Vive les motards!

Thousands of bikers protest in France against ridiculous new traffic regulations designed to milk the two-wheeled population.

Manifestation des Motards en Colère le 18 juin... by r2087r
Mass demonstrations have a long history in France, and the motards obviously managed to paralyze traffic in France for the day.

A Nightmare from Munich

I got the name wrong, and the location is only half-true. Her ADV-Rider inmate name is Nightmarion, her blog is Maschinenbäuerin (translates somewhat along the lines of "Mechanical Engineeress", the wordplay is funnier in German, tho) and she is actually from the Stuttgart area, but she lives and works in Munich.

Initially on a business conference in Vancouver, Marion M. decided to extend her stay (who wouldn't) to explore the hinterland of BC, on two-wheels no less.

She rented a cute little Suzuki GS500 equipped with a touring windshield and saddle bags, and determined to see as much as possible in a short week's time the poor mule had to endure a distance of 2,700km.

Marion for sure got her adventure riding: She got lost (probably several times), dropped her bike (because a stop sign 'jumped at her' as she did put it, hence not her fault), had multiple bear sightings, and obviously met a lot of awesome people along the way. Canadians are just the nicest people and the landscape is breathtaking! she said. Yes, Marion, I know, that's why I came to live here ;-)

Coming from opposite directions I chose the convenience store at Dewdney Junction for a landmark and meeting point, and with the deemed precision of an atomic clock, the art of punctuality that only Germans master to perfection, we both arrived exactly at the same time, just as planned.

It was a little nippy, with low hanging clouds and it looked like it was going to rain, so we had a cup of tea before heading home.

 Wait a minute...Something is smoking...

We soon left HWY 7 to escape traffic, and took some smaller roads. Too bad, the weather didn't play along. There was almost no view of the mighty mountain ranges.

 However, the clouds made for a dramatic scenery.

I wished for Marion that the weather would have been better, but no such thing, this year it is cursed, but listening to her tales from the road, I am pretty sure she enjoyed her trip nevertheless, and will return one fine day.

Distance: 130km (80 mi)
Weather: cloudy, calm, 14C (57F)

PS: My bum knee hurts. Darn!

Did you ride today?

Ride-to-Work day came and went. And yes, I did ride my scooter to work, like I do (almost) every day. Today wasn't any different. There were more two-wheelers on the road than usual, but still not enough.

I filled up Paolo today after 200km (124 mi.), the bill was 10$ for 6.8 liters. In imperial language this means that Paolo gives me 69 mpg of Vespa-fun. Cool!