Unofficial Modern Vespa Blogger Touring Summit of White Springs, FL. December 9-11, 2015.

Things had been quiet since I landed in Atlanta in November. In my experience, it can take up to a couple weeks for the fernweh beast to start making noise again. Luckily, if I could hold out a little longer, a December trip to Florida was falling into place.

Sea Shells and Southern Homes. Botany Bay, Charleston, and to Atlanta. November 18-21, 2015.

One last stop along the coast before turning inland: Charleston, SC. It would be beautiful. Historic. Cultural. Southern. And, according to my sources, tasty.

GTSing the Outer Banks. Richmond, VA to Oak Island, NC. November 11-17, 2015.

When picking routes, often I start by opening a map and looking for nearby geographical features or land masses, especially new ones. North Carolina's map revealed a series of long, narrow islands flung far to the east of the main body of land. I would discover later they're called the Outer Banks, a string of barrier islands and peninsulas connected by ferries, promising a very different view of the state than the mountainous Blue Ridge Parkway.

We'll Come Back For Indian Summer. Richmond, VA. November 6-10, 2015.

City rally routes.

Rally time! I landed in Richmond International Airport, full of nervous anticipation to see people, the rally, and my bike again. Fred surprised me at my gate, having landed just half an hour before me. It was all I could do not to jump on him, but with all my luggage hanging off my shoulders I thought perhaps I should spare him the additional inertia.

I don't remember if we caught an Uber to my bike for pickup, but in a blink Fred and I had gear in hand and my old familiar bike was under me again. We hit the road 2-up to the rally kickoff at Seven Hills Brewing Company.

Rocks, Heights, Lonely Highways, and Armani. LA to San Francisco, CA. November 2-5, 2015.

It was time to return Endy2 to his keeper in the city of fog. I rarely like to double back, but fortunately, for those with time it seems there are endless ways to slice the LA-SF run.

Notice how the first leg of this is quite short compared to the haul to San Francisco. I guess I discovered that November is not the ideal time to be riding in the mountains, but more on that later.

More Lazy Egging, San Francisco to LA. October 13 - November 1, 2015.

Another elaborate logistical dance of airplanes, friends, work, and borrowing Pete's bike was about to go down – you know, the regular drill now. By the end of it, I believe I'd be responsible for about 3/4 of the mileage on Endy2. I count myself extraordinarily fortunate to be able to get to know the Pacific Coast Highway so well. All in the name of working for a lazy egg... Or just a great excuse to visit friends in California!

Adventures in Philly, Wedding Crashing in Richmond. October 5-12, 2015.

I've sliced Connecticut east-west so many times, I already had a clear favorite route in mind: pass by the Scituate Reservoir, route 14 into CT, smaller roads (Machine Shop Hill Rd) aiming for CT-16. Once west of Hartford staying quite far south, I could decide how to proceed. It's my favorite for peaceful wooded roads, but also because friends live right at the intersection in Windham!

New England Again, the Adventure Continues. July 28 - October 4, 2015.

A lot of squiggles on this map.

I was afraid that upon returning to Providence, I would find myself hugely changed against a static landscape. In truth, time does move differently on the road. The events of a few days easily expands to fill the space of what might otherwise be a month of fixed-location human experience. I'd been holding off travel fatigue for what felt like months, but I couldn't tell months apart anymore (I didn't experience seasons, only changing climates). I needed to let time stretch to fill itself, and was grateful Tim had room for me in his life in again.

Rest, finish some paying work, get some regular exercise, hang out with friends, and figure out what's next. Conceptually, it sounded like a good plan.

But New England still had some surprises for me.

For the cliff notes version of this time period, I made a totally adequate and more concise post in October 2015 about my return to New England. For more photos and backstory, read on.

Ski's Shrimp Run, and What's Next. July 24 - 27, 2015.

The morning came too soon. I wished I could stay longer to celebrate, but life for this full-time scooterist is rarely easy. However, it's rarely dull, and often it's beautiful and fun. It was a new day, and I had many miles to cover for an appointment with a new rear tire in Brunswick, and a scooter rally in Topsham!

