Scooter in a Scooterless Day
The Vespa sat at home while I drove the Honda Odyssey to the dealer for it’s annual Pennsylvania safety inspection. One of the service people rode their Ruckus scooter to work which provided a maintenance dose of scooterness.
I’ve always admired the looks and capabilities of the 49cc Honda Ruckus. I can imagine one in my garage.
Aside from that brief glimpse my day would play out without a ride on two wheels. It’s something every rider must deal with from time to time.
Perfect Vespa Landscape
Rain passed through the valley washing away some of the heat leaving a fine glow on the wet roads. I forced myself to appreciate the glowing landscape and pull the van off the road for a photograph. Standing in the middle of the road I was imagining the Vespa parked in that glow, headlight creating a poor of warm light on the wet pavement.
Not going to happen though.
Odyssey in the Sticks
It’s hard to imagine a blog build around life with the Honda Odyssey van. I’m certain I could find ways to photograph the vehicle in a compelling manner but is there enlightenment behind the wheel of a minivan?
It was good to stop and look around, appreciate the evening, and think about tomorrow.
Wait. I have to take the dog to the vet in the morning. There’s more Odyssey in the Sticks for me…
not quite the same, isn’t it…photographing one’s cage vice one’s ride?
No, not quite. A minivan is way too vanilla a subject. Now if I had a ’49 Willys Jeep, or a ’72 VW Campmobile, then it would be a different story.
LOL. Cars and minivans just don’t photograph as well. Just like our senses are a bit dulled when driving our cage, the cage sort of demands attention in a photograph whereas our two-wheelers become part of the landscape, there but not THERE.
You’re exactly right. I think there is a sense of freedom in the two-wheeled creature that makes it seem more animalistic, less mechanical maybe and hence right at home in the landscape. A minivan is a mechanical device with no soul. Just doesn’t belong…
Just thinking; inspection (a tax grab IMO)of the Honda van followed next day by Junior. Guess Junior gets his sticker for another year in a different sort of way. Just make sure the renewal sticker goes on the windscreen of the van, not the forehead of the dog.
Now does the Honda Fit get inspected at the same time or at a different time? What determines the date of inspection?
The bug-eyed headlamps of the Honda Ruckus are its nost distinguishing visual feature
IMO.
I suppose everything gets inspected these days. The van has it’s sticker and the dog has a nice little medallion on his collar. Lily too.
The Fit gets inspected next week. Both expire in June. The inspection sequence is assigned by the vehicle title I think. Not sure. Just one of those things you have to do. As far as a tax grab goes — we get a lot of stuff in terms of roads and bridges. Not cheap and falling apart. I suspect we’re going to have to pay for what we use in terms of higher taxes.
I love cars, trucks, tractors, hit and miss motors and just about everything mechanical, but right now everything I own besides the scoot is just transportation. After having to drive the SUV for 2 months I can’t think of a reason to include it in a photo. I might feel different if I owned a Lotus 11……..
Wouldn’t it be nice if everything we owned and used was worthy of being in a photograph. If that was the standard of things I purchased I wouldn’t own much!
watch out there – that Honda Odyssey may not start the next time you need it!
That van is bombproof. It’s a Honda! Runs like a Deere, built tough and all that stuff. The dogs love it.
Maybe this is the beginning of a new trend. Honda-blog… Oddesey-blog doesn’t roll off the younger very well.
Ahhhh…. no.
Ah…got to this one late. Sig. Other loves her Honda (2013 CR-V, named Harriet, after the children’s book, I think), and while I have tons of respect for the thing as a passenger – it’s been showered with “best-of” awards over the years for a reason – it’s not exactly the sort of thing I’d get warm-n- fuzzy over. It’s basic transportation…good, solid, well-designed transportation, I’ll grant you, but that’s it. Melody, I suppose, is kinda-sorta the CR-V’s two-wheel analog in a way, but there’s something going on with those two fewer wheels that simply heightens and engages the senses. I suppose almost anything with two wheels can do this, but not quite the same way IMO.
And…the Ruckus? As I’d written a while back here, it certainly has that steampunk/Mad Max vibe, which I get on one level, but not strong enough for me to ever imagine my owning one. I see it as a mini-bike that got a scholarship to college, though not quite Ivy League.
I’ve only ever been enamored with a couple vehicles — VW Campmobile and Beetle of the early 70s, Jeep CJ5, and that’s about it. Everything else has been a bore — just a means to an end. You’re description mirrors my feelings.
Not sure what exactly appeals to me about the Ruckus other than the look. Like so many things I probably just want it for no good reason and then cast it away once I have it.