And the beat goes on

Hello everyone. It's been quite a while since I last posted something here and I want to get one last entry in before the new year. Many things have happened since April, and many things before then that I have yet to post something about. Top on the list of things going on in my life are getting married to my sweetheart and preparing to move out of the Las Vegas area.

Thanks to everyone who came to the wedding party and regrets for those who could not come. It was a blast and everyone's help made it wonderful!

Cheers and fortune to you all in the new year!

Know Your Rides

Pistol Pete
The Las Vegas scooter rally, High Rollers Weekend 2009, was a hoot! Yet again many amazingly restored, modified, chopped, and ratted-out scooters showed. The rides were fun, and the people were entertaining.
I didn't win a damned thing in the raffle.

Photos are appearing here.

One week later...

The Rides of March scooter rally was a good time for all. I wasn't quite used to the hilly roads and blind corners, but I was able to push into my limits and get some good experience. I am always amazed at how skilled, calm, and insane most of the people on these rides are.
I didn't win a damned thing in the raffle.

Photos from the rally will probably be here.

The ride out to the coast was very beautiful. We got to stop by the newly opened Chick-Fil-A in Bakersfield, CA (a freakin' facebook page!) for a delicious sammich. We spent some time in Pismo Beach and San Luis Obispo (CA). Pismo Beach water was like ice, and SLO was a fine little city. I have not seen much of California beach, but what i've seen some parts are nice but with a black volcanic sand element I'm not used to. Give me an nice warm Atlantic beach any time.


The photo for this blog is of an amazing scooter photographer Pistol Pete, whose photos can be perused at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scooterpics/

My name is Richard Henry Lee; Virginia is my home.

My name is Richard Henry Lee; Virginia is my home
And my horses turn to glue if I can't deliver
Unto you a resolution on independency!

So, I'm visiting Virginia for work training, and it's a nice place. Living in Georgia, I never was able to make my way up here to visit the capitol but it looks like I chanced on a good time. This is supposed to be the week of the Cherry Blossom festival, not that cherry trees excite me particularly more than, say, potatoes. I've never been to a potato blossom festival either, unless you count that sack that's been in my closet for a month.

The Bird is the Word

Christmas was certainly a fun time. I got to spend a week with my parents and got to visit my brothers and their families. One tradition we try to keep is to cruise around the neighborhood looking at everybody's light displays. I wasn't able to get there in time to help my parents trim the tree and hang the lights, but at least we got to troubleshoot a light malfunction using one of those crummy little light testers.



One exciting thing that happened just before I left was that it snowed in the Las Vegas valley area where I lived. It stacked up pretty well and made a strange contrast to the palm trees and sand. My brother had come to visit and we had fun rolling through the slush that bewildered all the other drivers here. Let's just say that traffic was a hoot.



On the way to my parents from the airport, there was a Victory motorcycle store. I'm still not sure how I feel about it since I love American made products and I love scooters, but a Vespa dealership seems to have taken it's place. We got to stop in and take a look. Incredibly well-stocked for a scooter store!




One of the best parts of my visit was finally getting to eat at Waffle House after all this time having gone without. We also stopped by the Chick-Fil-A Dwarf House (not the original one) for a delicious Hot-Brown.

Chick-Fil-A is almost everywhere but in Nevada! Curses!

Participation

Hello. We apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience.

I've been quite busy since the last legitimate post. I'll be making an effort to post more often and will be recounting some of the significant events that had happened recently in my little life. Let's start with the future ....

Scooter Rallies!
I've decided that this year will be the year of rally participation, starting in March with the Las Vegas High Rollers Weekend (10th Anniversary). This will be local for me, so it'll be a nice start. It'll also be chock-full of Brits. Every other year British folks attend this rally en masse. I'm hoping the poor economy will be offset by the strength of the Euro, and the Brits will come in numbers bigger than the last time they came. It's always fun to laugh at their accents right before they trounce you soundly on the road.

The following weekend will be the Rides of March in San Luis Obispo. I've wanted to go to California more often since I'm this close, but can never come up with a good reason. This trip should be a good test run road-trip to get all the kinks worked out for the next rally, Amerivespa. This rally will be in Los Gatos/San Jose, and should be a blast.

All this rally fun should be even fun-er now that I've popped on a Sito Plus exhaust on the Stella and re-jetted. I can hold my own out there on the surface roads now. I have to hold myself back, though. This is a lot more power on 10 inch wheels than what I was used to.


More to come about past events... like Burning Man 2008!