A day without riding is like a day without sunshine. That's not entirely true: if necessary, I can go longer without sunshine than I can riding... and that's saying a lot for this island boy. The last time I rode was last Wednesday. The guy who did our trim painting was supposed to come on Thursday, but we had a thunderstorm in the morning, followed quickly by some serious humidity. The guy came on Friday; and Saturday. We also had the Fiesta Day sale on Saturday. And yesterday was a day of rest.
It has been a while since I've exercised Joan's Xmax, so I took that out today. That is a fun, nimble bike. The riding position is very different from my CTX: more sporty feeling than that feet forward, relaxed cruising style I am used to. And, there's no foot brake on the Xmax... I felt my right foot twitch when I came up to a stoplight. I stopped for fuel before coming home - it got 86 mpg; not bad for here. It will get better mileage when running it in a sportier style when we get north. That's the next thing I am focused on: getting north and riding on some fun, twisty roads.
I mentioned being an "island boy" above. While cleaning out stuff in the storage area below our house, Joan came across one of the personalized license plates I had that was ILNDBOY. Too many letters for understanding something like:DSRTRAT (Desert Rat). It made me think about the changes to come. Joan has been perusing Apple Maps to see what is near where the new home will be for groceries, pharmacy, etc. We have been living on a small island across the Intracoastal Waterway from a small town; Port Isabel is about 5,000 population. South Padre Island is about 2,800 year round residents, but visitors swarm to the beach in summer and winter. The closest city to us is Brownsville, about 20 miles away, with around 200,000 population.
This next move will put us in Phoenix: the 10th largest metro population in the US. Second fastest growing area in the country (just behind San Antonio). Having visited there a bunch over the last 20 years, we kinda know our way around. Having ridden the PCX scooters there, we know the best secondary roads to avoid the Interstates. We'll have plenty more to explore when we get there. I'm over the reluctance, and now looking forward to this change.
Even though the move will be from small town to big city, on this Monday morning, I think about how we tend to "cocoon" here on weekends, due to all the traffic that pours into town. Probably won't be doing that once we're in Phoenix and have alternate routes to get where we want to go.
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