Scooter in the Sticks

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

Life is Good

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life is good blog graphicKeeping All the Plates Spinning

I want to believe life can be simple.  That existence can be reduced to a few, important tasks.  If only I had discipline.  Or more money.  Of if the world would behave the way I think it should.  Then things would be simple.

The blog graphic came into existence while wondering why I couldn’t ride more often.  As if life could be something akin to eat, pray, love.

Ride, sleep, ride.

As enlightening as riding can be, it leaves a trail of infantile denial about some things.

Still, I can’t help but think I’m doing it wrong.  I should be on the road more — happy, joyous and free.

Fine dream.  So is winning the Powerball drawing.

Back to reality.  Fueled the car and van this evening along with the gas can for the snowblower in anticipation of “the worst snow storm of the season.”  Penn State has already announced it will be closed tomorrow.  I’ve already started to wonder if I can go for a little ride on the Vespa.  Wish I had put the snow tires on.

Instead, I’ll run the snow blower, sleep late, and generally pretend I’m retired and lazy.  Testing options for the future.

And that’s the way it is on the night before the storm.

Life is good.

Little Boxes

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Steve Williams, Vespa blogger

Photo by Gordon Harkins

Confined in Wide Open Spaces

Thinking about an open concept versus rooms with walls.  The common interpretation would refer to the architectural approaches to living and working spaces. Bright, open spaces with vaulted ceilings and window walls as opposed to more conservative and confined areas that may be secreted and cut off from the rest.

The same model could be applied to the mind.  And even to some degree to riding a scooter or motorcycle.

My head inside a full face helmet; a mind inside isolated from the outside world.  Life inside little boxes. Even riding in wide open spaces I remain confined in those little boxes.

Steve Williams bloggerSmall Spaces

The narrow walkway between buildings in State College, Pennsylvania feels safe in the closeness of the walls and the protection against the sky. It’s as if you’re cut off from much of the world — a decidedly non-open concept for space.

There was a time when the open concept held my imagination and fueled dreams of adventure in the wild and open spaces of the world. Over time I’ve realized I’m predisposed to a compartmentalized existence which affords opportunities for invisibility, isolation and privacy.  But more powerful is the sense of self and focus I find in the small spaces where the yawning abyss is not drawing energy and concern.  While the open concept and space is seductive, it ultimately leaves me entirely reactive — I see and respond.  It’s visceral and fires emotions.  But ultimately I retreat to a little box where I’m free to think.

When I was younger I would have thought the rooms with walls would be a prison. Could be for me they may be the doorway to freedom.

2017 Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge

This post is part of a month long writing prompt challenge conceived by Kathy at Toadmama.com.

Spokesman for Myself

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Steve Williams self-portraitJust Wandering

Those days with no meaning or purpose, just seeing what the road will reveal is happiness.  This process is infused in much of the work that appears on Scooter in the Sticks — the writing and photographs — are reflections of those experiences.

I photograph, write and post the results to better understand the journey I’m on — both the literal ones where the Vespa scooter moves through the world, and those trickier trips where my mind conspires to understand what the hell is happening to me.  In either case, I’m a spokesman for myself and don’t pretend to offer much to anyone else.

While I accept a reader may find some value, I can’t claim to be able to answer any questions since I’m still struggling myself.  If there is any ongoing lesson I might share it’s in the ongoing and relentless self inspection of motives, ideas and appearance.

Labels of navel-gazing and self absorption often surround these kinds of activities.  I’ve always suspected they mask a terrible discomfort facing the possibility that one might discover they’re not the person they think they are.  Myself, I have a long list of defects.

The camera provides a different kind of evidence.  It reveals changes in the world around me that I’m too blind to see.  Or when the camera is turned my way I can’t pretend I’m someone I’m not.  The camera never blinks.  I try to do the same.

Is that really me?

