Hanging with the big boys!

Let me preface this by saying I mean absolutely no disrespect for the rider of the small bike pictured later. Whoever it might be. We never met up with them. This was a situation that was just too cute to pass up. I thought I'd share it with you.

We've had a little reprieve in the weather. The Weather Guesser on the channel 6 news called them "Bonus Days". Yesterday I was using the bike for work. The Weather Gods are teasing us. They've been holding out sunshine in one hand. In the other hand, just visible enough to use it as a threat, are black clouds and a chill wind. Black clouds and rain don't scare me. In defiance of their threat, I got some coffee and sat out in the middle of the parking lot. No shelter to be seen anywhere near.

An Eggs Florentine sandwich with spinach and Harvarti cheese went down the fuel hatch. Things always taste so much better in the open air, don't they? The solitude of sitting on a bike seat with very few people around was welcome. Was it Robert Frost that said, "I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet couch"? Maybe it was Thoreau. Anyway, the breeze cooled the coffee faster than I'd like but it was refreshing. What do those fancy people call it? Dining Al Fresco, I believe.

By the way, did you realize that the ST's have built in cup holders? Well, not exactly purpose built. You can't successfully use them when riding, obviously. When parked, though, that's a different story. Just pop the locked hatch cover and there you are.

I'm actually parked one space over from where the old Yamaha was parked. In a recent post I included a picture of the bike. I've since found out that the rider is a man who does work at Best Buy. I was kinda hoping to meet him as he arrived for work. His hours must be much later. The mall wouldn't open for another couple of hours.

Breakfast done, I did some business and then met my friend Stacy for lunch. He arrived on his pretty blue FJR. When it comes time to replace Sophie I could be sorely tempted by one of these. Knock on wood, the old girl's still got a lot of heart and life left. After lunch we stopped at our range to check on some classroom supplies. We ended up being there about an hour. When we walked out to the bikes, Stacy stopped short.

"Was Sophie pregnant?" he asked.

At first I thought he was making a cruel joke about the ST being heavier than his FJR. I always figured they were pretty close, actually. Preparing to feign indignation, I looked over at Stacy. He was pointing over to the bikes.

"Apparently she's calved", he said.

Sure enough, nestled right behind the bikes was this small Kawasaki. It looked a lot like one of our training bikes. It just struck me as funny. The small bike looked for all the world like a small dog nestled in among the big dogs. I put my stuff down and snapped a couple of photos. Stacy was quick to jump out of the picture, I noticed. That's his coffee dumped on the blacktop, by the way. What a slob!

The little 250 actually looked like a great bike to run around town on. It's a pretty thing. We waited a while and looked around some but never did see a suitable candidate for a rider. Stacy and I went our separate ways, leaving the small bike on its own. No offense, we just had to continue on with our days. For a brief and glorious period, this child of a motorcycle got to be at the big people's table. Hope it enjoyed hanging out with the Big Boys!

Miles and smiles

Dan