Descent on Lubec. July 21 - 23, 2015.

New England is a creaky floorboards kind of place, home to history, turned wood furniture, quilts, and closets that make me wonder if monsters dwell within. There's something a little magical here, but it's a salty, old-world kind of magic. It's where a younger version of me first found romance, which I followed to break free from the inertia of New York City. It's where I first experienced anything close to a 'real' winter (and then proceeded to endure 7 iterations of it). It's where I learned to ride, and attended my first rally. It's coastline and woods and winter. Now that I was full of the tastes of the rest of the country, I'd come back, maybe in part to see if that magic still held.

Scooters, Spiedies, and Blogging from the Adirondacks. July 19 - 21, 2015.

One of the silliest hobbies for a live-onboard scooterist must be rock collecting. However, I quickly regretted leaving my massage rock on Tim's dresser, as the pain in my shoulders showed no signs of responding to anything but the firm hand of Vitamin I. Oh well, I have scooterists to meet!

Dumptrucks and Tractor Pulls, still a Long Wade to Go. July 16 - 18, 2015.

The red eye flight back east was predictably punishing, exacerbating the soreness between my shoulder blades that rafting failed to banish, but there were two things I was very much looking forward in Pittsburgh: Jack was back, and I'd soon be reunited with my own bike!

Sanrio Surprise! Return to California. June 24 - July 15, 2015.

What a contrast, arriving at San Francisco airport to be picked up by bike again, but this time on Pete's new 300 Super. I hadn't seen him since the two weeks following the collision and was skeptical of his condition for operating a bike, but you can't keep a good man down.

Pittsburgh: Pause for Recovery. June 21 - 24, 2015.

A whopping 78 miles covered today, all of them painful. At least I kind of knew what to expect this year, and I had this guy to ride with for a while.

Mud and Maple Syrup: The Road to Bandcamp II. June 15 - 21, 2015.

Prepare yourself for mud you only discover months later in places you didn't think were ever exposed, and shenanigans on small motorized vehicles. We're going Toronto, ON to Toronto, OH, with a crazy Milano and a Buffalo kid, and the answer is yes you drank that many muddy tiki drinks.

Indy 35mph and Amerivespa. June 10 - 14, 2015.

It's scooter party time! Skip this post if you're sick of seeing photos of a bazillion scooters, or Davide's face. Yep, it's round two of rally-to-rally riding with the crazy Italian on a Beemer. Besides seeing people, the big draw for me this year at Amerivespa was that we'd be allowed on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?! Rally on...

Return to Mad-Town! May 31 - June 9, 2015.

Sometimes it surprises people to learn that in all my trekking across the U.S. I hadn't ridden more than 400 miles in a day – I just don't really want to if I don't have to. I know other GTS riders who have, and a few riders have even suggested the Iron Butt challenges. I do count mileage, but I do it in the same way I track all sorts of things, like places I've slept and food I've eaten.

That being said, it was only a matter of time until I tipped the 400 mile mark. From Saint Louis, MO to Madison, WI, I just didn't feel like stopping for an overnight.

Arch Friends and My Favorite Museum Ever in St Louis. May 25 - 30, 2015.

I was too tired and missed visiting Saint Louis the first time around when I was headed west. This time I reached out to Myke, and he had a place for me to stay a whole week!

Memphis As Fuck. May 22 - 24, 2015.

Prepare for food, scooters, and wrasslin', because that's what's happening in Memphis. I reached out to some folks at Memphis Kings SC for things to do and a place to crash, which is how I met Cassi.

Dogpatches and Adventure Riding in Arkansas. May 15 - 21, 2015.

It's a super long map.

I'd heard the Ozarks had beautiful riding, but I had no idea how to start. Truth be told, before visiting Arkansas it had so little bearing on my life that I wouldn't have been able to point it out on a map (this can be said of many of the states in the middle, which was part of what I wanted to rectify the really, really long way).

I had a long riding day planned right off the bat to get me in the right area, even the overcast skies couldn't get me down.