Introduction to slow adventuring

On August 21st, 2020 my wife and I bought two 2021 Honda ADV 150 scooters.  14.4 raging horses to propel us down the roads on our slow adventures.  This blog chronicles the additions to and maintenance of the scooters over time.  It offers the reader another perspective and sometimes additional details on the adventures detailed in the blog Cletha's Adventures.  Comments and questions are welcome.  These are our choices and methods based on our knowledge and experience.

A little background on my wife Cletha and me, (Eric), then following posts will have more focus on the scooters.  We are both retired and living in Tupelo, MS.  Here I am on a ride in Utah.

I started riding by borrowing the neighbors Honda 50 or taking turns with him in the wilds behind our houses when we were about 12.  Any chance I got to ride anything on two wheels with a motor during my teens, I took advantage of.  My folks wouldn't let me get a motorcycle or minibike, so it wasn't until I was in the Marines that I acquired my first motorcycle, an abandoned '82 Honda CX500, in June of '83.  I wore out a few tires on that bike, learning to ride on the streets and canyons around El Toro air base in California.  When my tour ended, I returned home to Portland, OR and shortly after traded my '70 MGB GT for a basket case '40 HD Knucklehead chopper.  A couple of weeks later I was riding it, after teaching myself how to wire it, plumb it and wrench on it... and how to start a kick start, manual timing 1940 motorcycle.  Mine was similar to this one, down to the uncomfortable king/queen seat, long springer forks and 2 into 1 exhaust.

I took my motorcycle endorsement test and put 30k plus miles on that rigid framed, manual drum brake, kick start bike before moving on to a '85 Cagiva Alazzurra 650.  Other bikes followed off and on, and then a ten year hiatus before returning to riding in '04 on a Yamaha FZ1.  I've ridden lots of different bikes.   From custom cruisers...

 To large adventure tourers...

I always tended to do longer rides and in 2004 I also discovered long distance riding and the Iron Butt Association and started doing endurance rallies all over the Western US, including the 6 day SPANK rally and the 10 day MERA 10-n-10 event in 2010 and eventually the Iron Butt Rally in 2013.  My LD bikes were the venerable Yamaha FJR1300 and later a Yamaha Super Tenere.  Between those two bikes I rode all over the United States and Canada, including Alaska for over 300k miles.  During this time I encountered my future wife while in Hyder, AK.  She was riding by herself on a Honda GL1800 Goldwing.  Hyder looked like this then.  Much has changed since 2010.

I kept encountering this woman at endurance motorcycle events all over the West.  Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and California.  

I was living in Oregon and she in Utah at the time.  Somehow, she always ended up talking to me after the event.  I'm a little slow, she had to call me and ask if I was interested in her or not.  Hmm, assertive, smart, pretty, not broken and rides her own motorcycle....  Yes, I'm interested, thank you very much!  I proposed in January of '11 and we married in August of 2012 as a surprise wedding at the International IBA Meet in Denver, CO.  We celebrated our 8th anniversary this year and are still madly in love.

My wife, Cletha, started riding dirt bikes when her young son begged her for a dirt bike.  She didn't think it would be right to just turn him loose, so she bought him a 50 and herself a 100 and they started riding every weekend in the off road areas around Seattle, WA.  They quickly moved on to 80 and 200cc bikes.  She would go on to ride many competitions and has a shelf full of trophies from that era, but never rode on the street.  

Here is her Honda Hercules 200.

                                

She ended up falling into a HD Sportster when a fellow owed her money and she accepted the bike as payment.  She rode that only a few times before trading it in on a HD Heritage Softail which took her on many adventures in and around the St George, UT area before a friend suggested she give his Goldwing a try.  She bought her own GL1800 the next day!

She discovered long distance riding when she participated in the 3 Flags Classic in 2010.  Some of the other riders were IBA members and told her about the IBA and endurance rallies.  She signed up for the Premier Winter Endurance Rally, White Stag, shortly after.  That 12 Hr rally led her to a 24 hour rally, the MERA Utah 1088, then quickly to the MERA 10-n-10 Rally and many other endurance rallies before entering and finishing the Iron Butt Rally in 2011.

We have ridden in all 50 states and ridden together in 40 states and about half of the Canadian Provinces.  We're working on plans to finish riding together in the 10 states in the NE US that we still need to explore.   We have transitioned from 1000 mile days to fewer miles and slow adventures that may take all day, but not cover much distance.  We still have some longer days left in us though.  😉 Thanks for reading and following along with us!