Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Hauling on a Vespa

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Gordon Harkins with his Vespa scooter

Meet Gordon Harkins.  He owns a red Vespa GTS 300, has a folder full of action photos from Penn State football team’s losing effort against Northwestern, has his parking permit on the wrong side of the scooter, and utilizes the Vespa in much the same manner as I do — for utilitarian purposes.  Like transportation to our Sunday morning get together at Saint’s Cafe.

A Vespa scooter is marketed as a chic, urban mode of transportation but for many of us it also has a different role — the utility Vespa — a functional mode of transportation capable of all sorts of duty.  Thought I would share one of the more common roles mine takes as a grocery hauler.  Here’s the store list this morning:

From WalMart:

Journals
Pointy Q-Tips
Dental sticks

From Wegmans

Loaf of bread
Butter
Bagels
Cream cheese
Red pepper
Potatoes
Cuke
Lettuce
Frozen fruit — blackberries and mangos and raspberries
Mango and Lemon Sorbet popscicles
Red onions
Asiago cheese
Frozen pie shells
Tomatoes
Half gallon of milk
Pine nuts
Frozen dinners
Evaporated milk

So here’s how the Vespa handles the assignment…

Journals in Vespa topcase

First stop at WalMart.  The journals, pointy Q-tips and dental sticks go in the topcase.  Still plenty of space for groceries.

Vespa scooter with groceries at Wegmans grocery store

Five bags of groceries after shopping at Wegman’s in State College, Pennsylvania.  I make sure things are bagged carefully so nothing frozen goes under the seat.  The Vespa has a number of carrying options:

  • Topcase
  • Underseat
  • Pursehook
  • On top of the seat using bungee cords
  • Front rack

Barely scratched the surface of capacity today.

Groceries in topcase of Vespa scooter

Three bags of groceries were stuffed into the topcase on top of the journals — the milk, butter, cream cheese and frozen stuff.

Groceries in the under seat storage on a Vespa scooter

Everything else except the loaf of bread went under the seat.  The bread hung from the purse hook where it would be away from any engine fumes.  I have great respect for good bread and don’t want a Sunoco version.

So there you have it, a little sample of the utility Vespa.  I could have carried six more bags of groceries without any problem.  Nine if I had my backpack.  Even more if I had more than my normal assortment of four bungee cords.

Ain’t life grand…

For a more romantic example of things you can haul on a Vespa check out BRINGING HOME THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Merry Christmas!

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Vespa GTS scooter on snowy forest roadMerry Christmas from the sticks to you!  I hope peace, goodwill and plenty come into your life.

After several days of near summer-like weather an arctic front moved through bringing snow squalls and pushing the landscape towards those old, Currier and Ives holiday images.  Just before lunch on Christmas Eve and I saw the snow begin to fall and decided to take a quick ride up the mountain to find a suitable image to share.  The roads were bare until reaching the point where the pavement is no longer salted and snow gathers quickly.

Vespa GTS scooter in snowy Rothrock State Forest

Fresh falling snow always seems peaceful and calm.  An appropriate sense of things for the holidays.
Christmas cardsAll the presents are gathered and family will arrive soon.  It’s a wonderful time of year.
Belgian Sheepdog Junior in the snow
And the kids wait for the arrival of Santa Claus, or in our case, Junior waits for a trove of treats.

Merry Christmas to all and ride safe!

Suffering and Joy

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Sometimes, when desire meets reality, you come face to face with suffering.  Most recently it was unexpected physical discomfort related to the cold and my newly arthritic feet.  Out early yesterday with the temperature hovering around 20F should have been like a walk in the park.  Instead I was served a big bite of suffering.

Looking back I can see how my love of winter has decayed into a state of annoyed acceptance that it’s a fact of life in central Pennsylvania.  This first cold ride of the season really surprised me and has me wondering how much cold I can tolerate.  A question every year round rider wrestles with at some point.

After an hour I planted myself in Starbucks to hold a paper cup full of hot chocolate in my hands, let my feet warm, and scribble a few notes on index cards about the challenges ahead.  I wrote “Suffering” at the top of the first card intending to post under that title.  But things have a way of changing.

