Some days you're the statue...

Some days you're the pigeon.

When I got up this morning, the young weather weasel on the local channel was lamenting about "how dry" it is... "zero percent chance of precipitation.  About 2 minutes later it started to rain.  Just a sprinkle at first, then in came down heavy.  Apparently, they have no windows in the TV studio.

When it quit raining, I went for my morning walk.  No cane.  Dodging puddles, but the rain had stopped.  None of that sun, though, that the weasel said we'd see.  Still, a pleasant day; it was 58º when I got up this morning, and only 59º an hour later when I went for a walk.

After showers and breakfast, we took the CR-V into town.  Joan had some shopping and we discussed stopping at a motorcycle shop here to see if they had a scooter that she might be interested in.  When we asked the young man in the shop if they had a Yamaha Xmax in stock, he had a look of disbelief on his face... "An Xmax?  Um, we just sold the one we had last week..."

There isn't much of a scooter culture in the Black Hills.  Harleys?  Yes.  Indians?  They have the biggest dealer in the country in Sturgis.  Sport bikes, all the major brands?  Indeed.  But, if a dealer here has a scooter, it is sitting back against the wall.  I get that.  There are places where scooters are popular; this area isn't one of those places.

I did do something in that shop that I haven't done in a long time... I tossed a leg over a low-slung Triumph Bobber.  Really, I haven't been able to toss a leg over any motorcycle in years.  It was kind of a big deal to me.  No, I don't want another motorcycle - I just wanted to know if I could do it.  With that confidence, I tried my leg over a taller cruiser... "Yeow - that hurts!"  I need to get back to my Vespa.

With shopping done, we went out for lunch; then, back to the motorhome, where I got the scoots out.  I had a half hour on my own, messing with the GoPro and my phone, to make sure everything was working like it should.  Yep.

We geared up for riding, I turned on the phone and the GoPro, and... they must have been having a bit of a spat.  They weren't talking.  No amount of "counseling" on my part get them together.  I thought it might be taking a photo without showing me a preview... but, I was wrong.  I got two crappy photos before we were a mile out, and then nothing...

It was still mostly cloudy, but a lovely temp in the mid-70s.  We had not destination in mind, just wanted to ride a bit.  We ran through all the twisties (photos would have been cool, if the GoPro didn't suck ass), then turned onto the back county road that would take us mid-way to Iron Mountain Road.  Hey, look: cows!  On the road!  I was staring face to face with a cow... now, I know these are not bright animals... I was concerned it might just amble over and rub against the Vespa.  I honked, and it turned away and moved off the road.  A few hundred yards down the road, the rest of the herd was moving across the road.  Good thing we didn't come around that corner at speed - you might slip on the cow shit in the road and run into one of these dumb beasts.

We got to Iron Mountain Road... Look - they painted center lines on the road!  Yeah!  About two miles on the road, we got behind a bunch of Harleys that were stopped.  As they moved ahead slowly, we fell in line with them... and the dozens of cars and pickups ahead of them.  Oh, shit - they are just now painting the yellow lines, and traffic is backed up as far ahead as we can see.  It took us about a half hour to go two miles, then we made a U-turn and headed back to that county road.  And our cow buddies.

Past that, it was another 10 miles or so of twisties and then to the highway to get some gas.  Joan got an incredible 120 miles per gallon on the red PCX, I got nearly 85 mpg on the Vespa.  This is better mileage than we get anywhere else we ride.

Then, back home.  For some patio time with Rufus.  And the chance to check the card on that ass-sucking GoPro to find out I didn't get any photos of the yellow line, the crowd of bikes and cars in front of us, or the cows.  You'll have to use your imagination.