my real love at the moment
is my darling vespa, named mae. she's a 1963 vespa allstate, *just* repainted
a beautiful shiny red with black trim everywhere,
oh-so dashing and lovely. she used to be all rattle-can old allstate red,
battered but loved. she's got a new
(for her) p125 engine, which especially in a light frame like a vna makes
her speedy and light to manuver. owning mae has of course been a saga, the
way owning any old vehicle is, but
I
rode her for a month straight, and then after laying her down in a parking
lot in a misbegotten effort to learn how to bumpstart, all sorts of things
started going wrong. it turns out that she was about to fall apart under me,
the rear hub splitting and everything. since then her engine has been replaced
as well as her front forks and fender, I wrecked hitting sand around a corner
(ok, I wasn't going very fast but it wasn't any fun), some fool backed into
her in a parking lot and then KEPT GOING, turning the back corner into a mini
accordion, and I've put who knows how many miles on her. the good thing about
being hit is that the guy wrote me a check for $390, which immediately became
a downpayment for the brand new paint job...
there are more scooter links than
you
can shake a
stick at, so I refuse to list them. the locals around here are
the
incriminators. they're
a
sweet group of boys (but don't tell them I said that; they like to think they're
tough), and they've helped me more than I could have believed with all of
the mechanics. I certainly couldn't have done it by myself, and they're doing
their best to teach me as we go along, so I won't be one of those dippy girls
who can't fix their own bikes. they irk me more than just about anything.
the boys planned a rally here in january, replete 
with
northern soul music, a scooter run, and people from all over. it's getting to
be a tradition from what I hear, and it's called freeze your balls off and you
should certainly come down next year... I had a great time running around, and
everyone was as well-behaved as one could hope. there were only a few people
I didn't want to take into public... and they were entertaining enough that
it didn't bother me one bit. you can read a (mostly) impartial review
of it at two stroke buzz. and if you ever feel a need to come out and play with
us, get in touch with chris
or sean, and they can certainly fill
you in on all the relevant details.
I've been to a number
of other rallies since that one in january, noticeably the Chain of Fools run
in Virginia, where I took my normal bunch of polaroids.
that was great fun for a couple of different reasons-- first off, I rode there,
thus proving my mettle and my butt of steel (yeah, whatevah) but also proving
to myself that I could do the long trip. the ride up was particularly beautiful,
and we hit this big open field right at sunset and just opened it up and flew,
and ooooh, it was gorgeous. the ride home was less satisfying, if only because
of the hangover (heh). the other good part of the rally was meeting lo-those-many-people
who I'd met online on the various scooter lists, or heard stories about forever
and ever. people like poc phil,
and his amarzing rally-with-sidecar getup which is a terror and a blast to ride
in. I met a number of cool-ass girls there too, and it started us talking on
how there really ought to be an all-girl club. so we started one. between that
rally and the niagara falls rally put on by the Tundra Schmucks, there are now
16 of us Instigators. and we will rule the world eventually, I promise... email
me if you want to know more. and yer a girl, of course.
I've also been to the
niagara falls rally, the PVSC rally, and summit point most recently. the incriminators
and POC also sponsored a ride on the
dragon,
a crazy stretch of road up in the mountains of north carolina and tennessee
with some 300+ turns in 11 miles. I was terrified about it, but it was a blast
and I learned a ton about riding turns. so much fun... I think we'll go back
next year. or at least I will!
updated 10.01.01