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.

Plan: Spring 2016 Edition of Where The Hell Is Steph Now?

Last I left you, I was undecided whether to go back east or head west after an epic two-scooterist ride to the Vegas High Rollers Rally. You may guess which way I ended up from the video, but let's recap anyhow!

February 29 - March 6: Las Vegas, NV → San Francisco, CA
Feb 29-March 3: San Diego, CA. Hanging out with Steve, and meeting the Vespa Motorsport guys.

Steve snapped this photo of my bike by the Pacific...again!

Keep an eye out for a podcast on Vespa Motorsport's Youtube channel...

March 4: Northridge, CA. Meeting epic scooterist Karen and her mom.

The guys in San Diego guys put me in touch with this cool gal, Karen, who has nearly 70k on her GTS250!
This was taken at her mom's place, just outside of LA.

March 5: Cambria, CA. Bridge Street Inn, great hostel and inn in a cute town.
March 6: San Francisco, CA!

Currently until March 24, 2016: San Francisco, CA

Pete and Marco for a Petaluma loop. Green hills after weeklong rain.

So I've continued west and north, and have been hanging out in San Francisco with the usual cast.

Moose (distinctive yellow GTV not pictured) and I explore Bernal Heights hilltop in San Francisco.

Pre-Delivery Inspection ninja.

In an unexpected twist I picked up a temporary gig, PDI-ing bikes for Vespa SF as they move to Scuderia. This is immensely good timing, as Pete is occupied at the new location and still in a cast, and I’m quite happy assembling bikes at the old location while catching up on podcasts (good to meet you again, Night Vale!). Sometime between putting bikes together and seeing all you awesome SF peeps, the plan is to catch up on blog entries.

But the bigger twist is yet to come...

Added some lines to my map.

March 25 - May 3: Atlanta, GA
In a huge and daring development, I found a place to store my scooter in SF, so it’s going to sleep there until the northwest gets warmer (sorry to cancel on you for now, Portland and Seattle). You read that right, Serenity is going dormant. It's a tough decision and I question what it will be like to be without my bestie bike for an undetermined amount of time, but the geographic positioning is about right for future travels, whether it's Utah or Alaska...

I’ll be airplaning it to Atlanta to buy Michael’s PX150/200. Some assembly is required, so it's a good thing Fred (remember him?) is flying down to help! Fingers crossed that comes together smoothly, just in time for what should be a beautiful time of year in Atlanta to go on some rides with the Terminal Scooter Club. I’ll be back at the Siaks home, and have some time to blog and work on the children’s book I’m supposed to be working on (oh right, can’t forget that). But really, let’s just admit: I want to build a bike with a boy, not freeze on rides, and go back to Alliance for all the jiujitsu! Woohoo, save me some arm bars?!

I may find resources for a roundtrip to PAX East (also, to see aforementioned boy). Mostly, I'm gearing up for chokes and pinch bruises in the Big Peach, and equipping my new old ride for touring.

Yes, after years of watching my bike numbers dwindle, Serenity will be getting a sibling. I'm looking forward to learning a different bike (I trust Michael's long-haul riding spirit already lives within this one), and have a way to get around on the east coast.

No home, but one bike for each coast. What luxury!

Speaking of the east coast... The plan is below.



May 4 - May 22: Atlanta, GA → Richmond, VA
May 4-6: Scooter camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway! Slow is the new fast.
May 7-8: Richmond, VA. Hey 7 Hills Scooter Club!
May 9-16: Roundtrip flight to Madison, WI. My sister’s gonna have a PhD, this is cause for celebration!!
May 17-18: Richmond, VA. Rest and recover. Ha.
May 19-22: Stanardsville, VA for CORSette and Dogwood Classic 13. Fred has promised a smallframe and a trailer.

May 23 - ??: Richmond, VA → Boston, MA/Providence, RI/New England thereabouts.
I have a storage unit to sort out, and a Fred to spend time with. Additionally, research indicates June is the best time to motorbike to Alaska, and my sleeping bike is waiting. I know I'll find plenty of new places to ride.

That's as far as I have for now! If you're wondering where I am most currently, my Instagram (@quezzie) is probably the most updated.

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.

Plan: Atlanta to Vegas, for TWO Scooterists?!