Vespa GTS scooter on a small forest roadSeeking Oblivion

What is it that draws me down little paths and byways?  As a kid I was always searching for evidence of something — the detritus left my others in places seen as acceptable locations for abandoning “stuff”.  Decades later I ride my Vespa scooter down paths searching for something else, somewhere else, a different world, perhaps oblivion.

This ride, or at least this track through tick infested grass was a bad choice as the roots and rocks trounced my lower back with ample opportunities to bring bone and nerve together in a curse inducing manner.

I knew it was a bad idea, but sometimes, I just want what I want.

Vespa GTS scooter on a winding forest roadCrisp Days of Autumn Riding

While cold enough to have nearly all my cold weather gear on my back, save for the Gerbing electric gloves, I felt every warm ray of sunlight on my face as I rode along the winding roads that trace the entire region. I’ve been pushing myself to ride despite the mental resistance cultivated from my back.

When things get crazy the scooter makes things right, just hold on tight and see what I can see.

Perhaps this explains why I take the same pictures over and over again.

Vespa GTS scooter in park along Spring CreekLet the Sun Shine In

I keep telling myself that I need to make videos.  Short confessions on the road.  If I were the stop at this location along Spring Creek would have yielded a groaning, labored commentary on fall sunlight and the fragrance of drying leaves as I struggled to stand erect after some miles astride the scooter.

Maybe I should make that video.

At this moment typing out these thoughts it’s really hard to know much at all.  Two dogs and a wife sleeping quietly nearby.  Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” plays in my head:

“So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell
Blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?”

The clock just struck midnight.  I should stop.

Go out to the garage.

Push the Vespa into the driveway.  Go for a midnight ride.

Speaking for myself…

Fear on the Road

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But I love Halloween, and I love that feeling: the cold air, the spooky dangers lurking around the corner.
Evan Peters, American Actor

Fall rural landscape with leafless treesLest Imagination Runs Away…

Riding my Vespa scooter through the countryside I began thinking about Halloween.  It didn’t take long for my imagination to begin creating scenarios straight out of the scary stories of my youth yielding a sense of fear on the road.

The healthy, life preserving fear of operating a two-wheeled vehicle, motorcycle or scooter, on the road remained intact.  Respecting, understanding and accepting the risk related to riding and performing accordingly is, at least for me, an essential element of being a competent rider.  But sometimes my imagination runs off…

The bare trees on empty landscape seemed ominous and twinged with foreboding — as if something bad had happened here.  My brain replayed scenes from old horror movies that would leave me spellbound late on a Saturday night as I would watch Bill Cardille’s Chiller Theatre on channel 11 WIIC in Pittsburgh.

Fear, Halloween and being scared was a lovely combination.

Vespa GTS scooter on rural road in central PennsylvaniaTurns in the Road

The weather has been sublime.  With few physical challenges — cold, rain, snow — both the scooter and my imagination could wander through a pre-Halloween landscape.  I’m surprised how often roads play a part in our collective imagination as places of danger.  Not the obvious traffic related stuff, but instead the pathological to supernatural occurrences.  A few movies that fuel the frightening possibilities of the road:

  • Duel — Steven Spielberg’s 1971 directorial debut featuring a truck that terrorizes a driver on the road.
  • The Car — Eliot Silverstein’s 1977 film of a mysterious car which goes on a murderous rampage, terrorizing residents of a small town.
  • The Road — John Hillcoat’s 2009 film of a father and son braving life on a road through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
  • Walking Dead — AMC’s zombie series (and cable TV’s all-time most watched series) where you know every time a character heads out on the road something bad is going to happen.

I carry a lot of psychic baggage in my head available quickly to concoct a chilling idea of where the road is leading me.

I wonder if kids today are still watching scary stuff on TV after their parents go to bed…

Vespa GTS scooter on rural road with red barnWandering Down the Road

The ride wasn’t nearly as scary as my imagination might create.  The day was mostly a slow, languorous journey through the fine, warm central Pennsylvania countryside. That’s a fine place to be.

