Vespa 300 GTE Touring Motor Scooter

I am so pleased to be a Vespa owner.I woke up this morning and looked out to see the Vespa parked beside my Harley Electroglide and felt right with the world.  God is good all of the time.

The Harley Electriguide is the biggest Harley made. I rode it to Sturges South Dakota and back in 2013.  Nothing beats the Harley for highway driving.  However, it’s rather big for the city. And nothing beats the Vespa for the city. 

I know cyclists will tell you different. I bicycled across Europe with a gorgeous woman companion in my 20’s. I was young and athletic then. I’ve since had several bicycles and loved my latest, the Rad Electric Bicycle. But I’ve been a fan of scooters since I rented my first, in my 20’s riding about Hawaii and later in Cozumel, Mexico, having so much more fun. 

My first scooter was an Aprilia 50 cc which I bought when I lived in the Vancouver West end.  The Italians are famous for their scooters and motorcycles, world reknowned for their performance design and workmanship.   The next scooter I had was the amazing Honda Ruckus. The Japanese captured the American market with motorcycles in the 60‘s and 70‘s. My brother loved his Yamaha 125, back when the 100 to 150 cc machines were all the rage.  The big bikes, like the HD and Triumph 1200‘s used in WWII only became popular for cruising in later years. My HD Electriglide is 1600 cc and can carry myself, Laura and the kitchen sink at high speeds, all day without a care.

I passed my Honda 50 cc Ruckus onto Laura.  We both truly loved it as the ultimate inner city get about. It only weakness was the lack of power going  over Vancouver bridges. I‘d graduated to a Buell Blast 600 cc which had more than enough power to spare. I toured the whole of BC on that motorcycle.  

When I lived in Saipan, the jewel of the Northern Mariana Island I rented Vespas. Laura and I loved touring the island on a Vespa 250. It was grand riding through the jungles and coming out onto a stretch of endless white beaches with vast expanses of blue Pacific Ocean.   When we visitted Rome, not that long ago, I again rented a Vespa 250.  It was one of our favourite days travelling around  the ancient picturesque city, scootering from cathedral to cathedral to pray at the these famous sites of the most holy of relics.  It was a bit gruesome, finding the head of one saint at one magnificent cathedral and the feet at architectural.  The Vespa made it all so Italian. Really quite spiritual.  Cobblestone roads made by the Romans.  Places where St. Paul had walked.

Now I’m the owner of a Vespa 300 GTE Touring motorscooter and I’m thrilled.  

In Vancouver, it’s an unspoken rule that anyone on a motorcycle is fair game.   The trouble is female vegetarian yoga pant wearing liberal voters Huffington Post readers, with their unowned aggression in deep denial of their road rage loathing all things male, unfortunately, perceive motorcycles as masculine, It’s a life and death struggle with their constant negligence and insistence “I just didn’t see him, (before I smashed him like a bug with my Volvo SUV).”  By contrast scooters are treated like bicycles, somehow seen as not target worthy  metrosexual.  They are less triggering to the liberal arts college grads.  Riding a motorcycle in Vancouver is a serious matter. I’ve even a heard a Hell’s Angel say he wouldn’t ride his Harley downtown because of the poor drivers.  Vancouver drivers are definitely the worst in the world but they are equally passive aggressive.  However, they simply don’t target scooters.  Admittedly when I’m driving my Harley, Steppenwolf, ‘Born to be Wild’ plays in my head while  on the Vespa I’m hear opera arias or in the summer sun,  the Beach Boys.  People actually smile at me rather.  Part of it is that they don’t know my Vespa as gas powered.  Simply polluted with propaganda they believe electricity, even if coal generated, is ‘clean’  while all things gas is ‘dirty’.  Vespa even has an Electrica version and Harley Davidson has just put out an Electric 500 cc motorcycle

My Vespa maroon and sparkling which rich mahogany brown leather seats.   My Harley is black and I geared  up in black armoured clothing. I bought the Vespa wearing shorts, tshirt and sandals. I wore a helmet. When I got home I added armoured gloves. Once a surgeon and musician hands are forever important. The fact is I’d mostly miss the ability to type these days. I just don’t feel I need to wear leather on a scooter. My Harley is 800 lbs and my scooter is 300 lbs. In the city I mostly do 30 to 60 km and routinely bicycled at 40 to 50 km/hour when I was younger.  So while the chance of major injury remains it’s not the same as when I’m on the Harley on the highway doing 120 mph.  The Vespa 300’s top speed is 135 km/hr.  Admittedly less than a day old, I’ve had it over a hundred already.  I was only wearing t shirt and shorts and helmet and being stupid but it’s not at all like the day I took my Harley up to 140 mph and chickened out finding just how fast it would go. It goes a lot faster but I’ll never know. What I confirmed with the Vespa is that it really can go on the freeway.  If I plan on touring I’ll at least wear jeans and jacket.  Armour protects joints at higher speeds. 