It's been a grand time wintering in Atlanta. I can't say thanks enough to my host family, the Siaks. I've known them since I was little – they are my Atlanta roots, and it's an unbelievable luxury to come back from Alliance Jiu-Jitsu to still-warm home-cooked meals. Also, yep I took the opportunity of staying still to do the thing I missed most being on the road: martial arts, 4-5 times a week. Thanks, Alliance, for improving my game and helping me stay sane through work. Catching the diehard Terminals that come out in winter on Wednesday nights was also super fun, and dropping by Vespa Marietta and Scooter Mercato. I'm going to miss my HQ in Atlanta! I feel well-rested and ready to hit the road again.

In February, I'm headed west on another long haul. This time, the adventure is two-fold: my sights are set on Vegas for another round of the High Rollers Scooter Rally, and I'll have company for the trip!

Details below. Instagram is probably the best way to follow what I'm most recently up to (username: quezzie), and as always, say hi if you're along the way.



Stage 1 (solo): Atlanta, GA → Austin, TX
Feb 4: Farewell, Atlanta, the Terminal Scooterists, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu, and the Siaks! Off to Pensacola, FL, to meet Jami (jamisea on MV).
Feb 5-6: New Orleans, LA, with Jeremy and Caitlin.
Feb 7-9: Houston, TX, with Uncle and Auntie 3. Happy Chinese New Year with family!
Feb 10-12: Austin, TX, with Fred.
~1,168 miles.

In Austin, I'll meet up with Fred, the guy I got involved with in Boston (oh right, I'll catch up the blog someday). We've been cooking up a plan to ride to Vegas, him on his 1965 Vespa GL with a PX200 engine, me on my bike as expected. Assuming all goes to plan, his GL will arrive in Austin by trailer by Feb 9, and we'll have a couple days to poke around this super fun city. Serenity can get a once-over at AF1 Racing. Then, we'll load up on breakfast tacos and we've got 11 days to cover about 2,000 miles to Vegas, on all secondary roads!

Stage 2 (with a Fred!): Austin, TX → Las Vegas, NV

Feb 13: Junction, TX. Maybe as far as Del Rio, TX depending on how much we're slowed by BBQ. Actually ended up being Kerrville, TX, in a motel.
Feb 14: Seminole Canyon State Park, camping.
Feb 15-16: Home of Voni and Paul Glaves!
Feb 17: Bonus night in Marfa, TX, Tumble In RV Park.
Feb 18: El Paso, TX, fancy hotel. Thanks, Fred.
Feb 19: Las Cruces, NM, motel, and a visit to White Sands National Monument.
Feb 20: Rodeo, NM, Rusty's RV Ranch, just outside Portal, AZ.
Feb 21-22: Tucson, AZ, Roadrunner Hostel.
Feb 23: Salome, AZ, motel.
Feb 24: Rally! Downtown Grand in Las Vegas, NV.

~1,926 miles.

Gearing up a 1965 GL with PX200 engine, currently in Boston, MA.
Snowball passenger not included.

It's a new kind of adventure for both of us. For me, this is next level riding partner territory (I'm excited to have him for two weeks!); for Fred, it's multi-day touring on a 50 year old bike. Plus, I definitely want to scoot by some terrain I missed last time, and see friends along the way. We plotted the route together, slowing the pace to just around 200 miles per day – for once, my bike may not be the runt of the litter (heh heh), and I want to make sure there's room to figure things out and hopefully not break anything. We've scouted out the local U-Hauls just in case, but come hell or high water (which maybe I shouldn't say in light of my last pass through Houston) we're going to Vegas!

After the rally shenanigans, there will be an empty crate that held the raffle bike which will take Fred's scooter back to Boston. From there, I will decide: Do I continue west, or turn back east? But I don't need to decide yet...

See you at the Rally!

Raffle bike. Hope the crate works out.

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.

Gear Talk: The GTS Tourer

The Vespa GTS 250/300 is pretty cushy for touring straight out of the crate, but here are some small additions that go the distance. I run stock inside, so really this is just a rundown of some luggage and electronic accessories I put on there.

The often-asked, long-awaited breakdown beyond the cut.

Texas Forever Part 2: Bikes, Buddies, Brisket, and Books. April 18 - May 14, 2015.

Houston has been the home of my uncle and aunt for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories of carsickness – I mean, road trips – are of taking the family car from Atlanta to visit them. In any case, I have my own two wheels now, so I was looking forward to seeing them again.

Texas Forever Part 1: It's Plains to see I'm going to Austin. April 6 - April 17, 2015.

