The last week has been a chance for me to actually "Take your motorcycle to work day". Not once, but twice. Now that doesn't sound like a big deal but for the occasions that I've been able to use it that was pretty good. Work is a fifty mile round trip and for the motorcycle that's less than a gallon of gas, while my car uses over two for the same trip. The only downside is that the trip home is in pitch darkness. There are no streetlights up here and my low beam is swallowed up by a black hole of dense night requiring lengthy amounts of high beam to see if the creatures of the night are trying to cross my path.
Practically all of my trip is through forest and there are deer, raccoons, porcupines, skunks, hedgehogs and that's not to mention that orange cat I see from time to time. Also smaller items like frogs, chipmunks and field mice will dart out in front of you and test your reflexes. It's a wildlife obstacle course once in awhile. I normally work from night to morning, but this time I worked from afternoon to night which gave me the courage to ride. If not for the darkness I would probably do it more often, but I value my hide and run ins with deer are a common occurrence here. As it was I coped with the darkness but it was colder than I expected coming home and my hands were quite chilled in my thin leather gloves. Sunlight makes forty-eight degrees tolerable, darkness and wind chill puts the temperature near zero.
I'll probably be using the scooter more now for short runs to town for groceries and bank deposits. I can at least say the bike did three runs to Binghamton this summer at eighty miles round trip each time. My rapid transit system for doctors visits and lawnmower parts repairs.