Karma, the Valk and the Law

Karma urged me to exercise today, a wonderfully sunny, mid 70s day here in the BToSavage. I thot about it for a while, then decided that Karma really meant for me to get outside and enjoy the sun and exercise the 'feel good' portion of my brain.

It dawned on me that the ol' Valk hadn't been ridden for about a month now. She gets kind of temperamental and runs ragged when she doesn't get out for too long. I was sure the 4 days of cloudy, rainy weather had dulled her senses, probably almost as much as it had dulled my senses.

I walked out on the deck, stood in the sun, then checked the thermometer which read 75 in the shade...I was luvin' it. I had my brownish, red checkered flannel shirt on, so I reset the buttons on my sleeves to the tightest position, snugging them down, tucked my Eddie Bauer T-shirt into my jeans and headed out to the garage.

I thot sure the battery might be a bit low from sitting a while without the Battery Tender connected. But, it fired right up. I rooted thru my saddle bag and swapped my eye glasses for my prescription, eye protecting shades, donned my helmet and headed up the road out of the BToS.

Was gonna top off the gas, but the BP station I use for the bike was closed for pump replacement. Bummer, it's on the right and I can get to it without any left turns. So I headed down the road figuring I had enough fuel to make about 20 miles before switching to reserve, and turned on to Rt 32 east toward 9800 Savage Road, good ol' NSA.

As I was passing in front of the NSA complex pondering my 44 years there, it dawned on me that I was riding on a license tag with an outdated year sticker. The stickers expired 31 Oct 09...bummer, I'm about 5 miles from home and immediately start looking for the LAW. New sticker and registration was laying on top of the fridge in the kitchen. Aaaaagh, bummer.

Made a circle at the 198 exit and headed west on Rt 32 back toward the BToS with my eye on both mirrors checking for the LAW. Traffic was fairly heavy on this road so I hid between a couple of Honda Accords, ain't they wunnerful, until I exited on to Rt 1 south and turned into the BToS at Howard Street. A minute later I was getting off the bike and heading in to get the new sticker.

After affixing the new sticker and putting the new registration in my wallet, I took my gas can and put a couple of gallons into the tank of the ol' Valk which would be able to go about 70 miles on that bit of fuel.

Headed out and put another 35 miles or so on the ol' Valk and Karma was one happy rascal. I could tell because just before I got home I looked down at the odometer and it rolled over showing 15000 miles. That's not a whole lot of miles for an '01 Valk, but they've all been a whole lot of fun altho not quite as exciting as those 7 miles I traveled after realizing I was riding illegally and on the lookout for the LAW. :-)

JD