I'm making tracks! For those wondering how I chart a path, it's roughly planned around a few fixed dates, and locations where I know I can hole up for a while. In this case, I had a motorcycle event I wanted to attend in Austin, and an impending work deadline that would require a stable location, Houston.

The content of the 4 days it would take me to ride to Austin blur together in my mind – wake up, pack up camp, and point the bike down the road. The landscape was mostly vacant yet I never felt lacking; ah, the duality of the open road.

Up In Two-stroke Smoke in Denver. April 1-5, 2015.

Colorado has been the most difficult riding I've done so far. I wanted to see scooter friends in Denver, did some research, and picked Salida as a waypoint. It appeared to be the best of both worlds for this early in the year; a cute town, splitting the different between the plains and what appeared to be a canyon pass instead of a high mountain pass.

Haha. Hahaha. Anyway, moving on...

Plan: The Way of the Scooterist, Winter 2015 Edition

So, I'm still on the road! I'll be dividing my time between the east coast and California. I wish I could stay longer in New England to watch the leaves changes (it's my favorite place for autumn), but a few immovable dates and the imminent cold is pulling me south. It's been a good rest, and even better to spend time with familiar friends! Here's my rough agenda, it'll stay at the top of the blog for a while. Please say Hi if you're in the neighborhood!

My winter destination: Atlanta, GA.
Projected arrival: Mid-November. UPDATE: I arrived on Nov 21, 2015.

Stage 1: Providence, RI → Richmond, VA
Oct 5: Farewell, Providence, RI! Montville, NJ, with Jon.
Oct 6-8: Philadelphia, PA, with Melissa and Rich.
Oct 9: Camping in VA.
Oct 10-12: Richmond, VA, wishing Davide a happy wedding!
~694 miles.

Stage 2: San Francisco, CA → Los Angeles, CA Roundtrip
Oct 13-20: Fly to San Francisco, CA. Staying with Pete.
Oct 21: Camping outside San Luis Obispo, CA, with Moose.
Oct 22-Nov 1: Team Gudetama revival tour, crashing with Aisha.
Nov 2: Motel in Gorman, CA, because it's too cold to camp.
Nov 3-5: Back to San Francisco, CA for a few days.
~864 miles.

Stage 3: Richmond, VA → Atlanta, GA
Nov 6-10: Return flight to Richmond, VA, just in time for Indian Summer Scooter Rally!
Nov 11-12: Hertford, NC, with Tim.
Nov 13: Ocracoke, NC, with Tim.
Nov 14: Beaufort, NC, with Tim.
Nov: 15-17: Oak Island, NC, with Don.
Nov 18-20: Mount Pleasant, SC, with Mirena and her family.
Nov 21-??: Atlanta, GA, with my dear friend from childhood, Wai. Hello, Terminal Scooterists!
~941 miles.

I'll be in Atlanta, GA through December 2015.

Travelers of Santa Fe. March 29-31, 2015.

It was a bit of a shock to be back in the rest of America after such an immersive experience in Zuni. I'd been through this region with Tim in the rental car, but it couldn't have been a more different experience. Everything is different on the scooter. Maybe everything is different each time you visit.

But now, the vastness of the desert stretched out before me like the ocean. I passed through Albuquerque with just a stop for a burrito with green chile sauce. My sights are set on Santa Fe.

Tamales and Mudheads. Arizona and New Mexico. Mar 22-29, 2015.

In the serendipitous way that is life sometimes, news came that Sash and Steve were staying in Tucson. Plus, a certain celebrity cooking show host, who's show sold out in RI while I was there, was touring in Tucson... I guess I'm making tracks to Tucson!

Gear Talk: Navigation and Route Planning

Coffee and snacks are key to route planning.

Navigation is an entirely personal process, but I've been asked often enough about my system that here's a post about it!

Southwestern Car Interlude. March 17-21, 2015.

This map is a bit misleading.

Part of the press to turn north again was to meet up with Tim (previously referred to as the Giraffe) for a southwestern road trip. The map above doesn't cover car territory – this is partly because I'm more concerned with scooter tracks, but it's also because we only had one charger in the car and I couldn't keep my GPS running all the time. In any case, this would be a bit like a whirlwind vacation from riding for me, a rest from the emotional intensity of Baja as well as catch up time with a dear friend. So, less talk and more photos now?!

The Transient Life, Ongoing

I think I need a new tire. Tri-Sports, Brunswick, ME.

I feel like I've lived at least 5 lifetimes in the past year.