Let's call it Le Pew...

We let it warm up ('till about noon) before messing with the scoots.  We ordered a new battery for the red PCX - the other battery is hanging in there, but it is closing in on 6 years old... no point in pushing it any further.

Normally, changing out the battery in a PCX is a 5 minute job - I managed to knock this one out in about an hour.  I had the old battery out in a couple minutes.  The new battery (same size) didn't want to go into that tight space.  I pushed it - that was a smart move because then it wouldn't go all the way in and it took about a half hour of tugging, pulling, prying, and swearing to get it back out... so I could try again to shove it in there.  Adding to the fun: there is a nut that goes inside each terminal for the battery (so you can bolt the cables on), and it kept falling out or turning sideways, making it impossible to connect the screw.  That was fun.

With that little task done, I worked on a good connector for the GoPro camera on the Vespa.  I gave up on that and put it in my helmet mount so we could just get some riding in.  Finally, ready to roll...

That lasted almost all the way to our bridge... where we had to wait for a bridge opening.

We stopped to top off fuel before we left town.  On the bright side: gas is down to $2.06 per gallon.  Well, not for the Vespa - it uses premium ($2.56); 77mpg for the Vespa, around 100 for the red PCX.

The plan was to see if there is any kind of decent road that gets us to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge - heading for some back roads.  It's a 4-lane to get out of town...

Off Highway 100, through Laguna Vista, and back roads; past the windmill farm...

A line of palm trees...

Sugar cane on the left...

If you look to the horizon in that photo above, what looks like an anvil cloud is actually smoke - they burn sugar cane to harvest it.  Another look at that smoke cloud and the first view of the road construction signs...

The plan was now to go west of the wildlife refuge, go north far enough to circumnavigate closed roads, and see how close we could get.  The fences on either side of the road in the photo below help keep wildlife off the road in a migration corridor...

The sign for the refuge...

And, yes, an actual curve; flat enough that it isn't much of a thrill - but, we are riding!  We made the turn towards the refuge and...

Yep, more construction and the end of the paved road.  Only a mile of that, so we are hoping it won't be long before there is an actual road to get us there.  We turned around.  Another time we'll go look for wildlife, today was about riding.

Back to the main road, heading east this time.  Yep - the sign said "Road Closed" but we knew we could get to another road going west just a short ways ahead.  Nice road surface here...

It is going to be nice when all the road construction is done.  We decided to ride to Los Fresnos for a late lunch.  Look - another curve!!

Well, that was 2.5 seconds of... no, I'm kidding; barely a curve.  I mentioned "back roads" - a tractor hauling a hay bale...

Up north, these water features would be called stock ponds; down here, they are resacas; and they build houses around them...

We had lunch, then took Highway 100 back to the coast.  While eating, Joan mentioned that the red PCX is "peppier" than her black one.  Thus, the title to this post... Peppy Le Pew.  Get it?  She asked if I would be riding the red one anymore or if I planned to stay with the Vespa.  "Yeah, I like my Vespa," I said.

She said, "I'll take this one - I think it has more pep."  So, she has two PCXes, and I have a Vespa.  I think there may be a black PCX for sale in the not too distant future.

On the way home, I suggested that we swap bikes for a bit, so she could try the Vespa.  That didn't last long - she definitely likes the PCX better.  I get it: they are very different executions of what a scooter should be, and they both do what they do very well.  Just different.

Sunny and cool today - nice day for some scooting!