But a rider always needs to be wary of the sudden appearance of a zombie.  Or a witch casting a spell that might cause said rider to trade a magnificent Vespa for a URAL or worse…

Pokemon Go Alternative

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Vespa GTS and Ducati Hypermotard along a shady roadPastimes and Obsessions

I see people everywhere, in town, on my dog walks and along the road when I’m riding — faces buried in their Smart Phones connected to what I imagine — Pokemon Go.  For those living under a rock, Pokemon Go is a new mobile game based on the classic Pokemon game and uses a variety of technologies and approaches (GPS location and augmented reality to name a couple) to create a game where you have to move and explore to reach your goals.

Move and explore.  Sound like riding a scooter or motorcycle.  I’ve heard a lot of funny comments, criticisms and head shaking disbelief aimed at the Pokemon Go players.  But as I think about it the same is probably going on between non-riders as they look at those ego-driven, risk taking, crazy motorcycle riders.  Scooter riders get a pass because people seem to think they aren’t dangerous and completely safe.

Another form of ignorance but a topic for another day.

I downloaded Pokemon Go last night to see first hand what the fuss was about.  During the setup process they inquire of your age.  I thought I was going to see a message stating I was too old to play the game.

After just a little time with the game I can see why people may get obsessed — there’s an interesting discovery and reward system that happens as you venture through the real world on foot.  I’ve read that for some people the game has revealed to them their towns and communities.

Just like a ride on a scooter or motorcycle.

My friend Paul and I were on a little exploration of our own — a trip to the weekly livestock auction in Belleville, Pennsylvania.

Vespa GTS scooter at the Belleville flea marketAmerican Bazaar

One of the nice things about riding a scooter or motorcycle in central Pennsylvania is always being able to find a place to park.  Even if it’s in the weeds.

The Belleville Livestock Auction is a weekly event at a fixed location where you can buy and sell livestock in the auction barn or take part in the outdoor market where everything from produce to DVDs to guns are sold.  Like the bazaars of the Mideast and Africa, this is an American version.

Father and son at the Belleville Livestock AuctionCulture and Commerce

The wares offered are as varied as the people who come to buy and sell them.  I didn’t see anyone playing Pokemon Go — probably because of the weak to non-existent cell coverage, but there’s plenty of opportunity to walk around and discover.

Amish buggies at Belleville Livestock AuctionAmish Faction

Belleville is in the heart of Amish country so it’s no surprise to see horses and buggies everywhere.  And just as the English scour the market for treasure so do the Amish.  I saw a small cadre of young boys bartering for a haul of fireworks — loot that transcends religion and culture.

Belleville Livestock Auction flea marketThe Crowd

Lots of people gather in the summer heat searching for bargains and necessities.  Paul and I wandered along toward breakfast at Margie’s Restaurant.

Marijuana bagsLive Free or Die

There’s a definite streak of independence in parts of the market.  One vendor had an extensive collection of marijuana sacks for sale along with a host of other symbols outside the mainstream.  Eavesdropping on conversations I thought I would hear some conservative leanings but in terms of the presidential election everything I heard was a similar disgust and dismissal of both candidates.  At least the ones talking out loud.

Vespa and DucatiReedsville Market

A few miles down the road we stopped at another outdoor market with a different collection of wares.  For someone like me who’s hoping to rid his life of stuff these markets offer only deeper sinking into the mud.  Paul found a light he plans to mount on his ’64 Vespa.

American flagFlag and Folksong

I generally shy from crowds and events like these — an intentional move away from the noise and chaos of assemblies of people.  But when I do find myself wandering such places I try and take in the details.  I can’t remember the last time I saw someone playing the accordion.  This fellow was there to entertain.

The ride provided a fair amount of discovery and exploration — something like Pokemon Go but different.  The wandering through the markets provided some exercise too.  If someone doesn’t want to play the game, maybe a scooter or motorcycle would be a fine second choice — a Pokemon Go alternative.

Just go for a ride.