Shameless Plugs

It was a busy weekend, and a long weekend in Canada - Victoria Day - in honour of the queen - who isn’t really our queen anymore, but no one’s going to complain about a day off....

I spent a very busy weekend - one daughter had a water polo tournament and the other had a dance competition in Whistler. I also had to remove some large shrubs, do some marking, avoid writing report cards, and take my kids to see Spiderman Three.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of time to scoot - just short trips around town and my wife was using the camera this week. For this week’s blog, late as it is, I thought I’d take a look at some of my favourite links and why I like them. In other words, why do I have those links on the right side of the page?! I hope the bloggers don’t mind, but I’ve put a photo from each blog before the description.



Scooter in the Sticks was the first blog that I really got into - and it’s still one of my favourites. Steve Williams has been around for almost forever in blogosphere time and is a real photographer (not just a hack like me). He takes wonderful photos and is also a very good writer to boot. I read his columns and the texture and feel of his writing makes me think that he puts a lot of thought into his blog entries. As I said in my very first entry, reading Steve’s blog gave me the motivation to start my own. And the photos of him hauling a Christmas tree on the back of his LX150 are wonderful!



Blog LX is written by a Belgian guy, He really keeps up with the goings on in the Vespa world so, as a Vespa owner, I am interested in what he finds. There are updates on new models, lots of pictures of customized Vespas, and a lot of other information. He seems to update the site on a fairly regular basis although there have been a couple of weeks where I’ve pined for new information. His blog actually has a photo of my daughter Colleen and me in the left column.!



Combat Commuter has lots of information on riding including interesting stories. There are some great articles on maintenance as well as motivating articles on how he and his family strive to be ecologically green. I certainly find his article motivating as that’s a goal for my own family.



Scootin Old Skool Orin O’Neill lives just south of me and is one of the most prolific bloggers that I have read! Unlike my blog, where I have each article listed fully, Orin has just the first few lines of each entry. Good way to get you to look at a few entries and then find more information if you’re interested. One of the regular commenters on my blog, as well, I enjoy his many trips around the Pacific Northwest.



Little Billy’s Scooter Tales, written by Boll Sommers, is close to me - and really close to Orin! Hailing from Port Angeles, Washington, Bill is another blogger who is enjoyable to read and writes about as often as I do. He recently christened me “Vancouver Dave” on his blog - cool - my first scootering nickname! Enjoyable to read - and some good photos, too!



Dave at SCTRCST (Scootercast) does a very nice podcast on scootering. He’s got an easy to listen to voice, features all sorts of good podsafe music, and has some interesting stories and updates relating to scootering. He’s also done a couple of interviews with some bloggers including Steve Williams and the blogger for 2strokebuzz and they are definitely worth listening to.



From Down Under is Gotta Scoot, written by Michael Stevens, a fellow teacher! He’s done what I wished I did - started his blog when he first started riding his scooter. I waited about 6 months before I started and would have liked to record how I felt at the time. Michael includes lots of good photos and I find that I really relate to his stories as he’s rather new at this - like me.




A Japanese blog which I think is called VECHS is a great read. What I do is copy the Japanese characters and paste them into Google language tools. The translation is not perfect by any means, but you usually get the main idea. That’s only half the fun - I love the photos that the blogger (kmshio) takes - makes me think back to the year that I taught in Tokyo many years ago. It’s also really cool to see a link to my blog on a page that is in mostly Japanese writing!

There are also other links that I have listed - and they all have good blogs, too. It’s just that the ones I’ve listed are particularly interesting to me and I’ve been reading them for a fairly long time - at least what I think is a long time in this day and age of technology.

The great thing about the blogosphere is that I know I’ll discover more scooter blogs - and other blogs - that interest me. And I know I’ll continue to have new and different people discover and read my blog. It’s a brave new world!

A Recovered Stolen Car and a Ride in Pitt Polder

Saturday morning started out with a wonderful sunny day on Bike Patrol. It was a successful one, too, as we recovered a stolen car. It was a Subaru, later model, with no obvious signs of entry - we were just blitzing side streets in the downtown area of Maple Ridge. It was a good feeling to get someone’s car back to them and a good way to start off the day. The photo above, by the way, was taken about fifteen minutes before actually finding the stolen car as a shot for the Bike Patrol website. Unfortunately, the battery died after this photo!