The truth of the matter is I really like slower speeds on the Vespa. Sitting upright it’s a wonderful platform for sightseeing and looking about.  I have already taken it out to a country trail to confirm that it’s just fine on country roads. I’m so looking forwards to taking mine camping and having a camera or a bow along as I explore. Laura enjoyed riding on the back of the Vespa for a spin so it , will be fun again to ride with her about the city. We rode all over the province together on my HD Roadster but she‘s lost interest in the highway the road trips I still love with my HD Electroglide. The last year Gilbert, the cockapoo was my companion on the rides up the canyon to Merrit. 

Laura and even Gilbert, now,  much prefers riding out to the country in my Ford Truck with the Adventurer Camper. I carried the KTM 690 on the front or back so will now have to arrange to carry the wider but lighter Vespa the same way.   My Vespa is only 300 lbs. 

I’ve only had it a day and already made the trip to the market.  Like I found with all my previous scooters there’s lots of storage. My Vespa came with the box I’d had added to my previous scooters.  It holds too bags of groceries. The under the seat storage holds tools and there’s even a rack on the front and a dashboard storage compartment. There’s a little ring to hang bags from at my feet too. I love my Vespa. 

On the way back from the market and the post office I picked up burgers and fish and chips from the White Spot.  With Covid I’d had to take two post office trips a week and with the Harley I’d simply be less likely to make stops.  Not now. Scooters are just so convenient for multiple stops. I won’t even compare them to cars. Cars are cages and anyone who has ever had a scooter knows how much they open up a city.  Parking is everywhere and unlike a bicycle you don’t have to go through all that locking up and chaining up one has to do in Vancouver where a million bikes are stolen by the hour despite NASA titanium locks.  

Did I say I’m happy with my Vespa. Admittedly I’m happy with every vehicle. Vehicles are adventure to me.  Different vehicles, different adventures. I’m the same way with canoes, boats and yachts.  I’d really like a personal space craft. I asked my brilliant nuclear physicist engineer cousin I’m depending on him for a nuclear powered Harley Davidson with outer space capacity.  For now I’m really looking forward to more fun on the Vespa. Last night I took it for a spin too to check out the lights.  Perfect. Not only that but it was just quiet enough that I didn’t feel like I was disturbing the neighborhood. I don’t take the Harley out after 10 pm unless I have to and my KTM 690 was similarly, though not quite as loud. Loud pipes save lives.  Not the Vespa. It’s loud enough that Laura heard me come up beside her as she was driving the car but not so loud that I couldn’t go out for a late night spin and feel I wasn‘t  disrupting the neighbour hood. It‘s a trade off.

Metrovespa,the dealer was like a miniature, Trev Deely,  my Harley Dealership. Martin, the sales man was terrific, so friendly and helpful. The service department is there and they do everything as well as manage maintenance schedules like Trev does.  I confess,a major part of owning a two wheel machine, is trusting the service department. Harley and Honda have been great that way. Now I’m delighted to see the same kind of professionalism and concern in the Vespa service centre. The good news was that Vespa,  doesn’t require much service, less than Honda or Yamaha.  Vespa has always been known like Harley for being built sturdy.  Tough little machines.  Marten showed me where the oil inspection site was and added it doesn’t use a lot. He reviewed the walk around inspection bike owners need to know with powered two wheel vehicles. A tank of gas gets 200 km.  At the price of gas today the fuel economy is terrific.

Now I just need more time to explore. One of my joys is going for coffee at outdoor cafe’s. I love to carry a laptop , and journal thoughts and impressions outside.  A consummate blogger.  Now I’m looking forward to next weeekend, weather permitting, a run down to the New Westminster wharf area on my Vespa. New Westminister is one of the most marvellous and oldest areas of Vancouver but while it’s only a half hour away from where I am in Burnaby I’ve simply not enjoyed taking a car or motorcycle down the hills to the waterfront. The Vespa was made for such terraced roads and traffic. I remember riding about such places in Rome.  

