Tuesday Night Ride

We had a plethora of Italian and Japanese scoots last night.  Pack leader was Steve on his black Suzuki Burgman.  Following was a couple Honda Reflex (Red-Jan and Yellow-Vince), one Honda Silver2wing*(Dale), a 150cc (White-Ken) and a 250cc Vespa(Red-Jim).  I followed in Lois (Red Majesty).  We also had a champaigne Diamo(Vicki) and a silver Majesty(Jonathan) show up at Flanagan's launch point for some meet & greet/conversation.  That's nine scooters and seven of us rode over to Indiana!  Steve took us on a great route making perfect use of the hills of Southern Indiana.  Coming down out of the ridge, I got something in my eye, and it was stinging like a mother.  When we stopped at Mom & Pop's Ice cream (1817 Graybrook Ln, New Albany, IN‎) Jan let me douse the fire in my eye with some of her water...  I don't know if I got something in it from the air (I like to ride with my visor open under 50mph) or if I got something on my glove then wiped my eye.

 

We ate ice cream...they had No-Sugar-Added Moose Tracks!  We sat and talked for a few minutes but they do not have a public bathroom there, so we didn't stay too long.  We attracted the attention of a group of kids who were attracted to the shiny cool-looking scoots.  They first called them "motorcycles" but were easily corrected, especially once they got a look at Ken and Jim's Vespas.  Good kids are inquisitive, but not touchy.  These were pretty good kids, but I joked with Ken that I thought they were headed to his scoot with a quarter looking for the slot to put it into so they could ride!

 

There were a couple times on the ride last night that I liked having a good-weather-neighborhood-or-trailering-only-harley-poser riding behind us as a group.  I tried to take a little extra time at stops so they could do some reading. LOL!  Well, it's nice to dream anyway!  When I'm around those big heavy-metal bikes, I also like to pull up to a complete stop without putting my feet down and then ride on.  I know how silly this is, but I can't help it.  That's at least two things we can do they can't....get 50-100mpg and balance better.  A lot of that is due to having a significantly lighter bike.  I heard a guy talking the other day that he didn't even get 100 miles out of a tank!!   I note that a lot of those guys don't have bugs or dirt, have a lot of shiny chrome...I am really profiling here---I know.  But I feel like us scooter folks don't always get the respect we deserve.  Our Louisville scooter folks, in my opinion, are the antipathy of that stereotype.  Not one of them that I ride with are afraid to ride in any sane condition.  Some of them have ridden hundreds of miles with me--one or two have ridden thousands, or in what turned into less-than-sane weather conditions.  This is something I do not take lightly in the least, and I appreciate every last one of them.
 
It not a hi-power macho-machine we are on, but a smart fun vehicle.  Its ok.  The geeks are starting their takeover...we'll be swept along some day!  

 

After the 'official ride' (Steve said 'once we're across the bridge, you're on your own'--which is a common deal)  Jim and I went to this bar he discovered called Harley's House of Brews at 122 W. Main Street.  (I had originally thought it was House of Blues and wasn't really getting it...)  They had Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale on tap and I tried some.  It was pretty awesome!   We talked for a while.  Jim is one of those folks who can spin a good yarn, and I love to listen.  He's also one of the coolest guys I know.  I like hanging out with him and this night was no exception.  Still having some conversation at stops, we finally split up on down Bardstown road which was unusually busy in the Highlands for a Tuesday night.

 

Good night last night.  Good friends, good riding.

*the silver-Silverwing!