After returning home, I took the Vespa into Port Coquitlam, near Maple Ridge, to buy a part to fix my electric guitar. On the way home, I took a different route and ended up going into Pitt Polder, an area of dyked land in both Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge. It’s a very nice area with lots of farmland, framed by the mountains in the distance. The photos, unfortunately, were a bit hazy due to weather conditions. This area is in the local news lately because of the potential for floods. There is a lot of snow on the mountains - way above average - and as the weather warms, the risk increases.



As I was riding down the road and looking at the scenery - looking with a different eye, as I am trying to be a better photographer - I was struck by how the mountains and the snow on the peaks reminded me of riding my bicycle in the Rockies. Maybe I should go on a really long road trip this summer!




I went north until I reached Grant Narrows Regional Park. This is on a body of water called Pitt Lake. On a sunny day, there are many boaters who launch from the dock. There is also a bird sanctuary, picnic tables, and a concession stand that opens in the summer.

I usually take my class on a bike ride there in June. It is a fairly long ride for Grade Sixes (35 km round trip) but it’s flat and often a nice day for a ride. It’s a very busy field trip - it takes a couple hours to get there, we walk into the bird sanctuary, return to the riverbank and have lunch, and then hop back on the bikes and head back. There’s a real sense of accomplishment for the students that finish the trip. I’ve saved the map in Google Maps.

After a short rest to take in the scenery, it was back home for dinner, some marking, and a celebratory glass of wine.

Fort Langley - a ferry good time

I spent most of this week recovering from a cold, but felt good enough today to go for a short ride. Maple RIdge is north of the Fraser River which flows past Vancouver on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Directly south of the Fraser is Fort Langley, a historic town in BC., and a favourite place for a nice sunny afternoon bike ride. Unfortunately today was not particularly nice as there was a light rain most of the afternoon.



The way to cross the Fraser is a free ferry called the Albion Ferry. The ride is only about five minutes but the line-ups are often over an hour. Luckily, on a bicycle, scooter, or motorcycle, you get to jump to the beginning of the line so I rode my Vespa besides two guys on Harleys and we quickly crossed.

After reaching the other side, it was a fairly short ride into Fort Langley. There are two parts to the town - the historic fort, a tourist attraction, and the town itself, full of restaurants, artisan shops, and funky coffee houses.



Fort Langley is famous because it was originally a trading post run by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The company, called the The Bay now, is still in existence but is more of department store that is currently hanging on. The original fort was set up to trade with the First Nations people on the west coast of Canada. It was instrumental in the formation of British Columbia as a province.

I didn’t go into the fort as I have been there several times before but was able to take a photo of the monument outside the visitor centre. It’s a monument for the SS Beaver, a paddle wheeler that had a long and varied history during the 52 years it served on the west coast. It’s also a very Canadian name as the beaver is Canada’s national animal.

I kind of like the beaver as a symbol for Canada - industrious, skilled, very social. and a bit funny as well. It’s certainly not a very pretentious symbol and that’s not a bad thing.

After visiting the fort, I rode into the town. It’s not very big (population 2700 - I told you it was small) so the part to visit is fairly compact.



The biggest surprise was that the town is now called Placerville. A large banner on the main street proclaims, Placerville, Christmas Tree Capital of the World and the town hall has a big Christmas tree in front of it. Seeing Christmas lights hung from the lampposts of the main street in May is also a bit unnerving!



There is a Placerville in California and I found out that Fort Langley is being used as a film set for a movie (obviously for Christmas) set there circa 1977. It’s not unusual for places around the Greater Vancouver area to stand in for cities and towns in the US. There is quite the thriving film industry up here, initially thanks to our low dollar, and now is sustained because the industry people here are apparently really good. Combined with that is the fact that there are a lot of natural settings (mountains, coastline, lots of trees) that are close to a large urban centre. Incidentally, Peter O’Toole is in the movie but I didn’t happen to bump into him. Oh well.



After recovering from a very early Christmas surprise, I stopped in at one of my favourite little coffee shops, Spill the Beans, for a latté. Then I zipped back, on the ferry, over the river, and back home with a bit of a runny nose but an excellent and refreshed outlook.

