As you can see by the video I attended another Bike Night at Gilligan's, a not so local Ice Cream place. I have to ride about fifty miles over local roads to reach it so it's about an hour long trip to get there. Fortunately the roads are quite scenic and possess many curves which is a motorcycle riders delight. The occasion was more than just a weekly gathering as the people at Yamaha were going to have a truck with their line of Sportbikes on display at the site. I'm a little old for the race bike stance these bikes possess but I wanted to see what they looked like in the flesh. It also gave me the chance to hang out with fellow riders, exchange stories and view some bikes beside the collection in my garage. I wasn't disappointed. Motorcyclists are a marvelous group of people who understand that it's not what you ride but that you ride. Whether it's a Touring bike, Chopper, Sportbike or, yes even a scooter, you're part of the fraternity. It was an uplifting experience.

The icing on the cake was the ride home. My usual route was under construction so I took a previously unexplored road home. Instead of the usual big climbs State Route 80 has a few gradual inclines, up and down, along with a marvelous collection of curves. It's been a long time since I rode on anything like it and found myself leaning from one side to the other in rapid succession at times to deal with the twists and turns. The scooter is very long and I had to use the brakes hard a pair of times to keep from overshooting a turn and ending up in the other lane. Beyond those moments we handled the road fairly well although I couldn't help but wishing a couple of times that I was on the Honda Rebel instead. This was a true motorcycle road. It brought me over to Route 8 the road I live on and I settled in for a good ride home. As always the scenery was fabulous and I got to see previously unobserved small towns along the road since I entered Route 8 further North than usual.

Somewhere, about thirty miles from home, the odometer turned past 12,000 miles. After a recent valve adjustment the scooter is running better than ever and we're sure to see many more miles to come. All in all it was a truly great night.