Sweeping Roads on a Perfect Morning
The plan was breakfast at a hitherto unvisited cafe in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. The Everyday Gourmet. Unlike most breakfast rides that generally require less than an hour on the road, this one would require scooter and motorcycle twice that time. Enough to transform serene thoughts of life and liberty to pure, hunger fueled obsession.
I knew I should have had a bowl of Cheerios before leaving the house.
It was a fine morning though and traffic was generally light. Our route would take us on roads neither Paul or I had ridden before, always special, and the weather moved from clear air, to mist and on to blue skies and sunshine.
Stopped along a road that climbed into the Allegheny Mountains I was reminded of how beautiful this area is. It’s easy to lose sight of that and focus on all the things that make it less than perfect.
On this morning — it was perfect.
Hurt Feelings
Photographing two machines is more challenging than working solo. I generally have a good idea of the scene I am going to shoot and the required placement of the scooter. With another rider, when I stop, they generally stop as well and often park too close. It’s not that I want to isolate the Vespa scooter, but instead want to avoid the visual mess of two machines glommed together into a mass of unsightly machines. The best way to deal with this is to provide enough distance to separate them to reveal their own unique forms.
Paul was too close and since we both still had helmets and earplugs in play I waved him forward a bit. At least that’s what I thought I was signaling. And off he went. At the time I thought he might feel I wanted to be rid of him.
The good thing about riding with someone frequently is you get to know each other well enough that you can respond to such mental musings with an easy, “That’s his problem.”
Ebensburg, Pennsylvania
After two hours and 75 miles of backroads we parked the scooter and motorcycle across the street from the Everyday Gourment and finally had breakfast. Over the past 45 years I’ve been through Ebensburg dozens of times. More precisely I’ve been past the town. Traveling back and forth from State College to Pittsburgh, first during college and then to visit family, US 22 passes next to the town. But I don’t remember ever being “in town.”
Ebensburg is a hopping place.
Reflections
Paul spied a big reflective window on our way into town. Neither of us seem to be able to pass up the opportunity to peer at ourselves in reflections.
At least we’re not vampires.
Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head
Paul was impressed with the mountain of pancakes provided and engaged the waitress asking if she could relay information to me on the other side of the pile of flapjacks. Or perhaps he would just text me.
It was a lot of pancakes. Breakfast was excellent and fueled us for the ride home.
Diversions and New Plans
As we descended the Alleghenies along the old Portage Railroad into Altoona we parted ways — Paul off to the BMW dealer and me to visit my in-laws. Riding home alone through more backroads provided another opportunity to take in the landscape, pausing long enough to appreciate the small patch of Earth that I have the good fortune to live.
Riding, scooter or motorcycle, my goal is to ever simplify and let go of the noise and confusion of the day. The lone trees dotting the central Pennsylvania landscape remind me of what life can be if a work at it.
A Long Ride
Time and distance mark the measure of some rides. This one ended shy of 180 miles and nearly eight hours in the saddle for me. I was in no hurry and took my time each leg of the journey. It is a fine course of action for me. Not the only one, but often satisfying and keeps me pushing the scooter from the garage to embrace another day on the road.
Scooter or motorcycle?
Not sure it matters. A different experience perhaps, but satisfying each in their own way.
Good heavens: great photography, great musings on solo-versus-group riding, and a breakfast/brunch reference to Kliban…too much to pass up!
And, yes: as soon as Melody gets her 9k refresh (in under two weeks), I have to plot a trip out to you before things gets frosty, somehow.
(Yeah, Cheerios before the ride…been there quite recently.)
Thanks for the kind words about the post. They’ve been hard to produce lately. I’m resistant to sitting down and writing. Not sure why – could be the summer heat, my natural tendency to fall into sloth, or maybe there’s just too much to do right now in the garden, the house, etc. I still find time to ride and make photographs but the pile of unshared experience grows faster than my energy to do anything with it.
If you decide to head this way let me know. To keep your trip more manageable perhaps we could meet somewhere in between. A fine excuse to go on a ride.
Cheerios. The breakfast of scooter riders!
I like the last photo with the lone tree in the field. And that looked like a lot of breakfast.
I have so many photos of lone trees. I wonder if they’re not self portraits.
It was a lot of breakfast. I had my normal scrambled eggs, toast, home fries, and on this morning crispy bacon. Haven’t had bacon since my heart attack. Figured one time would be ok…
Uh oh………….bacon “one time”…………sounds like a slippery slope to me!
Nice ride.
Fortunately bacon didn’t put me on the slippery slope. Ice cream on the other hand…
That was way too much pancake for me….though the bacon looked tasty…
Nice pics, I liked the lone tree reflection pic best….
The bacon was good though I’m glad to report it did not trigger any obsession for more. I am safely past the bacon.
Think how much better that picture would be with snow-capped mountains in the distance!
Wait. Where’s the K75? Is it in the other blog Beemer in the Woods
No K75. The ride took place before it came into my life. And no second blog. The Beemer and Vespa will peacefully coexist in the sticks.
Ok, I wrote a comment the day this came out and either got censored or I did not hit the send button. I just tried to recreate the message and this window got closed and I lost all the writing. So, I take that as a message from the gods that I had no place to talk in the first place. Just know, I enjoyed it and was relieved to see the scooter as the ride of choice..
If you have been using Safari as your browser I can relate to your frustration. I’ve lost a half dozen long comments on other people’s blog because for some reason Safari will not post via my Google or WordPress account. So now I just use Chrome when commenting and it is flawless. What has Apple done to us?
That ride occurred before Kim got me the motorcycle. So it was the only choice. But I can reassure you of my love of the Vespa. This evening I went for a ride and chose the scooter.
But you’ll have to gird yourself for those mornings when you open an email from Scooter in the Sticks and you see a motorcycle. Perhaps I should include a warning statement??
I only go on real Safari’s, I don’t use one. I was using Chrome and the first error was probably sleep induced and the second may have related to a martini. I am sure when you start writing of you knew love the fact that it is a motorcycle will be masked by your great pro’s and photography and I will not even notice the difference
Lack of sleep and a martini…. are you at a scooter rally??
Seriously though, I’ve always been more enamored of the rides than I have been of the machine — at least not beyond it’s suitability to get me on the road in a manner that doesn’t intrude on the experience. In that regard, it’s difficult to image a motorcycle being better. But perhaps I’m wrong to think in terms of better and best. Maybe the important part is to focus on the difference between the two as it relates to the riding experience. There’s plenty of room for me to have different experiences right?
Anyway, I’ll try and keep things interesting!
The future is fraught with motorcycle and the temptation to crack on..! I wonder where that will lead. I await developments.
Not certain where it will lead. That’s part of the attraction. Like being lost on the road. With the preponderance of GPS devices mounted on scooters and motorcycles I suppose that’s not a common thrill.
Right now the motorcycle is leading slowly toward the repair shop to have some routine service performed. Unfortunately it’s years and years worth all at once. Plus new tires.