Granville Island - and a chat with Bob

On Thursday, I rode my Vespa into the Vespa store in Vancouver for an oil change. It was pouring but not terribly cold so I enjoyed the ride, especially when my wife and one daughter met me and we went out for dinner at a French bistro, the Salade de Fruits (not too expensive but really good country bistro cuisine).

Yesterday morning, I caught a ride into the city with my wife, and after a latté, went back to Vespa Vancouver to pick up my serviced scoot.




Bob was working there, a real bonus, as he is a very friendly guy who loves to talk about scooters but doesn’t try to sell you a new one every time you walk in the door. He had some interesting things to say, as usual, one being that there was a reversal of sales trends from just a month ago when the 50cc scoots were flying out the door. Now the bigger bikes, including the GTS and the MP3, are the big sellers. He also gave me some frank information on conversion kits - that they can reduce the life of your engine - when I asked about bumping up the cc’s.



He did talk about some of the bigger bikes, reminding me that I could take my parking lot test (for my motorcycle learner’s license) on my 50cc and then I could test drive anything else he had. Can’t blame him for trying!



After I left, and since it was such a spectacularly sunny day, I stopped by Granville Island on the way home. Granville Island is actually a peninsula located in False Creek, which is really an inlet, under one of the bridges, which is actually a bridge, that connect downtown Vancouver with the rest of the city.



It used to be a big industrial area but was redone several years ago and now is a big tourist attraction - for both tourists and locals - as it has, among other things, lots of restaurants, a theatre, a marina, and a public market. An art institute named after Emily Carr is also located there. The one industrial holdout is Ocean Cement, a cement plant.



Usually, it is difficult to find a parking spot - but not on the Vespa! Less than two metres - about five feet - and I was in! I wandered over to the public market and bought some French saucisson sec - you know, those French sausages that hang from a stand and have a white powdery covering. On the way back to my scoot, I stopped by the Ocean Cement Open House. I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I were nine years old - lots of big trucks and machinery and big chunks of concrete everywhere - but it didn’t really capture my interest - besides, the free balloons wouldn’t have made the trip back to Maple Ridge.

I then had a nice, leisurely ride back home in the sunshine. Oh, and Guinness, the new dog, was happy to see me return!

Dog gone...

First of all, a warning - this entry has nothing to do with scooters. It has to do with dogs. Specifically my dog.

Even though I have never talked about my dog in the blog, I’m sure it is easy to understand that a dog, or any other pet, for that matter, can become a valued member of a family.

Eleven years ago, my family and I decided to get a dog. We hopped in the car, headed down to the SPCA and found the perfect dog, a year old chocolate lab / duck tolling retriever cross named Coco.

Coco was a great family dog. She loved to run with me while I rode my bike, play all the silly dog games that my family could think of, and chased birds that were way up in the sky. I remember flying a kite with my girls when they were small. When the kite was on the ground, Coco could care less. When the kite got a metre off the ground, she started to go crazy. The higher the kite went, the louder she barked. When the kite came back to land, she wandered away in disinterest. We figured that she thought the kite was a bird until it was close enough - and then it was just a kite!



There are a lifetime of stories about Coco - how she walked, what she ate, when she barked, how different people made her act in different ways. Being a medium sized dog, we thought she would live until she was 14 or 15 at least.

Friday started off like any other day. Coco ate her food and happily ran outside, barking and looking very healthy. By Friday night, however, she had difficulty walking. We rushed her to the emergency vet, but it was too late. She had massive internal bleeding and there was no option but to put her down.

The story doesn’t stop there, though.

Today, the girls were looking at all of the different dogs at the SPCA that were waiting for adoption. Similar to eleven years ago, we once again hopped into the car and headed down to the SPCA. An hour later, and we had a new dog, a four year old black lab / chow cross named Guinness. The vacuum that was evident during the short time that we no longer had Coco has at least partially been filled.

A couple of observations to finish this post. One is that when someone dies, let’s say an older family member, it is a deep sadness that happens but, unless you live with them, you are not constantly reminded that the person is gone. With a family pet, especially one that has been with you for years, you are constantly reminded that the pet is not around any more. The second observation is that when a dog dies, unlike a relative, it is possible to, in some way, go and get another one to replace it. Because of the first observation, we’ve done the second and I’m hopeful it will work out.