Lots to look forward to.  Thankfully a friend will take care of selling my KTM which ,while being a skookum motorcycle is too off road for any of my needs to day. Older I just didn’t ,this last year like the risk of leaving the logging and forest roads or any of the  risk taking in the wilderness with an off road enduros deserves.  A decade back I’d ridden my Honda 250 on deer trails and literally off roads through pastures and fields, jumping rocks and barrelling through streams.  I didn‘t even think if I broke my body or machine,  it would be hours or days before someone found me.  This last couple of years I simply haven’t felt as  courageous or foolish alone in the woods as I did younger. Someone else will enjoy the full experience of the KTM while I scooter about, never planning on leaving a road with my new to me beautiful little friend.  Kaloo Kalay, he chortled in his joy! Thank you, Jesus!

Vancouver Motorcycle Show, Tradex, 2020

Incredible show.  All the best of the motorcycles, quads, scooters and accessories BC has to offer in one big Abbotsford Tradex location. I love coming back each year. This year I met up with Victor and Tim. Previous years Laura has accompanied me along with others.  

This year Murray had hoped to come but couldn’t make it Friday.  “I have a work shift I need to take so I have the money to pay my motorcycle Insurance.”  Motorcycle insurance cost are appalling. If Climate Change was serious business then the government who actually claimed to care about the environment they’d not punish us with carbon tax and gouging insurance costs.   An enlightened age would see motorcyclists subsidized.      

Buddha said, Desire is the source of all suffering.  I really suffer at the Vancouver Motorcycle Show. Sweet misery!

Two years ago I was ready to trade my Harley Davidson Electroglide in for the HD Street Glide. Last year , fickle, I loved the big tired cruising and styling Fat Boy. This year I’m back to the Street Glide. I drooedl and got shivers up my spine when I sat on it.  Low to the ground. I felt the wind in  my hair.  Sitting there  I riding down the highway listening to the Doobie Brothers and Steppenwolf.   

I was styling. Really.  I had my heavily weight down Harley Davidson Owner’s Group leather vest with pins from my Ride for Dad and various other fund raisers and poker runs over the years.  I had my  Christian Rider’s Cross and  Dr. Bob patch.Under it I had on my Sturges North Hoodie.  Under that I had a 2013 Sturges Black Hills Rally t shirt.  On top I had a black togue, like Edge wears but mine has a discrete little HD logo. I am so cool I’m hot.    

The trouble with Tradex is they don’t allow dogs.   Gilbert rides with me, stylin his HD leash and collar with his black leather jacket.  I know everyone would have been looking at me if if it wasn’t for all the utterly bodacious babes  in leather bodices and tight tights.  Mamma! Biker babes are over the top.  While many were trying out the bitch seat a whole lot more were checking out the rides for themselbves.  

I have a KTM 690 enduro. The KTM 790 Adventure just teases me.  The KTM 690 is perfect but that doesn’t mean I can’t look.  I even sat on the 790 Adventurer. It felt so good.   

I got the new God child Harley Davidson baby clothes.   

The Norton was on display. British Bike Owners club. My first bike was a Norton.  I crashed it my first ride so didn’t ride motorcycles for a decade after that. My Honda Ruckus , the greatest of 50 cc Scooters was there. I have to resist getting one. I’ve had two over the years and they’re just the best fun. Laura had one too.  Tha great Italian Aprilia’s were there. I loved my Aprillia. I sat on a red Vespa just for the memory of Laura and I whizzing all over Rome.  We drove all over on that rented Vespa searching out relics of saints.  We prayed at each ciurch admiring the architecture, rlinguary art and just thankful to be at each hallowed place.

I enjoyed seeing the fabulous Yamaha’s and Honda’s.  I have a couple in my day. I will always remember riding on the back of my older brothers Yamaha when I was a kid.  He was so cool.  The Can Am spyders were there. I remembr riding with a girl and her parents in northern Montana. We had Harleys but she was wild and crazy loving her Spyder.  There was even a ski doo at the show.   Harley’s new Live Wire electric motorccyle was selling.  Other electric scooters were too.  Mostly it was still a glorious fuel efficient machines. BMW’s, Ducattis, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Indians and Royal Enfields. They are all so different.  Each is unique. I’ve had so much joy riding motorcycles. My friend Dave calls it, Wind Therapy.

