Meet, ride, Museum, chicken, ride, rain!

Well, that pretty much sums up today. See you guys later.

No, actually, that doesn't nearly describe today. We met up at Lake Ella this morning at ten (more or less) I was the last to arrive and :

Glynn on his Roketa Tahiti 150
Roger on his orange Kymco Exciting 250
Me on my green Piaggio LT150
Tim on his Suzuki Burgman 650
and Troy on his brand new black TNG Verona

After some chat we headed out. Glynn led us around Lake Ella onto Meridian. We turned on Betton and rode across Thomasville Road and turned left on Centerville. We turned onto Fleischman and then hit Miccosukee Road, a very nice, shady, canopy road. It was really nice riding on that road, I didn't want to turn off it, but we did and soon ended up on Mahan at the Tallahassee Antique Car Museum.

I had never been so I was looking forward to it. I was blown away, there are a lot of seriously cool cars here. There are even several Cushman and All State scooters. There are even two Batmobiles and a Bat Boat for good measure. This is a seriously neat museum. While we were all looking at the cars, Roger asked me which car I would pick if I could choose one car to take.

I looked at the VW Bug that was present but since it wasn't a really rare Split Window Bug (49-53) or a rare Oval Window (54-57) I didn't pick it, although it was a really nice '70 Bug. I didn't think I'd be able to single one of these cars out but a few feet down the row, I found the car I'd take, hands down, no questions. A Ford GT. What an awesome car. There were two at the museum, but I liked the yellow one best, but I'd take the red one if I had to. One of them had the original window sticker. For such a powerful car, it gets 13 mpg in the city. Impressive, huh? It also listed a price of only $154,000. Yup, $154,000.

After we left the museum we walked over to the Rose and Thorn where a waitress met us outside. She told us the kitchen wasn't open and when asked why, she said the cook didn't show and the other cook didn't want to come in. Ok, then.

We headed over to Wing Stop and that was a good choice, the food was great. After some lively conversation about such topics as classical music, politics and world affairs, Roger suggested another ride. We all agreed, so Roger led us out onto Mahan Road.

We turned on Pedrick, then took a left on Buck Lake, through Chaires, across 27 and then took a right on Old Saint Augustine Road. This was another really nice narrow canopy road. We rode it all the way back to town where we ended up at All About Scooters.

Roger kept talking up the 250 size scooters and I broke down and sat on a 250 People and a 250 People S. That was a bad bad decision. They felt nice......

This is where I repeat to myself, 'I love my Piaggio, I love my Piaggio, I don't need a 250, I love my Piaggio'.

Roger headed out and a few minutes later, we all decided to head home. Glynn and I shared part of the ride but right at Monroe Street, it started to rain. We got soaked and Glynn had problems seeing so we took shelter at the What-A-Burger on Thomasville Road where we waited out the storm.

After yet more intellectual chat, this time about history and literature, and after I found out where I could meet my wife to pick up a key to the house, we headed down Thomasville Road, He turned off on Metropolitan and I went on to Timberlane where I met my wife.

Todays meet and ride was a lot of fun and I'm sure we can schedule some more rides. Pictures will be posted soon, stay tuned.

Meet, ride, car museum, Irish pub!

Can you think of a better way to spend a few hours on a Saturday?

The plan is to meet at Lake Ella (parking lot off North Monroe) take a ride over to the Car Museum, walk around and gawk at all the cool cars, then eat lunch at the Rose and Thorn Irish Pub near by.

If anyone that hasn't already joined the forum (link to the right) wants to meet up, ride, gawk and eat with us, all you have to do is show up at Lake Ella at 10 am. See you there!

Saw some scooters on the ride home.

I saw one really interesting scooter. I didn't see the whole scooter but the rear had a full sized fender. It was silver and the rider had a top case. Very cool looking scooter. Hopefully I'll see it again and get a better look. It looked sort of like a People but I'm not sure.