So long, Coco. Good girl...

No talking, just surfing

Spent the last two days home with no voice. I’ve had a pretty relaxing break as I haven’t felt sick, just a little tired, but it’s pointless for me to try to teach a class of 30 Grade 6 students if I can’t talk so that's why I've been home.

I spent the days at home, did some marking, etc., but also had time to play around on the computer. After the nice comment I received on my tortilla ad in the last entry, I decided to try something else, this time with a picture of a Vespa. I got this technique from Photoshop TV, one of the podcasts I regularly watch. I really enjoy using Photoshop to create photographic art - I just wish I was a better photographer.



The other thing I did was look around YouTube for a while. There were lots of interesting scooter videos, but the one I liked most was this one. It briefly tells about a charity ride based from an Army Base in Germany. I believe it is an actual news story as it looks and sounds quite professional.

I hope to ride this weekend as the weather is pretty nice and my voice has returned. I will be at a teacher conference for most of the weekend but I know that I will feel better if I can get out - even if it’s only for a short time.

Wasabi, Honey & Horses

Lately, the weather has been fantastic.

I try to ride my scooter in most weather but it’s days like Saturday that are warm and sunny that I love the most. Riding is not only exciting and exhilarating, it is also not too much of a challenge.

My ride yesterday was not a terribly long ride, although I did have a couple longer rides during the week. I scooted to Superstore which is a large grocery chain in Canada to track down a treat that a co-worker had shared with me earlier in the week - wasabi and honey flavoured tortilla chips. They’re Superstore’s own premium brand called President’s Choice (nothing to do with George W., thank goodness) and are a unique taste. I got a little carried away with my enjoyment of them as I took some photos and then played around with the images with Photoshop. Trying to avoid my marking load again, I guess...



On the way home, I took the back roads. There are many different farms and horse ranches in Maple Ridge which I still find new and interesting even though I’ve lived here for twenty years. I grew up in the city of Vancouver and really only saw farms and horses when we went away for the holidays. Living in Maple Ridge, just a few minutes on my Vespa or a few more on my bike and I’m in the middle of farming country.

It was a very pleasant ride - neither bricks nor bouquets today - and I came home with a nice cache of wine, chips and a few other groceries, all carried in my handy pet carrier. As always, I felt recharged, yet also relaxed, and maybe even ready to mark those darned math tests...

In my own backyard

The remnants of the Easter ham are safely cooling in the fridge, shiny wrappers from chocolate eggs and other sweet goodies are tucked into different nooks and crannies around the house, and the bottle of Tums that has sat unused for several weeks has been accessed by all the members of the family. Easter weekend is over.

Many of the blogs about scooters that I read, including mine, often focus on trips to scenic places or interesting destinations. I, for one, love that feeling of scooting someplace simply for the love of riding, taking some photos, and riding back. If only I had more time to ride like that.

But the reality is that most of my trips on the Vespa are rather mundane - off to the grocery store to pick up a bag or two of groceries, over to the hardware store to buy some paint, or to the speciality liquor store to buy a couple bottles of red wine. I don’t usually blog about these kind of trips but it’s exactly these trips “in my own backyard” that motivated me to get the Vespa.

If I have the time, it’s nice to be able to walk or ride my bicycle. Walking to shops takes about an hour so isn’t practical for a lot of things. My bike is faster, but I’m so worried about it getting stolen, that I don’t like to leave it in busy areas.

The Vespa, then, is the best choice for making trips around town.

Today, it was to pick up some frozen quesadillas at a food store. I did take the long way home and stopped at a couple places on the way home.

The first was the Billy Miner pub. It is in a historical building and named after a famous train robber who committed Canada’s first train robbery. Legend has is that he was the first to use the phrase “Hands up!” and after the robbery in 1904, he said, “Goodnight boys, sorry to have troubled you.” I didn’t stop in for a Guinness this time, but I was there last week for a meeting, tipping my glass to the memory of the Grey Fox.



Nearby is the Port Haney wharf, a public wharf, still in the ‘historic’ area of Maple Ridge. The wharf is on the Fraser River.

