Streams of quiet waters....

I've mentioned before that I am fond of the sound of running water. It's not surprising then that I like to stop when I pass over a stream. I took this photo a few days ago.



I worked until noon today, and when I emerged from the group home, I heard the unmistakable weed-eater buzz of a two-stroke engine as it passed. I was inspired to stop in at Miller's Cycle shop in Leola since they often have several old mopeds sitting around, and I was not disappointed. I should have taken some photos, but I didn't think of it at the time.

I left from there to pick up the air filter I ordered from Trans-am, then headed home via some back roads. There I found this little creak babbling through the hills south of Lititz.





I also love the look of old barns. I'm not sure why. It might have something to do with the farming heritage in my family. This one was beside the creek pictured above.



I went on my way and rode past this place.



These little "Euro" street fronts seem to be popping up all over Lancaster county. I get the impression that the idea is to create a place for people to shop, but from what I've seen, they don't really turn out the way they were planned. The "shops" that go into these places seem to be either boutique shops, dry cleaners, or even day spas. I have yet to see people strolling along the sidewalks at these places, which makes it unsurprising that some of the newer storefronts that went in recently stand empty.

Honda strikes again.

Honda has announced that they will be re-introducing the Elite to the United States with a slick new look. It will have a 108cc, liquid cooled, fuel injected engine, which will make it the perfect urban and suburban runabout. It won't be a powerhouse, but it will be a nice upgrade for folks wanting something a step up from 50cc. Heck, if I had the money, I wouldn't mind one myself.

The thing to watch will be Honda's pricing. Judging from their recent pricing changes and the pricing of the SH150i, I'm expecting an MSRP around $3500. I'll be pleasantly surprized if it's less than that.

Thanks to Tortoise on Urbanscootin.com for the heads up on this.

As an addendum, Rawkus23 on Scootdawg.com made the connection that this appears to be the same as the Lead 110 available in the U.K.. Comparing the two models, it does appear he is correct.

Scootin' to the Movies '09

Well, my wife has been in the hospital for a couple days, so despite the fact that money is tight, I took the Goober (my son) to see a couple movies to get his mind off things (well, mine too).

On Tuesday night, when my wife first went in, I decided to take my kid to see Wolverine. I'd heard a few negatives about it, but I figured he'd like it. My car is out of registration at the moment, and my wife's car was at the hospital, so the scoot was the only vehicular option. Unfortunately, the Goober's helmet was in her car. So, I had him put up his hood and stuck my helmet on him, and popped to Trans-Am Cycle sales in Lititz to grab a cheap half helmet to tide me over (and so I'd have a spare), until I could get the kid's helmet. I really wanted to get myself a nice modular, but at $40 vs. $300...the "Skid Lid" was the clear winner.

So, we got to the Theater Tuesday night, and while "X-men Origins: Wolverine" was exciting for my kid, I'd rather read the comic book. It wasn't a horrible movie, and my kid loved it, but it seemed uninspired and completely unsurprising. They changed a few things here and there, but then, they do that in the comic books all the time, so that's nothing new, and forgivable.

We left the theater on Tuesday evening at around 6:30 to rain spitting in our faces, well, in mine at least. At 40 miles an hour, rain really stings. I was able to duck down behind my windscreen, which helped, but I'm glad my main helmet has a face shield.

Tonight, my son had his helmet back and we rode to see Star Trek when it opened at 7pm. Surprisingly enough, I only noted two geeks dressed in Star Fleet uniforms (the original series kind).

We sat in a nearly full theater and waited for the movie to start...and it was good.

The action sequences were well rendered and gripping. It was Star Trek as it should be...sort of. They screwed around with a few things and set the stage for either more movies or a whole new series. I found it a little unnerving how they screwed around with the storyline, but I don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that.

If you are a "Trekkie", you will probably enjoy this newest installment. If you aren't, well, you might like it anyway, though you'll not get half the humor and many of the 'Trek references along the way.

One other thing that bugged me is that I kept expecting Spock to cut off the top of Kirk's head and steal his abilities...Kinda like when I first watched Enterprise and half expected Captain Archer to wake up in somebody else's body every show...oh boy...

But, I digress...

All in all, I give Star Trek four and a half out of five stars. Wolverine gets two stars...yeah, it was that bad.

Ride-in Rained on

I've heard of the Ephrata Ride ins for quite some time, and thought I'd finally make my way to one. It wasn't raining when I left the house, so I was hopeful for nothing more than a semi-drizzle.

The Ephrata Ride in is held monthly on the first Sunday. Bikes start to show up before 8:30 (when I got there), and, from what I was told, start to leave a good bit after that.

There were very few cycles there (I estimated around 30 or so), and those were spread around the parking lot of the American Legion. There was one other scooter there, a Burgman 400, and not much else.

I purchased a danish and some coffee from the refreshment stand, and mingled a little with the other riders.

One gentleman had a very positive opinion of my scooter, confessing to having a Yamah Riva 125 in his stable at home.

I'm looking forward to next month's ride-in. Hopefully it is a little less damp.

Gettin' caught in the rain...

Yesterday's forecast promised a fair amount of vertical humidity sometime during the course of the day. I had to go out, so I decided to scoot and just wear my rain gear. I told myself there were some errands I needed to run and made a mental note of them. First I stopped in at Burger King and got some lunch, I then went to the pharmacy and dropped off a prescription (errand 1 complete). I then headed to work to do some odds and ends. About a mile from work, I remembered that I had neglected one of the tasks I had mental notes for, and thought, oh, I'll just get it after I leave work.

I got to work and my rain gear drew some odd looks and comments from the staff there. I'm used to odd looks though as I've spent most of my life being a goofball. That tends to draw a bit of attention.

In any event, after joking about making my way back to the trawler to catch some flounder, I got back on the scoot, and started down the road (errand #2 completed). The rain was sheeting down, but I was ok, despite my gloves getting moist. About a mile away from work, the scoot started spluttering and spitting, then died. I then realized I should have taken care of that last errand first...getting gas. Oops. Well, After pushing the scoot to a gas station and getting my shoes and gloves thoroughly soaked (the rest of me was warm and dry thanks to the rain gear), I got to a garage and they let me have some gas to get me to a station. All they asked is that I refill the 1 gallon gas can.

So, after putting enough gas in to start the scoot, I went to the closest Sheetz and filled it up the rest of the way, and topped off the borrowed gas can, which I promptly returned.

Through this experience, I discovered that rain gear is nice, but waterproof gloves would be a good addition, and I might want to take my gas gauge a little more seriously when it's pointing at the E.