It was hot today but not too bad. I rode over to All About Scooters to check on the valve cover gasket I ordered. It will be in in about a week. I then headed to get some gas so I will have plenty for the ride tomorrow (check the forums!) and headed home via Tennessee to Monroe to Tharpe. The Piaggio is very nice, very powerful and drives very well.

Since it was Friday, I decided to head home a bit early in case there is a monsoon this afternoon.

See you guys tomorrow! (Check the forum!)

Rain!

Well, living in North Florida, I knew I'd get soaked while riding. It happened today. I was at the office near I-10 and Thomasville Road and decided to head home slightly ahead of 5 o'clock traffic. I walked into our lobby and noticed it was dark. I stepped outside and headed out quickly. About a mile down Thomasville road the first few drops hit with a nice loud thunk on my helmet. Soon, it was pouring. My upper legs stayed dry for a while but eventually I was pretty soaked. I decided to pull over and hide under the roof of a gas station and the rain let up a little. I decided to try it and headed out.

It wasn't that bad, actually. I took my time and drove as carefully as I could. The only problem is my glasses got wet so it was a bit hard to see. The roads were white with the salt and chemicals and whatever else gets baked onto a road.

But, although it's not something I want to do every day, I was ok driving in the rain.

Oh, one more thing, we have people joining our group almost everyday. This is very cool. If this keeps up, we can show up at Hooters or Famous Daves and outnumber the Harley riders!

But seriously, if you are interested in maybe meeting and riding with other scooter owners, send me an email or simply sign up on the forum to the right, ok?

I was sitting at the stoplight on Monroe Street...

across from McDonalds and had this deep thought:

If a cheeseburger is 69 cents, a double cheeseburger is 99 cents, then why is the triple cheeseburger $1.49?

I wish I had some excuse as to why exactly this thought popped into my head, but it wasn't too hot, I wasn't dehydrated, no cars or trucks near me were blowing tons of smoke nearby...

Saturdays Lunch, Ride and Museum Tour

Tallahassee Scooter's second meet and ride was great. We had a total of five scooters show up and five and a half riders show up. We had my Piaggio LT 150, Glynn's Roketa Tahiti, Roger showed up on his Kymco Bet and Win 150 and of course, John and Kristens Scarabeos. I ran a few minutes late due to a business call and they had all pulled into two parking spaces. I had to park across from them but after checking out the scooters and some friendly chat, we headed inside for some What-A-Burger.

After a good meal, we decided to ride over to the Junior Museum.....ok, it's called the Tallahassee Museum now. Here's the link http://tallahasseemuseum.org/ , if you haven't been, make a trip over, it is pretty cool. Roger couldn't make the trip so he left from What-A-Burger and Glynn made the trip but wisely decided to wait til his wife went to the museum with him so he headed out. The trip over was cool, very neat to look in your rear view mirrors and see three other scooters trailing you. We got a few doubletakes at red lights and some thumbs up from other riders.

After saying goodbye to Glynn, we headed inside. In all the twenty plus years I have been to the Museum, I have never seen the bears do anything other than lie like big, lazy, black, fuzzy blobs at the back of their habitat. This time the smaller bear got up, walked all the way down to a spot maybe fifteen feet away from us and scratch his back on the ramp . He then walked by us and scratched his back on a tree then continued in a circle back to where he had been sleeping. Very cool.

We left the Museum after seeing everything and letting Tal play on the neat playground they have and checked out a nice road into Innovation Park. Like John says on his blog, too bad there was a Police Car parked at the entrance or they would have certainly left me far behind....

All in all, it was a great way to spend a few hours of a hot Saturday. We'll plan something else in a couple of weeks so if anyone is interested in meeting up and riding, feel free to email me, post on the forums to your right or leave a comment.

What-A-Burger, 1 PM, Saturday, June 23!

I guess it's official. Let's all meet tomorrow at the What-A-Burger on Thomasville Road at 1 PM for a good burger and some whatever else.

Everyone is invited, see you there!