After taking the photos, I scooted home and smiling, parked my scooter. It’s wonderful that even the most mundane of trips can be made enjoyable riding on my Vespa!

Some Thoughts on Going Green

This morning, my wife, dog (Coco), and I walked to Starbucks for breakfast. It’s about a half hour walk and was especially pleasant today as the weather was sunny and warm. We felt good because we got some exercise and we weren’t contributing any crappy stuff to global warming or climate change. I felt almost as good as when I take my Vespa to the hardware store (like I did today) or to the grocery store because I’m being part of the solution instead of part of the problem. When I’m in my new Mazda, that’s a different story but we’ll leave that for now...

So my wife and I are enjoying a bagel and a latté and the dog is enjoying a bowl of water. The Starbucks is, what I guess, a typical suburban Starbucks - there is no cool street or plaza to look onto so our outside table looks onto the mall parking lot. Not as interesting as the Champs Elysees, but there are still people that go by and some are quite watchable.

Suddenly, we came to the realization that there are several pick up trucks, most of them black, all of them large. Now, remember, this is a mall parking lot, and most of the people are going to Starbucks to grab a Good Friday coffee. My wife and I sigh and comment quietly to each other about the number of gas guzzling trucks that have been pressed into coffee retrieval service. There is a certain resignation - maybe it’s because that’s the only vehicle someone has - as the steady stream of dark coloured pick up trucks roll by. At least I drive my Vespa, or ride my bike, I think, a good deal of the time.

And then, it happens. Some guy in a massively big pick up rolls up with his wife. He hops out fo the cab ( he is rather short) and leaves his truck running! He spends five or ten minutes in Starbucks getting his coffee and then spends another five minutes chatting to the people who are next to us. As the huge engine thrums and chugs and clouds of smoke issue forth, I actually consider saying something. I realize, though, that there are people who have always felt that they could idle their cars all day long - and I’m sure, at one time, that was what was accepted. Getting mad at them or making them mad at me is not the answer.

So what is the answer? Well, I teach a group of 30 kids. They see me ride my bike or my Vespa most days to school. I talk to them about how if everyone makes small differences in saving the environment, then it adds up to big changes. I speak to the people I work with and also my extended family about what I am doing to reduce my impact on the environment. I’m certainly not a super environmental greenie, but I’m trying and I’m working to affect change with people around me.

Eventually, the guy in the idling truck roars off. It seems that most of the trucks have left the parking lot as well. I sit back in my chair with my latté and look up at the clearing sky as the sun pokes it’s head through the clouds. I contemplate a nice walk home and then a trip to do several errands on the Vespa. My final thought as I grab Coco’s leash is, don’t be mad, and think - the more people that make a difference, the better off we’ll all be, so do the best I can. And don't worry about the idling yahoos...

Golden Ears Ride

Last month, when I tried to ride to Golden Ears Park, it was closed due to the severe wind storms. It recently reopened so yesterday, I took advantage of the fine weather we had to go for a scoot into the park.

The first photo shows the entrance once you pass the gate. The mountain goat carving has always been associated with Golden Ears Park. There are usually two carvings, one on the other side of the road, but that one has been taken away for minor repair.

The park staff has done a good job of cleaning up as here was little sign of the damage by the wind. In one area, there was some heavy machinery tucked away in the forest but other than that, the park looked fine.



The park is at the base of the Golden Ears - two mountain peaks - so the ride is mostly uphill. It’s not too steep a grade so I kept a good speed up in most parts. The road is paved all the way and is in good condition. My main concern was for a wandering deer or bear to cross the road while I was riding past.

It was a little chilly, even on such a sunny day, but it felt so good to be out in the sunshine, zooming along, that I wasn’t really bothered at all. I’ve had a couple of rides in the sun this week and it makes it so much more enjoyable - less of a challenge, but a lot more fun. I’ve only had the scooter since August so more than half of my riding has been in typical rainforest weather conditions.



I parked briefly at the boat launch area (beside the no parking sign) and watched some boaters take their boats out of the water. Even though I felt a bit of warmth while standing in the sun, I am sure that it was quite frigid on the water. I love to fish in the summertime and go out on a boat but this time of year is still a bit too cold for me.