I didn’t buy a bike but I did get more swag. There’s always such great deals at the Motorcycle show. 

I was having my favourite hot dog and americano when Victor found me. He’d bought another leather jacket. “I don’t need it.”  “I know’, I said showing him the armoured gloves I’d bought and didn’t need.   Tim from Old  Motorcycle was with him. He introduced me also to his neighbour whose with Mountainview HD. I’d already talked to him about the Streert Glide. I liked that all the Harley dealerships were in one area,  I could talked with the great guys from Kamloops Barnes and Langley Barnes, Trev Deeley and Mountainview.  

The new bikes were all round incredible. Something about the new sleekness of design and colours.  

Talking bikes with a variety of guys was funtoo. talking hunting was fun too. And talking wives and girlfriends.  All round a great day.

Song for 2020

G

Looking for God and the Holy Spirit

C

Calling for Love in the Name of Jesus

G

Hallelujah

D

Hallelujah

C

Hallelujah

G

Praise the Lord

G

Thank you Lord for the new year coming
C

Thank you Lord for the old year going

Hallelujah.....

Thank you Lord for Dogs and Rifles

Thank you Lord for Motorcycles

Hallelujah......

Thank you Lord for mountain streams

Thank you Lord for air that’s clean

Hallelujah.....

Thank you Lord for laughing children

Thank you Lord for loving women

Hallelujah

Looking for God and the Holy Spirit

Looking for Love in the Name of Jesus

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Praise the Lord.

Anacortes Oyster Run 2018

Great ride down on the Harley Electra glide. Chuckunut Road never ceases to give joy. The awesome views of the ocean, winding road through evergreen corridors.

Now I’m in downtown Anacortes at Island Cafe.  There’s the rumble of Harleys and the bumble bee buzz of  crotch rockets in the background. I’ve a window side table where I’m eating raw oyster and clam chowder soup. There’s a whole lot of bikers in leather walking by, lots still wearing their chaps, others stripped down to club vests and jeans.  The women are most beautiful. More and more come on their own motorcycles. A lot still ride behind their rich men on big touring motorcycles, couples who can afford them.  

Here and there is a gang member, a Bandido or such but they’re less than a thousandth of the gathering, Christian bikers and War veterans bikers much more prevalent.  The Combat Veterans even have a booth and the word ‘combat’ is obviously distinguishing.  Did I say the women were beautiful? Lots of bearded men.  It’s America so land of luxury and fat with no one commenting on the prevalence of bellies.  We joke that that’s why we need the big cc bikes, to haul our old white haired lard asses.The crotch rocket set and the Harley Sportster crowd are slim and trim and more fashionably dressed.  The Victory crowd are really stylin. The Indian set, a vintage breed apart.  Lots of choppers and some incredible bike art. I talked to a young guy on a KTM Duke. The prettiest little girl was riding a Rebel. Lots of Yamaha and Honda’s too. The Trikes and Spiders are becoming more and more popular too. 

A rock band was playing when I arrived. The hour and a half wait at the border delayed me some while I only got away at 12 having planned to leave before 10.  It’s an accomplishment to make it another year. Don Pollock got me out to my first Oyster Run years past. 

I didn’t realize back then how sober bikers generally are. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was a classic in the mindset of mainstream bikers. Now there’s a whole lot of adventure bikers touring the world. The Triumph Tiger and later BMW got into that market. I still argue that my Harley Electraglide is the best American freeway bike ever developed. I loved riding across the country and back to Sturges. The trip down here on the #5 freeway then along the back roads thorough Pacific Northwest farming areas made me love my Harley all over again. It’s just such an amazing machine.

Anacortes is such a sweet little family town back drop for this long standing biker  rally.  Quilting stores ,lots of sea side tourist items along side furniture stores and lots of variety in restaurants and coffee bars.  I’ve come here in summer on the bike just to enjoy the town when it’s quiet.  Anacortes rocks all the time.  But really this day it roars.   

Winter and Spring Fight to the Death, Hear all about it! Place your bets!

