"Um, Jim, haven't you heard: war in Ukraine, Covid, people still fighting over masking, inflation, supply chain issues, dirty thieving gas prices, the stock market is worse than any roller coaster, issues at the border... shall I go on?"
Well, yeah, that stuff is bad. All of it. Real bad. But, on the bright side: today, I brought my CTX home. Now I can feel like we're moved back in.
Joan made a run to H.E.B. this morning; normal groceries plus stuff to put on the griddle. That's fun. When she got back, we unloaded the car and firmed up our plans for the day: go to PetSmart to stock up on Rufus's food (they have what we want in stock), get an early lunch at Chick-fil-A, then head to the storage unit to get the rest of our stuff (mostly hanging things we couldn't fit in the car or cargo trailer on the last run).
With the car loaded up with the last of our stuff from the motorhome, I rolled the CTX out of the storage unit. I am heading to the Texas State Inspection place in Rio Hondo to get the CTX inspected so I can get this bike licensed. With that done, we started the trek back to the coast.
Oh, I almost forgot: on the way to Harlingen, taking a back road, an ocelot ran across the road in front of us! In all our years here, that is a first for us. Impressive cat! There is a wildlife refuge nearby, and this whole area is a wildlife corridor where ocelots migrate to and from Mexico. We have "Save Texas Ocelots" as our specialized license plates. We like cats... wild ones, tame ones, all shapes, sizes, and temperaments.
Back to the day: the guy at the Inspection place questioned me about a title (from Arizona), license plate (from the Vespa)... I showed him the Bill of Sale and that satisfied him that it was all legit.
It was a great ride home: warm and windy. Well, pushing 80º, wind out of the east at 13 to 15 mph. So, actually, a pretty nice day for a ride. Mostly to partly cloudy, with a 30% chance of precip... but, I stayed dry.
I did my "wind tunnel testing" (something I do with a new windshield, laminar lip, new bike, etc), where I keep the bike at a steady speed and move my hand all around to see where the wind is flowing. This combination of fairing, windshield, and extension is perfect for me: it puts me in an area of nearly still air, with the wind flowing to just the top of my helmet (allowing air in the vents), keeps the wind blast off my torso, and gives just a bit of airflow below my arms (allowing air in my mesh shirt/jacket).
Do you miss the Vespa? Thanks for asking - sure, it was a great scooter. I wish I had room for both bikes, but our current situation doesn't allow that. I have discussed this before, but the CTX has a Dual Clutch Transmission - it is like the best parts of the engine/transmission on a scooter and a motorcycle. It still makes me smile as I pull away from a stop - no clutch lever, no shift lever, but it pulls stronger and more immediate than the CVT on a scooter. So, kind of like a big scooter that looks like a motorcycle, and has the ability to switch to sport mode and get all the performance of a similar size motorcycle. But, I digress. No regrets on choosing the CTX over the Vespa.
Back to our island, we (Joan was behind me in the Equinox) had to wait for the bridge to close. Me out in the now mostly sunny, and Joan in air conditioned comfort... I think we were both happy. We stopped at the Welcome Center to get a windshield transponder for the CTX that will open the security gate. Joan went in to do the paper work, I had a minute or 6 to get a couple photos...
Once home and changed out of my gear, we went to our county office to get the title, registration, and license taken care of. Not an inexpensive outing, but that's it. We are done with the moving back in stuff. Probably. What's that... why more photos of the bike? I happen to think it's a good looking motorcycle. Kinda like photos of Rufus - you can't have too many. :-)
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