No Age Limit

From time to time I wonder how long I’ll be able to ride. It happened today while slogging along a grass road. Grass does a good job hiding ruts, groundhog holes, and other jarring obstacles for little scooter tires and nice taps and twinges to aging joints. It’s during those episodes that I can start feeling old.

This past year I’ve noticed subtle changes that affect riding. An active imagination can easily construct a doomed future. The end of riding and beyond. These changes come in the form of increased hand and wrist pain, reduced tolerance to cold, and increased resistance to riding in adverse conditions. When occupied in this mental arena I search for evidence of continued activity and accomplishment. At an art museum recently I was doing age calculations of the artists – subtracting their birth date from the date of a work’s creation hoping for evidence that good things continue to happen.

When I stumbled upon Piaggio’s marketing project – NO AGE LIMIT – I was thrilled to see two riders in their 70’s riding across America.

Buddy and Bob are riding MP3 500’s from San Francisco to New York. Last time I checked they were in the Midwest. It’s a nice story and they have lots of pictures, maps and information about the trip. For many the ride is the most interesting part of the story but for me it’s the fact that these guys are still out there riding. I’ve always had in the back of my mind that when I got older or less sure on my feet that I would opt for one of those three-wheeled wonders. I guess Piaggio was thinking the same thing.

Simple Living and the Pink Bike

Record fuel prices and evidence of an expanding waistline brought my old Schwinn Mirada bicycle into the light. When concerns related to riding a Vespa and its affect on masculine appearances are directed toward me they fall on the deaf ears of a man who has ridden a pink bike since the 1970's. For the two months that Scooter in the Sticks has been dormant I've continued to ride and think about things that come up on the road. Not always the typical topics. Of late I have been thinking more and more about ways to simplify my life. Reduce the noise and confusion attendant with too much stuff and too much to do with no hope of creating more time in a day.

The Vespa is a model of simplicity as a transportation vehicle. It's reliable, well made, stingy with fuel, and simple to operate. Being plain fun to ride is gravy. Economics aside it epitomizes simple transport and is surpassed in my mind only by walking or a bicycle. As it turns out I'm not ready to sign on to the pink bike as my primary mode of transport.

Riding the Vespa focuses my attention on what's happening -- what's in front of me and around me. It strips away all or most of the noise in my head as my brain focuses on what I need to do to ride safely. That kind of clarity is a gift. On the way home from the video store on Friday night I pulled off the road to look at the clouds after the sun had set. In that moment everything was simple and quiet. Those kind of Vespa moments make it easy to differentiate what is important and what is noise.

I've been reading about the 100 Things Challenge. A challenge to reduce the number of personal possessions to 100. The thought is daunting. The amount of stuff I have accumulated is depressing. Thinking about all the things piled in the garage, basement, and attic felt like a huge millstone around my neck. It's always there to be dealt with, organized, cared for, and managed. And most of it is never used. Some has never been used. Items or consumption that at one point in time I thought I could not live without. I think about this when I ride. On the road life is simple. I just want to extend that throughout my life.

The Reappearance of Posts

For the past two months I have read a lot of comments and references to the termination of Scooter in the Sticks. It was never my intent to terminate, merely to retreat for a while to focus on other things. And as things developed I would post again. I'm not sure how often but I prefer to think of Scooter in the Sticks as more indolent.

Anyways, it's been a nice vacation.