Open it up...

 

No, Joan didn't lock me out of the motorhome.  She did, however, say, "How about a peaceful ride today - no cameras, no electronic stuff, just riding and enjoying the ride?"

"Sure, I suppose I can do that.  Probably."

So, we rode today, but there is no photographic evidence of it.

We were behind an SUV during most of the curvy roads we take to get to Iron Mountain Road.  That's OK, we're just enjoying the ride, not burning up the curves.  He turned right when we turned right onto the next road.  Then, left.  Then, right.  Finally, on the southern part of Iron Mountain Road, he turned off; we had no one in front of us the rest of the way.

Just as we were passing the Iron Mountain Road Store, the Vespa hiccupped... as in: it felt like the engine was missing.  I had that happen a month or so ago, and it turned out to be a slightly loose spark plug cap.  This felt different.  We pulled over to check - the cap was snug, the fuel lines were all intact (none of them sucking air).  We rode on, while I was narrowing things down in my head... fuel injector issue?  Maybe a dirty injector?  We were on a highway by this point, so I opened up the throttle... it seemed a bit less performance than normal, but the "missing" eased off.  I pushed harder... not the smooth engine performance I'm used to, but you'd have to know the bike to know the difference.  We turned onto Hwy 79 for a short distance and then onto Hwy 40 - there is one really steep hill on Hwy 40 and it always slows down the Vespa (Joan's Xmax is able to stay at the speed limit on that hill).  I ran it harder prior to the hill, and it seemed to be smoothing out even more.  By the time I ran up that hill, I would call it... normal.

Riding the rest of the way towards home, I mentioned to Joan that I'd like to pick up a container of SeaFoam; she suggested we ride past Hart Ranch and go to Wally World to get some.  Good idea.  I poured in some, then went to a gas station to top off my tank before heading back to the motorhome.  It was mostly uphill highway to that station, and the Vespa ran fine.

Did it solve the problem?  I won't know until it does or doesn't happen again.

Back home, Joan asked about getting out our bean bag game - we hauled it all this way, but haven't used it.  Yet.  I got it out and paced off the boards... ready to play.  Joan set up a chair for Rufus so he could watch.  He wanted to be right near "the action"... the boy is very trusting.  I've seen us play this before, and I wouldn't get that close.  ;-)

The series isn't over, but right now it is 2 games to zero.  I won't mention who's winning... but, it's me.  I'm also winning by not thinking about the fact that we will be heading for home in a week.