Vespa Adventure Travel is full of Ups and Downs!
I had many many days that were total emotional rollercoasters.
Up: You ride through the beautiful French region of Camarque and watch the famous white horses and some flamingos standing in the marshlands. Your heart is singing with joy.
Down: Half an hour later you hear a popping sound in the middle of nowhere. Your scooter stops and you have to camp out 3 nights on a french parking lot. It was a holed piston and you have to repair your scooter at night.
Down: You get into a very strong thunderstorm on a coastal road in Liguria Italy. The next moment your ass slides 30 meters over a roundabout because of oil and sand. This and the sun made the street slippery like soap. You survive with a few scratches on the scooter and your ego and a ripped rainjacket.
Up: 4 hours later you have a picnic on the French Cote D´Azur with a view of the turquoise Mediterranean sea.
Down: You have a soft seize upon arrival at a danish campsite. It forces you to open your motor and clean up the piston and cylinder. All the campers look at you like you will stay there forever.
Up: Next day you reach Copenhagen, get to see a mini scooter museum and get invited to a barbecue in the harbor and sleep on the big and beautiful sailing yacht “Good Enough” with a view of the opera house and get to know his fascinating owner.
Up: You have a sunny breakfast with friends in beautiful Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and start a ride to reach an event of Scooter Club Tomelloso (Spain).
Down: You have only 5 days to get there and after 100 km you seize your motor. It results in being towed on the back of a highway cleaner truck to a gas station where you spend the whole day repairing your piston and cylinder.
Up: A Slovenian truck driver donates you some sandpaper and a tool for the repair.
Down: You need to sleep the night next to garbage containers behind the truck stop.
Up: After 4 days of riding over 600 km daily through heat, strong winds, rain, and even hail with a rainbow you arrive in Tomelloso Spain. You were sleeping mostly in parking lots and roadside You get received like a hero by local Scooterists and Press. you get the chance to spend a fabulous weekend with great food, wine, and even a private tour of the city museum. And most important you make lots of new friends.
Up: You come into a gas station in Kansas and get invited to a coffee by some Harley rider. By coincidence, you see that a hundred miles south several tornados are about to merge but move south and you feel lucky.
Down: In the evening you realize in the middle of nowhere you were not lucky after all. Between a lot of cornfields with nowhere to hide ONE of those tornadoes decided to move your way. You get your butt whooped properly!
Up: It dissolves a few miles from you but the surrounding storm and rain force you to slow down to 30kms/h. Then your lights fail and a pickup driver saves your life by following you very close and blocking your back. He is giving you light with his big lights on the roof of his truck for the next 30 km. After one hour you reach a motel and safety.
But hey this is what Vespa Adventure Travel is about! Overcoming challenges, right?!