Speaking of parking, Golden Ears Park, which is a provincial park, started charging for parking of vehicles a couple years ago. The charge is $1 an hour or $5 a day. Many people are upset with this as traditionally government parks have been free to park in. Apparently the compliance rate is only 30- 40%.



I finally stopped in at the day area called Alouette Lake (no, I didn't pay for parking). This is a great area for families to come as there are many picnic tables, lots of trees, a big beach area (although the beach itself is rather pebbly and the water is - well - glacier fed so it’s a wee bit cold), and basic conveniences like bathrooms. We used to go there quite often when our girls were small and didn’t care how cold the water was. There were a few families there when I wandered around, wearing big coats, hats, and gloves - as I said, it was a bit chilly.

Afterwards, I zoomed down he mountain. By this time is was later in the afternoon so it was quite cold. Luckily I had my lobster gloves in the pet carrier so was able to stay pretty warm.

As I returned home, to face the pile of weekend marking from school, I felt good that I had taken a bit of time for myself to clear my head and recharge.

Scooters are becoming more popular

So, Spring Break is over - and I’m back to school.

Of course, the relentless rains of Spring Break are now over and every day I am at school, the sun beats down on the playground.

On the bright side, I have been able to take either by bicycle or my Vespa to school every day. The only thing is, what with marking, planning for the new term, etc., I haven’t had much time for just riding.

One thing I did find, though, was this article in the Province Newspaper (from Vancouver).

It is basically telling what most scooter riders already know - scooters are becoming more and more popular. Comparing a 50cc scoot (like mine) to a motorcycle, the author acknowledged that there is a bigger thrill to a big motorcycle but that a Vespa scooter is, well, fun! And no temptation to race (no kidding!).

In Canada, there has been an almost 30 percent increase in the sales of scooters in each of the last three years - that’s a lot of scooters.

Bob from Vespa Vancouver is quoted in the article - and I must say once again that even though I didn’t buy my scooter there, he is a very personable and friendly guy - it is certainly a different feeling talking to Bob about scooters and being invited to take one for a nice long ride compared to the swarming of suited, slick salesmen that often accompanies looking at new cars.

What surprised me is that 50cc scooters are 80 percent of the market. I don’t feel so lonely anymore!

Just for interest’s sake, if you are a 50cc scooter rider, or know someone who is, please leave me a comment. Of course, all comments are read, appreciated and, hopefully, responded to...

Spring Break Part 2

It’s been a very rainy week. The Scots have a word for it - dreich - sounds like you are saying ‘dree’ and then starting to cough up something. It’s a word that means a constant, heavy rain - that wet,dreary, socked-in feeling that you can get anytime of year in this part of the world. The Inuit are supposed to have 27 words for snow - I’m surprised that people who live in the upper west coast of North America don’t have 27 words for rain (actually, the 27 words for snow is apparently a myth). By the way, Americans just south of here refer to the area as the Pacific Northwest while we also call it the Lower Mainland or, on the weather report, the South Coast. I like South Coast better because it sounds warmer - sort of tropical - even if it is wet and cool a lot of the time.

Last weekend, the rains did lessen for awhile (4 or 5 hours?) and I visited my friend, Stew, who lives in Vancouver. Since the local mountains were rainy, we shelved our skiing plans and decided to ride our bicycles around downtown Vancouver.

Now, I enjoy cycling a lot - but riding around Maple Ridge isn’t particularly challenging. Riding around Vancouver, however, is quite a thrill. Call it Urban Cycling. I followed Stew pretty closely as we weaved through traffic, up and down sidewalks, between buses on tiny, narrow bike lanes, gasped up big hills and screamed down even bigger slopes. The excitement was compounded by the fact that I was riding his partner’s bike. Jade is taller than Stew but she isn’t as tall or as big as me. I felt like I was already halfway over the handlebars, just sitting on the bike!

Stew is a safe cyclist - we didn’t do anything that every other cyclist is doing - I’m just not used to that level of excitement when I ride.

The picture at the beginning of the blog shows Stew outside his office building at Environment Canada. He works for the department that tracks shellfish openings and closures. The picture below is me by the Terry Fox monument in Vancouver. I look much more relaxed than I actually felt at the time!



The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, in terms of being on two wheels. A few short soggy trips on the Vespa was about it. The new Mazda just seems a whole lot more enticing during the current monsoon season. I did notice a few Vespa related things on the net, however...



