Another beautiful day in the Black Hills, with a chance of rain later this afternoon. There was some discussion about "what to do"... Joan wanted to kick back and read, I was thinking a scooter ride would be a better way for me to relax. Fortunately, we are not joined at the hip, and we can each do what we want.
Joan made us a tasty late breakfast and put some ice water in my container so I could head out with a full belly and some water to keep me hydrated along the way. I geared up, put some camera gear on the Vespa, mounted the Instamic in my Schuberth helmet, synced it all up, and hit the road. I wasn't looking for a destination - the ride is the destination.
A couple hours on the scoot, blasting through some fun curves, is invigorating. This would also give me the opportunity to test out the Instamic in my new helmet. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to put the dead-cat (wind screen) on the mic. So, you may hear some crackling noise on the audio... no fault of the helmet or the mic, but user error. It's been a while since I used the Instamic, so I don't quite have the routine down.
Nothing about the ride is new, so this video is more observations from an old guy... thinking about the 20th anniversary of the events of 9/11, opinions about Covid, and then some stuff about riding. It may take a while to get this downloaded, so not sure when I'll get it posted here.
The riding was outstanding! I expected a lot of traffic with today being such a lovely day; I was pleasantly surprised at how light the traffic turned out to be. And one truck that was ahead of me on Iron Mountain Road pulled aside at the first opportunity. I had no one in front of me as I rode through the splits. Just a fun afternoon of riding.
I stopped to top off my gas tank on the way home... 93.7 miles per gallon. This is truly inexpensive entertainment! The Vespa runs like a champ - and so light and easy to push through the curves. I find myself with a big ol' smile on my face, behind that sunshield on the helmet, while I'm riding. No, you can't see through that sunshield from the outside, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Six days before we head for home, so I have to make each ride count. There is a lot we have to do to get ready to roll, so there may not be many more opportunities to get out on the scoot. Today was a fine day!
Some stills from the video...
And, the video...
This is a long one, with yours truly talking his way through it. How long? Thanks for asking - about 34 minutes. For me, this was about the ride - you can mute the sound if you just want to enjoy the riding on some of the outstanding roads here in the Black Hills. Knowing I won't be seeing riding like this for a long while, this video will bring me some "scooter solace" when the riding isn't happening.
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