Modern Vespa

I decided it was time to take my MP3-500 on a longer trip and rode from Newport Beach to Santa Barbara along the Pacific Coast Highway for the July 4th weekend. On the 4th itself I rode to Solvang in order to visit the Vintage Motorcycle Museum.

The trip north on the PCH was hellish. Although I should have realized that everyone else in Southern California would have the same idea, I was still shocked at multiple hours of lane splitting between mile after mile of traffic going no more than 10-15MPH. In the end it took 5 hours of riding on the PCH; the return trip via interstate only took 2.5 hours.

The trip to Solvang from Santa Barbara is quite pleasant. Beautiful mountain roads that although not twisty, can at least be called curvy. Great views, and very little traffic. Solvang itself is an odd place that still celebrates its Danish roots with lots of windmills and good beer and sausages.




A few samples of the bikes:




The Flickr image set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37340299@N07/sets/72157621023433278/


P.S.

Is there any trick to getting the image tags to work? At least in my browser it doesn't embed the image.
[img]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3622/3692532269_a26c64c7a2.jpg?v=0[/img]

Delete whatever is behind the .jpg
?v=0.. then it will work

Thanks, that did the trick!

Thanks for sending that. I'm headed to Santa Barbara later this month (not on a scooter) and that will make a nice side trip. (If my wife will let me.)
Chuck

Awesome trip!

To the OP: This is really off-topic, but are you a fan of Tolkien?

Wow, you are the first person who has ever got the reference! It is indeed the ultimate in geek user names. Ulmo was the Valar/god in charge of the seas, and I considered myself to be a veritable god at C programming.

Holy crap! That's dorkier than I could ever imagine. It's a great pun, though, and I'm happy to count myself among those who have read and absolutely loved the Silmarillion, along with the other historical works about Middle Earth.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I had to ask.