First, in Vancouver, there is a Vespa club - part of the Vespa Club of Canada. It recently changed its name to the Worst Scooter Club Ever (WSCE). Not sure if I understand the point of that but I’m only a member of the forum so the people in charge of the club are welcome to call it whatever they want. The name change coincided with a change in the executive, as far as I can tell. There was lots of political discussion on the forum over a few weeks.


As a result of differences in the members, or maybe to give people an option, another club, the Greater Vancouver Vespa Riders (GVVR), has been formed with some members of the old club, although it seems that there are quite a few that are members of both clubs. Hopefully, this area can sustain two scooter clubs, although the WSCE is social as well as riding while the GVVR is strictly a riding club. Heck, I don’t even know if I’d want to go on a ride with either club because I go slower on my LX50! I enjoy both the forums (and not just because of the drama) because there is lots of good information and some interesting links as well. Which leads me to...



Second, there is a nifty Vespa pillow available from a variety of places. Apparently it is available here at Home Sense but can also be found online for $10 US on ebay. No, pink is not my colour (and it only comes in pink), but maybe for my wife’s birthday? Then again...



Finally, I started this blog because I simply couldn’t find anyone else who has a blog on the Vespa LX50. Now there is someone else! His blog is called Tagebuch eines Vespafahrers (Diary of a Vespa Driver) and looks very interesting - unfortunately, for me, it is in German (Vas is das?) but there are some interesting pictures and movies on it. I find it particularly good because he seems quite happy to rip his scoot apart and put new pieces on his LX 50 while I am quite happy to just ride mine.

And it’s back to school next week!

Spring Break Part 1

Ahhh, Spring Break...

Well it’s been quite a week..

On Monday, I went to the doctor to have my stitches removed - and when I asked him how much longer I had to wait until I could wear a helmet, he said, “Ten minutes.”

So, Tuesday, I hopped on the Vespa after what seemed an eternity and scooted into Vancouver.

The forecast was for cloudy skies turning to showers in the afternoon. When I left Maple Ridge, it was cloudy but behind me was a ridge of sunshine under the clouds. Twenty minutes later, when I went over the Pitt River Bridge, monsoon-like rains washed over me. The rain continued to fall but varied as I went along my favourite route into Vancouver.

Going to Vancouver is a bit of a challenge for me on a 50cc scooter. It’s about 50 km (around 30 miles) taking Route 1, which is the freeway, but my scooter is too slow and is not allowed to go on the freeway. There are some other choices, but my preferred route is to take the Barnet Highway. It’s usually pretty quiet and is quite scenic - it goes along the southern shore of Burrard Inlet which is like a fjord that is the northern border of Vancouver. It goes by some industrial sections and shipping areas. In the picture at the beginning of today’s entry, you can see some piles of yellow stuff behind the trees. Those are sulphur piles and the colour of those on a bright sunny day are like powdered sunshine.



There are a number of different places along the Barnet including a gun club (gee, do Canadians actually do that sort of thing?), a marina, and a velodrome for bicycle racing. Eventually, the Barnet changes into Hastings Street as it goes through the city of Burnaby. The road goes through a nice area called The Heights which has a number of different ethnic stores and restaurants. When I’m really cold, I sometimes stop here for a bite at Quiznos or have a latté at one of the authentic Italian coffee shops.

When going along Hastings into Vancouver, the street takes a turn for the worse. This area is the downtown east side - the poorest postal code in Canada. I don’t have to ride through this part of town, but I tend to do it to remind me that there are a lot of people who need help in this world. Then, I turn up Main Street and on to wherever in Vancouver I want to get to.

Although it was raining for most of the day, I kept dry. At one point, I wore paddling gloves under my lobster mitts and my hands stayed dry and warm. It felt good to be out riding again.

Wednesday was car buying day. I finally got rid of the Ford Taurus wagon that is falling apart and bought (leased, actually) a Mazda 3 Sport. It’s shiny and smells very nice!



Today, I had an appointment back in New Westminster. A couple of trucks honked at me while I was on the Mary Hill Bypass but that was OK. What really bugged me today was when I got to my appointment. There was a parking space that was too small for a car but plenty of room for my Vespa. As I was sorting out my pet carrier, an elderly man got out of his car and asked me, “Are you going to leave that thing there?”