The snow came just after I called Trev Deely motorcycle to ask them to have my Harley ready a month early.  Dave had ridden his Softail past me with that smug look I’d seen on all the motorcyclists for days.  Spring was here.  Ha ha ha. Looking at you still riding in a cage.  I fear I jinxed it.  As we say among friends, “I may not be much but I’m all I think about.”
That’s when my furnace died.  I called Eric at Starfleet and had faith he’d have it fixed in a day or two. He’s the best there is and has solved every problem I’ve thrown at him over the years.  I just turned out the furnace lacked the normal access and each day he’d fix one thing and it would work better but crap out in the night. I love my electric blanket.
I fear I’d been thinking about returning to the prairies but this taste of winter cold and equipment break downs was a personal reminder of the struggle with the environment that was part of day to day existence out east.  Here I had mosquito people and horsefly authorities and wasp drivers but there were no real bugs in the lower mainland.  And winter didn’t last all year. The climate here is more hospitable. Even if the creepy people demand carbon taxes and punish people for heating their homes so LA people won’t have to use their air conditioners more.
Winter here lasted only a couple of months at most .  I’d just taken pictures of pretty blue crocus and tulips and posted them on Face book.  I called them Hope and Faith.  Would they survive.
Thank God for Canadian Tire. They had an indoor propane heater to attach to propane bottles. They are imostly used in construction sites.  The temperature had dropped and my electric heater limited by the available power on my cable wouldn’t do more than keep the temperature above 60. Since living in the tropics I will only wear shorts and t shirt in the home.  I was now wearing sweats and sweaters and slippers. I may as well be in Winnipeg.
When the weekend came I escaped with Laura to Harrison Hotsprings. The Harrison Lake Hotel was luxurious with heat and I sat for hours in the public hot spring pool dreaming of the Mariana Islands.  My dreams all week week were of my sailboat and fair winds and following seas. Darlene’s incredible Facebook  pictures of Australia beaches have certainly stoked the dreams. Laura began talking about her love of Saipan once the snowstorm hit.
This week Eric became pretzel man and got into the inner workings of the furnace to scratch the right spot that had made the beast ornery.  A tiny burnt out part that somehow not responded to the computer command to ignite.  Eric set it straight. Heat, glorious, heat was now mine.
I sat on the couch in shorts and T-shirt watching NCIS and Big Bang Theory in shock.  I went to work each day.  I love my F350 truck with new snow tires. I smugly watched cars fish tailing in the ice and snow.  I talked to a motorcyclist who said it was ‘awfully’ cold, the year’s best understatement.
All over the news the Justin Trudeau and family reality show desperate to out compete their role models the Kardashian’s and Jenners were in India dressed funny doing photo ops in front of impressive old buildings. I laughed at the quotes from Indiannews about how ridiculous they looked in their Indian “costume”. Anyway now I expect him to break into the song “It’s fun to live at the YMCA” Even when I visited Mumbai it was as sophisticated as New York so I’m not surprised Trudeau’s antics are perceived as “mocking”. When he visited us in the DTES he certainly didn’t get dressed in layers of rags carry and carry a sleeping bag.
  The India government was further disgusted with him as he was only meetings with terrorists, the same modus operadi he used in Canada. But even that didn’t help his plummeting ratings so he went back to his winning strategy of giving millions and billions to strangers. 10’s of millions to terrorists in Canada. Billions to overseas tyrannies. And now he says he’s got a million dollar ‘trade deal’ but it turns out he knows as little about a good trade deal as he knows about economy, environmen or community. He’s given $750 million to chucling gleeful Indian billionaires, he really likes to hob nob with billionaires at our expense,, and they have said they’ll give him $250 billion in return.  It’s like stealing candy from a baby. But the media is all over it and every one is smoking dope and drinking and no doubt some are trying opium because ‘why not’.