The iPhone vibrated on the table displaying an image of my friend Gordon.  He and his wife Val bought their 14 year old son a .22 rifle for Christmas, a Ruger 10/22.  Nice gun.  And since he had never shot a gun before he asked if I could go with them to the local shooting range and get them started.  I remember the .22 rifle my father got for me around the same age and the joy I found going out with him to plink away at tin cans.  
Funny how warm some of my memories are related to weapons.
Last time I fired a gun at this range was in the early 1970s when a serendipitous encounter with gun dealer led to firing thousands of round of ammunition via an array of automatic weapons.  My first experience with a Thompson sub machine gun, M16, UZI, and an Ingram MAC-10 with a suppressor.  I learned two things.  Automatic weapons are fun to shoot.  Loading magazines isn’t.  It’s an interesting story that I’ll share someday.
Gordon’s son wasn’t the only one surprised on Christmas morning.  Gordon’s wife Val gave him a pair of riding gloves and some scooter brochures.  The meaning is obvious.  More joy at Christmas.
Went riding again today with no suffering.  Suppose there is a yin and yang to it all.  Didn’t realize polar forces of opposite strength were at work in my riding life — the suffering and the joy.

Searching for the Christmas Spirit

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A week ago I borrowed a motorcycle from the selection of pre-owned machines of Kissell Motorsports –a 2005 BMW F650 GS. I’ll often find myself looking at their web site listings or trolling eBay for the quintessential deal. For a lot of riders a used motorcycle is the best route into the world of riding.  And during those rides I found myself thinking about Christmas.

Junior and I walked in the park this morning to the tolling of bells from a nearby church, announcing Christmas Day. Blue sky, bright sun and the temperature pushing forty degrees doesn’t feel like Christmas.

I’ve been thinking about Christmas all week, trying to bring to life those feelings I had as a kid when Santa Claus was real. Memories of candle light services on Christmas Eve singing Silent Night, the anticipation of presents under a tree seem to fade away a bit more every year. Charles Dickens wrote that Christmas can, “…win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home.”. Maybe that’s what I was looking for.

Roaming the countryside on a motorcycle often fuels a flood of thinking. I found my thoughts leaning towards the past, to things that would not come again. Each stop along the road seemed to trigger a memory of Christmas time. Each memory bringing another, and another.

Looking at motorcycles (when you tend to obsess about them) isn’t a lot different than coveting a BB gun or some other must have item of childhood.  The evening I picked up the BMW was like that — the proverbial kid in the candy store — so many things to desire.

A festive red Ducati should feel like Christmas shouldn’t it?

Or certainly a pink Vespa would conjure some sort of magic if only given a chance.  But maybe what the Grinch said is true: “Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.”

The pink Vespa will have to wait for another day along with the Triumph Tiger 800 XC and the flat screen TV I was thinking about.

The BMW F650 GS in its 2005 incarnation is a marvelously nimble motorcycle on the gravel roads that crisscross the central Pennsylvania forests. Aggressive knobby tires provide a surefooted ride at speeds I don’t normally attempt in these environs. The bike is completely comfortable from the start.

I felt like Charlie Brown. Christmas time is coming and I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. Or at least that was what I was thinking. Riding through beautiful landscapes I can’t quite appreciate because I’m searching for the Christmas spirit. The little red-haired girl is waiting at home for me, my black dog too, and here I was along a creek, watching the cold, clear water sweep by and nothing. I’m blessed but don’t quite appreciate it.

The F650 GS leads me to the Pump Station Cafe in Boalsburg where I can appreciate a cup of tea and a scone, and the blessings of the motorcycle’s heated grips when I take out my journal to write.  BMW has great heated grips.  They feel hot even through thick winter riding gloves.

I suppose there is no connection between riding and Christmas save for the incidental juxtaposition of machine and iconography.  But I did find that missing Christmas spirit.
Last night family and friends gathered on Christmas Eve, for fellowship and food, to spend time together and acknowledge what’s special this time of year.  Maybe it just becomes more difficult to see past all the wrappings and tinsel to the meaning of Christmas, a time of transformation and forgiveness where, for a time, the world is a more gentle place.
Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for the holidays.