He had a full metre behind his care and he didn’t sound particularly angry, so I smiled and said, “Yep.”

Then he said, “I don’t know if there’s enough room for me to back out. If there isn’t I’ll just flatten that thing.” And then he went back into his car.

At the time, I didn’t think he was serious but, as thought about it, I began to get a little worried. As it turned out, his car was still there when I left but it made me pause and think about the incident. Usually, when parking or getting stuff out of my Vespa, people who talk to me are friendly or just asking questions. This is the first time where someone was actually angry or upset about the Vespa.

Oh well, I’ve got another week to relax and think about what happened.

Ahhh, Spring Break...

Bike Patrol!

Another week.

One more week and I can put my helmet on.

And then I can ride again.

I walk into the garage a couple times a day at least and just look at my Vespa. We have had some sunny days (and some rainy days) this week and it would have been so nice to ride. The temperature is warming up ( it got up to 16°C. on Wednesday) and it seems that spring is on its way.

Another two wheeled endeavour that I am involved with is the Maple Ridge Volunteer Bike Patrol. This is a volunteer group that is sponsored by ICBC, our provincial insurance agent (everyone in BC has to get their basic auto insurance from ICBC) but is a volunteer group under the umbrella of the RCMP.



No, I don’t carry a gun on a bike or give out speeding tickets. The bike patrol’s motto is “eyes and ears”. We ride around on our bicycles, mostly in the downtown core, checking plates of suspicious vehicles against a database of stolen cars, and talking to people around town whether they are elderly folks, teenagers wandering around on a Friday night, or homeless people eager for a quick word. We also try to get involved in doing some good things for the community.

The people I patrol with are all from different walks of life. There are, like me, a couple of teachers. Some of the other members that I know of are: paramedic, university student, electrician, city engineer, accountant, security guard, and doctor. Some use the bike patrol as a stepping stone to get into the RCMP and many others are like me, they want to give back to the community they live in. We can’t expect the police to take care of a community all by themselves - it’s just too big a job and too little funding. So, instead of just complaining about negative things in the community, I have been able to find out first hand what the problems are and try to make a difference by contributing my time.



It’s great to get out on my bike, feel that I am doing something worthwhile, and get some exercise at the same time. Only another week and I’ll be able to get on my bike as well!

No Scooter - want to try the Red Lobster?

*sigh*

On Friday I had this lump thing, called a sebaceous cyst, removed from the back of my head. I’d had it for a few years but lately, whenever I wore by bike helmet, it rubbed and got sore. My doctor said it was time to get rid of the thing so I had it cut out. The outpatient surgery was fine - the thing was almost as big as an egg, though! - but the problem is, I can’t wear a helmet for two weeks.

*sigh*

I’ve alluded to the fact that I ride a bike as well as a scooter. In today’s post, since I am scooterless for the next little while, I thought I’d write a bit about something relating to my other passion, riding bicycles, Today’s post is about the Lobsters....



During the summer time, I often go cycling with a group of mostly teachers. The group is called the Red Lobster Outdoor Club and has a long history of outdoor pursuits including mountain climbing, hiking and cycling. I started teaching with one of the Lobsters about 10 or so years ago and became interested in the cycling portion (I hate heights so mountain climbing was definitely out).

We usually do multi-day trips in the Rocky Mountains - 4 to 10 days - with distances from 60 km to over 100 km each day. I find these trips to be physically demanding, not because we are going particularly fast, but because we are covering what is, for me, a lot of distance. Last year, we rode in the Canadian Rockies around Fernie, Banff and Cranbrook, other years have seen us do the Icefields Parkway between Jasper and Lake Louise, the Going to the Sun Highway in Montana, and the Golden Triangle, also in the Rockies.



My good friend, fellow teacher and Red Lobster, Keith Rajala, has a site called the Red Lobster Journals. It has lots of stories about what the group has done over the years. My part has taken place during the 90s and this decade.

As I sit here, looking through the web site, I think back fondly to my last scooter ride - riding home from Keith’s house last Thursday night after a school function - and I check off the calendar, counting off the days left to when I can wear a helmet and get back on two wheels!

*sigh*