My patients are homeless and the news says the shelters turned away 50 people or more.  I’m writing prescriptions for antibiotics. The flu is killing old people.  There’s a sense the government wants to save money by killing off the citizens .  The death rate from the fentanyl epidemic I’m in the middle of is over a thousand and now they’re shooting each other near the clinic I’m working. But there’s another picture of Justin and Sophie cavorting in front of religious monuments in the hot weather having abandoned Canada to the cold for his weekly family vacation.
I snarl by myself at times.  My eye less dog comforts me.  He’s been in a world of pain and now we’re relatively okay. We have heat to return to.
Then the pipes freeze. It’s a diagnostic dilemma in the dark in the snow in the below zero windchill last night in the dark but I find some idiot (me) has unplug the heat wire for the hoses so he could plug in his electric bicycle falsely believeing spring had sprung.  I plug in the cord.  In the morning the shower is running full blast, the pipe unfroze in thee night,but there’s puddles mist and spray throughout the bathroom.  I towel everything  down.  I really have to pee.
I go to my refrigerator to get milk for the coffee I’m making and the fridge is off, the freezer meat is soft. Sometime in the night the water pump and new plug and electric heater have blown the circuit.  I re set it.  I now have heat and electricity and my refrigerator is working. My water heater I hope is back on line.  It’s taken me about a half hour to get this all back in order. I’m having my first sip of coffee.
I’m running a bit late. I didn’t do the sit ups I promised myself I’d do. I’ve not meditated but I’ve not suicided.  I’ve not shot up with a needle. I ‘ve not gone looking for a bomb to blow up some government office. I’ve not become a rapper. I’ve not voted Liberal. I’ve just plodded through a not atypical Canadian winter day knowing that as I’m in Vancouver this is likely my karma for all the ‘smug’ remarks I’ve made about Winnipeg when my friend Wes sends pictures of the magic driveways and walkways there that fill up with snow minutes after they’ve been plowed or shoveled.  Here the snow will be gone in a week or so. I hope the bulbs are deep enough to withstand the cold. I love the flowers of spring.  Soon I’ll be visiting the tulips in the valley for the annual glorious tulip festival.
I just have to remember that Spring does come.  Even in Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal Spring eventually returns with warmth and joy for all.  I expect the media will have triumphal selfies of Justin Trudeau in Canada at last, maybe even at work in parliament.  It might just be once like the sighting of the ground hogs but even the French work here eventually.  The biker gangs and mafia will soon take to the streets. The corruption will heat up. It’s Canada , we’re resilient.
Another old friend died. He was spiritual. We know he’s in heaven.  That alternative appears more attractive in Canadian winters.
  My back hurts getting out of bed.  The chiropractor is helping.  I’ve been chewing aspirin and my lovely doctor gave me a stool sample kit for Occult Blood testing. I am surely bleeding in my aching gut with all this aspirin I’m taking to just be mobile so the last thing I want is a ‘false positive’ test. They threaten everyone over 50 with the long snake. As kids we were scared of them under our beds but these ones are real and despite the humor of Connolly’s description of a colonoscopy I really feel I could go to my grave happily having avoided medically induced explosive diarrhea.
It really isn’t that bad.  I have to look on the positive. Snow tires, clothing, healthy cat and dog, heat again, running water again, light and aspirin.
 There’s just this little bit about going outside. Too many car crashes. The other drivers scare me.
 I see people who can’t bring themselves to leave their apartments. I’m seeing more and more people afraid and paranoid.  The heart patients are having trouble breathing in the cold.
I have a picture of two malaria’s and a cholera up on my wall to remind me we’re just helping each other, one a little more along the road or a little less sick.
 My mother would say, “lord love a duck”.
. I’ve got to see if the water has had enough time to heat so I can shave. I need the inspiration of a hot shower especially to ease my back.
 I’ve got clean clothes.  And snow tires. Don’t forget the snow tires.
Thank God for spring and please get rid of this snow so I can ride my motorcycle.  Really I don’t want a pickle I just want to ride on my motorcycle.
 I trust you spring. You will beat winter . You always do.

