The Palm Lakes Ponds and the Vespa comes home.

(Note that all photos enlarge when clicked)

A fortnight ago we had some really good rainfall, which fell steadily over a couple of days.
The result here at Palm Lakes (Oyster Cove) was the saturation of the low-lying area in the "forest", to the extent that a series of ponds were evident for several days.

The water table in this location is very close to the surface and it doesn't take long for the ponds to develop.

Here's a photo of the same location when it is normally dry........

Today I picked up the Vespa (GT200) from being serviced/carby repairs at Crossroads Motorcycles in Grafton.
It was a superb day - clear sunny sky, gentle breeze and just a perfect spring day all round.
I rode home via the Grafton-Lawrence Road and then through Maclean - a marvellous run of some 63 kilometres past canefields and dairy paddocks, with the Clarence River off to the right until Lawrence, where we crossed the river by vehicular ferry and continued to Maclean and then Yamba with the river on our left.

So the scooter has now rejoined the Red Fleet and will be used often now that it is running properly.

We stopped in Maclean for coffee and a sandwich and I clicked the following shots:-

First up is the historic post office building with original Post Master's residence and, next to it, the police station. Both buildings still continue in their roles today.

In the middle of a round-about just to the right of the above photo sits an original derrick once used to load/unload the barges that plied the river.

A shot of the Honda Jazz and the Vespa, parked neatly as we strolled off for a cuppa.
My wife was driving the Jazz, in which we travelled from Yamba to pick up the Vespa.
As I was removing my helmet and gloves, a local lady asked if she could take the scooter home because she thought it was "cute"! Any thoughts I may have harboured of striking a macho pose went out the window!

This evening we fired up the b-b-q and dined casually.

It's a hard life but we put up with it!

P-Plates and V8s - two July milestones.

I've mentioned in a previous post that I had acquired a Holden Monaro CV8Z but at the time didn't have a recent photo of the car and proud new owner, so here is one that was taken just yesterday.
(Click on image for larger view).

But there is another milestone that was reached in July by which I am quite tickled, and that was passing my motorcycle P-plate test.
Here's a shot of me leaning over my Vespa GT200 which is sporting the new plate, which has to be displayed for 6 months, after which it can be removed. In a year's time, all being well, the Provisional restriction will automatically be removed from my licence.

The GT200 arrives home!

 

Today I rode the Vespa home after being phoned yesterday to say that it was all fettled and serviced and ready to become mine.

So I had a most enjoyable ride, on a beautiful clear, calm sunny end-of-winter's day, taking the long way home. It was a delightful experience and I've fallen for this little Italian lady in a big way.

Tomorrow I will take some photos and I s'pose I'll have to choose an appropriate name for her.
"Sophia" is too obvious, as is "Audrey" (Hepburn, from the classic movie, "Roman Holiday").
So I was thinking perhaps "Gina" (Lollobrigida - another curvaceous Italian from my era).....

She actually rode a scooter (a Lambretta, not a Vespa...but that doesn't matter, it was Italian) as a pillion passenger behind Rock Hudson in the 1961 movie, "Come September"........

 

That's her, below....on the right, peering over Rock's shoulder. (That's Bobby Darin and wife Sandra Dee on the left.)

But no......the more I thought about it the more I just wanted a female name to dovetail nicely with the word "Vespa", so maybe it should start with a 'V'.

"Virginia Vespa"? No....doesn't roll off the tongue, really.

"Violet", no. "Valerie", no.

I ran through all the girls names beginning with 'V' that I could think of and came up with nothing that I liked.

So "Gina" it is!

_______________________________________________

These photos below were taken today - Sunday 29th. August - after I had ridden 86 kilometres for no reason other than to ride for an hour or so. It was a sparkling morning - the final couple of days of winter (officially, that is) - and the two shots below were taken atop Red Hill, where I paused for a coffee which didn't eventuate because the cafe doesn't open until 11:00 AM.

Other than that, it was a perfect morning and Gina Vespabrigida performed wonderfully.

(Click for much larger images)

I've always liked Vespa scooters......

........so I finally bought one!

For some months I've been pondering the purchase of a Vespa. It had to be the traditional shape but I wanted it in a modern, automatic "twist-'n'-go" configuration, not one of the earlier geared models.

I umm-ed and ahh-ed and did nothing about it other than a lot of research and looking and a couple of test rides until I decided to sell the Yamaha SRV250 Renaissa on which I had the "off" back at the beginning of April (is it really that long ago? Wow!).

I never felt fully comfortable on that little bike after my accident so it was advertised on eBay a few weeks back and a nice chap from down the coast bought it - he'd been looking for one for a while.

So over the past fortnight I've been deliberating about getting a Vespa, something not less than 150cc in capacity.

Purchase price + on-road costs meant that my budget (taking into account the money from the sale of the Renaissa) would not extend to a new model; a Vespa LX150ie is over $7,000 on the road.

I looked at several ads for "pre-owned" 150cc units (The ET4 150) and they were more in my price range - from $3,500 to $4,500.  They looked quite promising...........until this morning (said in the fashion of Jeremy Clarkson).

I ventured over to Motorini, in the Woden suburb of Phillip, and had a chat with the proprietor, Nico Wright, about a second-hand Vespa.

Lo! and Behold!.......there at the back of his workshop (actually parked outside) was a GT200 with 17,000 kms on it that had recently been traded for a new GTS300. (The previous owner had ridden it over from Adelaide, incidentally).

The GT200 is equipped with the small windscreen, a top-box, heated handgrips and was undergoing maintenance and replacement of the head gasket. To round it out it is finished in the not-often-seen Portofino Green livery.

Price is within my scope so I have committed to buy and would expect to add it to the stable within the next fortnight.