Scooter in the Sticks

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

Everyday Exploring on a Vespa

by 16 Comments

Vespa GTS scooter along rural roadNot Much to Say, No Where Special to Go

The past week I’ve been wandering.  Sometimes with purpose.  Other times aimlessly. Each ride has been an exercise in following a whim, a feeling, going where ever the current takes me. Riding a Vespa scooter certainly makes it easy to embrace that sort of thing.

As many of you know, summer is not my favorite time to ride.  Sunny days just look sort of plain.  Boring.  And they’re often hot.  Mileage drops this time of year along with my posting frequency.

The Vespa scooter doesn’t shrink from sunshine or heat and would be happy to pound on down the road for weeks, months and years.  Wandering around the rural roads near home, I realize my mind wanders as well.

All part of everyday exploring on the Vespa.Continue Reading

How to Ride a Vespa Scooter

by 28 Comments

Vespa scooter on a wet rural road in PennsylvaniaHow to Ride a Vespa Scooter — With Your Eyes Wide Open

A couple weeks ago I left the house on a damp morning with no goal other than to find breakfast.  For me, that’s how to ride a Vespa scooter — without limits or preconceived notions of what it was designed to do or how it can perform.  At the most basic level, the scooter can do almost anything you want it to do.

This post isn’t about technique.  I won’t discuss lines or counter steering.  There will be nothing on braking technique or road awareness.  Learn those things from experts and through enlightened practice.  What I want to do here is suggest a few things to broaden the riding experience.

I know motorcycle riders who think in terms of performance.  Their descriptions feel like there’s a competition between them and the road — how fast they can travel, how aggressively they can chew through curves, how smoothly they can overtake obstacles in their path.  While I’m certain there are Vespa riders who share this approach, I don’t know any personally.

When I think about riding a Vespa, it’s about an experience of the world.  And it starts with your eyes wide open.Continue Reading

Winter Riding Consciousness

by 20 Comments

The mind is stronger at the end of winter…

open field and trees on a snowy winter landscapeWinter is Coming.  Again…

A storm approaches.  Perhaps the biggest of the season and with it days without riding.  Despite the cold, bleak day I wanted to ride.  The 16F temperature when I awoke didn’t damper the desire to be on the road.  The winter riding consciousness is in control and almost any weather now seems rideable.

Rideable.  Is that even a word?Continue Reading

Vegetable Mathematics

by 14 Comments

Vespa GTS scooter parked outside office buildingRiding to Work

The commute to work is ordinary, predictable and without merit or adventure.  I’ve convinced myself, on many days, that there is nothing new to see or experience and that, at best, all I’m doing is going through motions and movements to move from home to office.  In a car, the radio would fill the mental space that it seems many seek to avoid.  On a ride to workI’m often engage is a full scale dialogue about what ails the world.

This morning was fueled by satisfaction related to being on the road again, and on vegetable mathematics.

Sandwich with vegetablesVegetable Mathematics

I’ve made no secret of the fact that a couple years ago I had a heart attack resulting from an important coronary artery being 100 percent blocked.  It was not fun and has had on ongoing rippling effect through my life. The most dramatic and ongoing — dietary changes that are more revolutionary than evolutionary.  An vegetables play an important part.

A high fat diet has given way to one of reduced everything.  And high in vegetables.  At last six to eight servings a day.  This sandwich is typical of a midday meal — whole grain bread, hint of mayo, grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.

My next vegetable fix is often on my mind.  It’s a challenge because my experience with those plant treasures has been limited.

Vespa GTS scooter at sunsetHomeward Pilgrimage

Aside from vegetables, it was good to be riding to work again.  And home.  The days are getting longer and I can navigate the pathways toward home before dark.  The temperatures have risen above the freezing mark and the snow and ice give way to mud and muck.  But it’ s all part of the rhythm of life now.

Like vegetables.

2017 Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge

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

Hard Lesson

by 18 Comments

Vespa GTS scooter on an icy farm laneThe Road is Rough

The lie in the mirror.  Young forever. Until circumstance interrupts the lovely delusion.  There are many events that can shake a person awake and aware that the road is rough and life changes.  A hard lesson.  One moment I’m healthy and able to embrace and endure any task, and then suddenly I’m old and wondering if I can do much at all.

The past year has provided more than a few opportunities for personal growth and acceptance as my body ceased to serve as I have demanded.  The hard lesson, as time passes things change.

I’ve not ridden the Vespa much this winter.  The cold bites harder than it once did and I can’t seem to fend off its effect.  The cold, snowy rides of the past seem almost within reach.

I’m not the man I once was.

portrait of steve williams with portrait of steve williamsYou Can’t Hide.

Delusion and denial, wonderful tools that support insane behavior and allow me to hide from the reality of a change in strength, health and endurance.  Just to name a few.  At times the loss seems relentless and everywhere.  I can avoid thinking about it, pretend nothing has changed, employ tricks and technology to surmount limits, but always I find myself back at the beginning — things have changed.

A hard lesson.

Vespa GTS scooter in the rainInto Each Life a Little Rain Must Fall.

I envy those people who enter their seventies, eighties and nineties seemingly unaffected by the march of time.  Their bodies biologically programmed to endure and perform.  One can only guess at the function of their mind and spirit.  There’s little profit for me to long to be them or covet their gifts.  The march of life just delivers surprises and cloudy days.  Sometimes it rains.

Or worse.

During the past year I’ve had to accept that my spine has degenerated and will potentially change my abilities without warning.  The neglect I’ve shown to my physical self has transformed into a daily evaluation of function and action.  At the end of the day, I’m wrestling with the inevitable changes.  Denial had me thinking they were a decade or more away.  Delusion had me thinking they would pass.

It was twenty degrees this morning and the sun was shining.  In past winters I would have gone for a ride.  Not so today.  Until I acquire some sort of electric heat to my feet I’ll be careful to venture out.

I hate having to worry about this.  I hate the hard lesson of growing older.

For those reading, perhaps for the first time, my apologies for the gloomy thoughts.  If I could get out on the scooter everything would be different…

2017 Brave, Bold Blogger Challenge

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