Laura's Smart Car

Well it began with a Honda Big Ruckus 250 cc scooter. Laura loved my little 50 cc Ruckus and we thought if she had the 250 she could ride along beside me and Gilbert on my Harley.  She’d previously ridden on the back of my Harley roadster but Gilbert came along when I graduated to the Harley Electroglyde.  We tried the Russian side car Motorcycle for a while but it really wasn’t a comfortable ride.  Gilbert liked the cadillac comfort of the Electroglyde but really didn’t like to share his seat with Laura.  So for the sake of peace in the biker gang I got Laura the Big Ruckus.  Great city bike.  However the first time Laura and  I took it on a trip to Harrison she dropped it and banged her elbow something fierce.  Painful ride and not particularly fond of the bike after it bit her.  It was a heavy beast too so not easy to load onto the truck. We tried it out on logging roads hunting but it really didn’t like to climb and off road it was so heavy that it really wasn’t at all like my much loved Honda CRF 250.
That lead to the Yamaha 250 cc V Star.  A lovely bike. We traded up with the Honda and Laura was sure it was fine.  But then she got scared.  Riding it around parking lots was fine but Vancouver traffic spooked her. Out on the open road she’d have been fine but getting there was not going to happen.  So this beautiful new motorcycle lived in her car park for most of the year then came over to me where I kept into under tarp intending to sell it.  Laura’s Honda Civic had died and it just seemed like the Smart Car was going to be the solution.
Gilbert hurt his back jumping out of the truck so it was even questionable whether or not it would be good for him to go on long treks on the motorcycle.  Laura and I looked at several small cars over the year. I love my Mazda Miata sports car but other than that the Ford Fiesta, Cooper Mini, Fiat and Smart cars were the best bet. Laura with glasses and Vancouver traffic liked the Smart Car best for visibility.  So sure enough with a couple of extra thousand and the sale of the motorcycle she’d be able to get a Smart Car.  They live forever, are best in the city, but can go on trips.
So now the plan is that Gilbert can ride with me and the camping gear or he can ride with Laura in comfort. Knowing Gilbert he’s going to mutiny and choose to ride in comfort with Laura.   I’m going to ride the Harley Davidson no matter what. .  We’re planning more camping motorcycling trips.  That means either she’s back on the bike and Gilbert stays home, we manage with the three of us  or she  and he comes along behind in the Smart Car.  She loves Smart car. She says its like an enclosed and comfortable motorcycle.    The guys HIM motors  who sold it to her were terrific.  Diesel.  Red. Sun roof. Automatic.  As my friend Tom says it has it’s own cachet.   

BC Boat and Hunting Show 2016, Tradex, Abbotsford, BC

Derek reminded me first about the BC Boat and Hunting Show.  “Some of the guys and I are going out Friday."
I didn’t think I would make Friday.  But I told Tom about it.
Saturday morning, Tom called, “Still want to go to the BC Hunting Show?"
“Well, if you hadn’t phoned I would have stayed on the couch drinking coffee and wallowing in self pity?"
“Meet there at 12."
Okay.  Gilbert couldn’t come because they foolishly don’t allow dogs in the hunting show. He was left doing guard duty for the day.  My truck was in the shop being repaired so I took the Mazda Miata and drove out with the top down. Hot and sunny day for early spring.
Tom was already there, having driven down from Chilliwack.
Great show.  We loved the boats and sea dos and Yamaha Wave Riders.  Capella  Outfitters werethere.  Steveston Marina had the Icon radios we needed.  Great show deals so typical of Stevestons! I got Laura a pink camo skirt.  The Langley guy who does all the get your boat and ATV onto of your truck equipment was there again  this year. He’s  amazing.
We had burgers and fries.  Trade show fair.  Couple of cute country girls in square dance dresses sat near us. We'd talked with a mother and her 3 month old baby waiting for the burgers.  Asked if she was getting the little girl baby a fishing rod or a rifle, the very attractive mother said, "I think I'll buy her a rifle first."
I talked with a guy who hunted moose and bear. Told me about his buffalo hunt up Ft. St. John way.
Then we walked about some more looking at boats and motors.  Honda has a new 500 side by side 4x4 that looks like it could beat my Yamaha 450 for versatility and fun.  I ‘d like to have Gilbert on the seat beside me rather than behind me.  But the Argo amphibious machine is a whole other level of mobility.  We liked the aluminum boats.  Terrier knives were there.  Aussie boots.  Lots of camp and boating gear.  Rifle and binoculars.  I actually was taken with a set of Nikon opera glasses. Even Harley Davidson had some bikes there.  But the sweet offload on road was my Honda 250.  The suzuki 650 enduro is still sweet machine.
There were the big aluminum perfect boats and the great fishing boats, all the outboards too.  A fly tying demonstration was going on.
Rifles of all hunting kinds were being sold. Everything one could want for hunting or fishing was on display.
We really liked the new Iridium satellite safety text phones. Great safety tech.
My Vortex binoculars I got last year after seeing them at the Tradeshow were brighter than my Bushnell’s.  You can’t have enough binoculars or knives. (or boat, or atvs, or motorcycles etc). All the guides were there with pictures of their incredible sites for fishing and hunting.  British Columbia is a seriously beautiful province.

All round a great event!