It's Saturday and I survived the week.

[Steve Lawler <slawler@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Went to pick up my 2000 Blue Sprint today. :-)

They had a blue Trophy on the floor. I pointed it out to my wife, Liz.
"See that blue. It's better than that." Once we found it over by the
Hondas ("EEEEK") Liz took one look at it. "It's purple." "No. It's
blue." "It's purple." Then the kid cleaning it said "It's blue."
Somebody said "That's yours?"  "Yeah." :-)  "Great color."  "Yeah." :-)

As I was hanging out in the show room watching it get its finishing
touches I met a few more envious people.  I must have been grinning ear
to ear. :-)

Once it was outside I started to get very nervous. Actually,
"incredibly" is a better adjective for describing my jitters. After
meeting the service staff I was left alone in the parking lot. I put on
my jacket, my helmet, my backpack (the panniers are on order) and
gloves. I sat on it, took a deep breath and just sat there for a second.
All I could think was "Wow!" I started it up. "Oooooo. That's sweet."
Put it in gear, started to let out the clutch and it stalled.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I KILLED IT. Please let it live again and I will treat
it wonderfully." It started right up. "Whew." I pulled away and swore
that I was on my little Honda. No actually it was me that was shaking.
Not 50 feet from the dealers driveway some knothead went to take a left
turn in front of me. A quick squeeze of the front brake and I stopped.
"Nice brakes." The knothead saw me at the last second and stopped too. I
continued on my way. :-)

After a few miles I calmed down and was really getting a feel for it.
"Okay! Bring on the twistees and the screaming straights!." "Nope,
you'll have to wait." 3500 rpm seems like such a cruel limit. I already
hit 58 miles and this afternoon I'll conquer the remaining  42. :-)

I wanted to avoid highways for my ride home so that I could get a lot of
variety in speed and gears. The country roads on the journey home were
fun but as I approached Newark it became a real pain in the aaaaaah
wrists. After I get a few miles under my seat I might consider risers
but until then I will see how I acclimate to the new position. Anyway,
once in Newark I decided to get on 280 to alleviate some of the wrist
pain. The pain was mostly in my left wrist; so I attribute that to
constant clutching on the city streets. Once on 280 I had a tough time
staying below 3500 rpm. Every car passed me by. "Do not worry my sweet.
Soon we will be able to take our revenge on them all. MWAH-HAH-HAH."
(Evil laugh). :-)

After I pulled into the driveway, Liz came out. "You finally made it."
"Yeah." :-)

Two of my sons, Colin and Thomas, ran out with two of their friends.
"Awesome!" "Cool!" "Awesome!" "Cool!" "Awesome!" "Cool!" "Awesome!"
"Cool!" Thomas asked what took so long to get home. I explained 3500
rpm, blah, blah, blah. "Cool. How long before you can go 180?" My god, I
created a monster. :-)

Whoa. Liz just got back from the store. Time to go rack up some miles!
:-)

I'm still grinning.  :-) :-) :-)

Steve Lawler
Somewhere on the roads in New Jersey

- --
_________________________________
*************WARNING*************
Shameless product placement below


________________________________________________________
NetZero - We believe in a FREE Internet.  Shouldn't you?
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
 The ST Mailing list is sponsored by the Unofficial ST Website
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=