Motorcycle at last...

finally took Tim's BMW 1150RY out.

what a treat to be back on a motorcycle again:  the smooth hum of the engine, the solid braking and the temperate air across my face at last got me excited about this trip in a way i had not yet experienced...

I admit all the plastic on the RT made me a bit nervous: unlike my bare, unfaired GS,  if i dropped this, the damage would be horrific.   all that beautifully shaped plastic roughed and scraped and scratched.  since i had not been on a bike since I put my GS away for the winter last fall, there was a bit of concern about an unfamilar motorcycle.  But it was beautiful: I've always prefered the 1150 engine to my current 1200 -- it just feels and sounds more like a motorcycle -- and this was a great reminder of that difference.

Rode over to Hawley Beach, a growing community on Bass Strait (the strait between Tasmania and Australia):

BEFORE............

  
AFTER:

a great and refreshing dip in the salt.  ahhhh.  here at last, and at last i feel rightside up -- which is to say,
upside down. or are the rest of you upside down ?

If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time - Edith Wharton