Ride Tales are Back

Folks...... I checked my activity and it appears that my last Ride Tale was the one of Independence Pass, a year and a half ago, and my active period was up until 2012...... SO MUCH has happened since.

Those knowing me more intimately - and running Facebook - know most of it, but I guess there's a new generation on BMWSportTouring that might not. Or is there?

I browsed through the site a lot these past few days and it appears that there is a lot less activity overall...... hey, are you ALL on Facedbook now !!??

Well, lets change that. I for one love Facebook, but there's also a dark side to it. Lack of control. Mark Snickerburg may decide tomorrow to stop allowing posts of BMW's, or you, or me, and then we're stuck.

I still run my own website and blog(s), but lets not forget BMWST, shall we?

I turned 65 recently, so have a little more time to spend on things like 'leisure computing'..... or so I'd like to believe. SWAMBO has a total different view on (my) life I can tell you.

Anyway, I'll be telling a bit about what happened to us these past 5 years, but lets start with a good old (little) ride tale, as I promised my old BMWST friends ages ago....

This one saw Nina and me riding out to a little place called Bivio Moscatini. This is still on our 2006 GS, the one that we shipped back to Holland last year, and sold.

This trip was in March 2017, already a year ago .... (WHAT !!!!???? Where did all that time go..... ????). We went to visit someone we knew and lived nearby before that. A lady taking care of old people.

That's one of the things here in rural Italy. There are no elderly homes, children do a lot, but also have their own lives to run, so many elderly have an 'attendant' living with them.

More often than not these are Romanian ladies, but there are also people from Morocco and elsewhere. They get paid partially by the children, partially from the pension of the 'client' and partially by some State funds.

Anyway, enjoy the photos showing our immediate surroundings of where we live nowadays, in the Green Heart of Italy, a region called Umbria, smack in the middle between Rome and Florence !

Oops, that's a bit scary..... I forgot the sizing limitations of this forum..... apologies

We're already wearing our new Nolan helmets here. After my crash in Colorado the year prior, I had to get me a new one. Bought Nina one too, so we're better visible and the new NComm interphone system works great !

One of the reasons for coming here (besides pure coincidence) is the fact that there are mountains within riding distance.

Not like our French Alps, but high enough (behind those). They are called the Appenines.

This is a shot looking southeast, towards the town of Spoleto.

One of the 'problems', especially in the Umbria region, are the bad roads. Government and towns have no money (although LOTS of people in our neighborhood drive around in Lambo's, Porsche SUV's, Range Rovers and Maserati's

I have interesting stories to tell about (not) paying taxes here..... resulting in roads that look a lot like the ones I encountered in the New York area many moons ago *grin*

This particular one was alright.....

Here's the little man our friend was looking after. He's over 90 years old and my GS was taller than he was. No idea how he got the New York baseball cap. LOL !!

Looking back after we left.....

And here are the bikes back in the little garage we have.

The crates are olive crates and, like the boxes, contain stuff we saved from the fire on the ground floor (different story, for another day).

Here I still had my 2004 RT and the 2007 GS.... both are gone now (I think I posted that in another thread one day, but not sure).

Anyway, hope you liked my little 'rentree' into the world of Ride-taling...... will post some more stuff soon !!

Welcome back Francois. Long gone are the days when a ride tale could be knocked off the front page in a few hours. Now they time out when the three months are up, or something like that.

Thanks Jan, yeah I noticed that. I set my forum on 6 months and still remained on the same screen...... urghs....

Francois, with both bikes gone now, it may make ride tales a tough story to continue? I'm just fishing for a new bike story! Beautiful pics as always!

Pat

Coming up, Pat.... I promised a review on the new bike to someone, so am working on that :-)

Seems like old times.

I need to post a Ride Tale

L

Ride Tales good.

Yes, fewer and fewer.

Now if only Tech Days could...oh well.

At least riding to eat and greet is alive and well.

I wonder if there's a way to get them back? MY reasons for posting less were

a) taking too much time (cumbersome photo process)

b) life took a change and there was just less time available

c) less riding and more other things to attend to

All three have changed now, so I am back into 'tale mode'.

But what about the rest of us !?

I wonder if there's a way to get them back? MY reasons for posting less were

 

a) taking too much time (cumbersome photo process)

b) life took a change and there was just less time available

c) less riding and more other things to attend to

 

All three have changed now, so I am back into 'tale mode'.

 

But what about the rest of us !?

Could happen to anyone

Can't wait to get more on the wonderful riding you must have in Italy.

Working on some backlog.....