, but they can happen during anything - actually, I think walking down the stairs is more dangerous than relaxed riding. I don't read accident reports because of two things:
1) each accidents is "tailored" to the rider that experienced it, so what's the point of me reading it?
2) when an accident occurs, it's because of some disharmony affecting the rider.
That means (so-called) neuro-emotional issues need to be addressed/cleared so the cause of the accident, and the connected energies, don't affect the participants of the accident and everyone else. When you immerse yourself in reading about someone else's accident, you also immerse yourself in the disharmonious energies affecting that accident. That may be one of the reasons you can feel creepy after reading the accident report. It's not worthy. It wasn't your life path and no sense in getting entangled in it.

Driving defensively, as taught in the MSF course and staying away from alcohol are the best ways to keep the rubber side down...all the time.

Couldn't capture what a beautiful eve and ride it was.... It was one of those "I'll be back in half an hour" before-dinner rides that turns into two and a half hours, and even the rain couldn't dampen my spirit. ...about an hour and a half of cruising gravel back roads at around 25 mph, down in the draws along streams and everything covered in wildflowers -- none of which I could really capture on film (and oddly all these pics emphasize what little brown is still out there).

Loving your ride reports, keep them coming. We are headed into winter so your summer reports will be welcome.

Thanks! Hard to wrap my brain around an impending winter! ...my daughter was down your way a few years ago and absolutely loved it.

Absolutely wonderful photos. Those cemeteries really look desolate. The majority here in the Midwest are well-wooded....at least the nice ones.

Riding roads like that, you can pretty much relax about accident reports. At least those in heavy traffic.

Thanks! And yeah, the 5 minutes it takes to get out of town are probably 5 times riskier.

Last domestic shot for the three weeks:

Delete

Last edited by tdrake on Sat, 21 May 2016 13:47:39 +0000; edited 1 time

View out the apt door...

Better pic but can't delete/swap the other on my phone...

Good shots! I've never been to Paris. Enjoy your time there.

I doubt you're gonna find any vintage scoots. European emission requirements have cracked down on old polluting bikes and cars and got them off the road. Some areas even had buy backs of old scoots so people would buy new 4 stroke machines. You might see the P series Vespa body design (PX150, LML Star) though so keep your eyes peeled.

That makes sense...in these first 24 hours I've seen just one PXsomething and one Star. Just four years ago the old two strokes seemed everywhere...but gotta admit the quiet streets are nice.

Riders are freakin fearless, too! At least for this small town boy.

In the 11th hour of the first day, these two, side by side.

Die hard.

You're lucky, if we got that much snow in the Washington DC Metro area they would have the salt and brine trucks out and it would be another month till all of the salt grime was washed off the roads so I could ride.

Hell of a ride but got my GT 200 to Paris. Whew.

Moved the others impending flood of France & Netherlands shots to the Gallery section...

We live with you with great photos. I had the good
fortune of traveling through Idaho as a Sales Manager.
Again, thanks for the pics.

Bob Copeland
Minnesota

Thanks Bob! Feels great to be back on the home range...

Wet gravel.

Break in the rain. Winter wheat, mid June.