MUSINGS--

By the time you read this we already should be re-settled in our Ohio digs after four months of snow-birding in Vero Beach, FL.

As I scribble this on the last day of April I have mixed emotions about leaving our FL friends and the boatload--sometimes literally--of activities available to us in this sub-tropical paradise.  Already I have enjoyed a head-boat deep sea fishing trip, some freshwater bass fishing with another local boating friend and a day's outing on a casino ship which does day cruises out of Port Canaveral.

Still on the boating bucket list is a chartered, deep-sea outing in search of trophy sail fish--catch and release variety--and, maybe some leisurely kayaking with a geocaching friend I met here late this winter, in addition to some repeats of those previously mentioned. 

Yet, I will be heading home with great anticipation of seeing family and old friends once again.  With roots as deep as mine, there truly is, no place like home.

And I will be rolling northward with visions of even more new experiences dancing in my head.

My bicycling friend, Ken Johnson, is the proud new owner of a Honda motorcycle.  I was delightfully astonished to hear this news.  You will remember him as the fellow I bicycled 70 miles with that day a few years ago when we celebrated our mutual 70th birthdays.

Turns out he has a relative whose company he can best enjoy if he joins him on a motorcycle ride.  Also turns out there are three or four other geriatric friends with an assortment of motorized two-wheelers who are assembling themselves as riding companions.

Ken invited me to join them.

Wow.  My dad always dreamed of one day having a then K model Harley-Davidson.  Best he ever achieved was a motor scooter.  That dream continued through my life.  It was heightened as my sons brought motorcycles home in their youth.  But, the best I ever achieved was a Cushman Eagle motorscooter too.

Until now.

With serious guidance from those sons and lots of research with other experienced friends it looks like there is a motorcycle in my very near future too.

I really chuckled when Ken told me about he and his, ahem, mature buddies planning an outing this year where they expect to plunder the clubhouse of some competing riders and take off with their women.

Or, maybe they will just ride to the local Panera eatery for a quiet breakfast, depending on the mood of the day.

Hope you can see the smile on my face.

If I had to choose a bike this very minute it would be this one, a 2008 Honda Shadow Spirit 750cc currently in inventory at the Mid-Ohio Honda shop in Mt. Vernon, from whose web site I borrowed this picture.