After yesterdays ride in the cold, I woke up today and started to make a Cauliflower, leak, Coconut Cream curry soup with my Vitamix. To my surprise, the sun was out and the temperature was a warm 17 degrees Celsius (62 F). As I was making my soup, I e-mailed a friend who did not to ride with us yesterday because of the cold and simply said in the subject matter, “are you going to wimp out today?”

Since I was making soup, I had put down my smart phone and did not check his response. The next thing I notice was Mike (my friend who I e-mailed) was pulling up on his 1987 Yamaha in front of my house.

Well, there was not much to say to my wife other than “honey I am going for a ride”. So I removed the ThermoScud, lowered the rear tire pressure from 37 to 29 and dropped the rear shocks down a setting since I was riding two yesterday.

We took off into the country and headed east towards our neighbouring province, Quebec or should I write Québec. Although it was clear, sunny and warm, we noticed these darker more not so clear weather rolling in from the lake in our rear view mirrors. We stopped to take some pictures at this little covered bridge that is no longer used and decided that we would have to ride through rain on the way home. We both agreed to continue. Here are some of the pictures we took.

 

We continued riding until just before the boarder of Quebec and returned home along the lakeshore road. That is when the rain and high winds suddenly began. Mike the lucky-one lives far east from my house and just as he turned into his driveway is when the real rain and winds began to beat my Vespa.

The fact of the matter is that I had put over 8,000 Km last year and luckily not once had to ride in the rain. So this was the first time. Was I worried about wet slippery roads? No! Was I afraid of getting wet in my new leather Dainese? No! The only concerning thing rattling around in my head was how dirty the bike will get and when I will have time to wash it. It must be a Vespa thing (or not).

While riding in the rain however, I did get to hear some different sounds that I had never heard while riding. The pitter-patter of rain on my helmet and this funny new slushing noise from the front that I later concluded was the water from the tires hitting the front of my Vespa.

The good news is that the new front windshield kept my leather jacket dry. The bad news is that when I did arrive home and looked at the Vespa, I saw a dirty muffler pipe and under body that I had never seen before. This will definitely give me something to do tomorrow, if it is not raining.

Well, when I got in, my soup need the finishing touches in the blender and it was ready to eat. I bet you can all smell it…