There's a Modest Mouse lyric that goes "One time out of ten, everything goes perfect for us all." I don't feel like I've suffered through the other nine yet, but here is one of those ones.
I go to Germany preparing to do all of the following things:
- buy a bike
- buy insurance
- register the bike
- get license plates made for the bike
- get a helmet
- get gloves and some sort of protective jacket or at least something warm
- figure out if the bike is in good shape or not
- withdraw about a thousand Euros (easier said than done; my bank limit for the ATM is about $500 ~= 380 Euros/day)
And I contact the local Horizons Unlimited group for direction in doing the above, and a guy named John responds and says "want to just borrow my bike?"
What! In one fell swoop, almost all of those problems are solved. Even the problem of selling it afterwards as well. He's got insurance and I don't need to do any registration things, he's got an extra helmet, gloves, leather jacket/pants I can borrow, helped me look over the bike and told me what's up with it, no worries. He just got back from a round-the-world trip of his own and he's got this extra bike, so he wants to help enable my epic trip.
Pictures!
Aprilia Leonardo 125 from 1997. Don't worry, Dad, I'll be mostly mowing lawns with it :D Plus, this guy got around Europe on a 125cc scooter, so at least I'm not the first.
Yep, that's its license plate.
"Hey, who's that guy?" "Which guy?" "The one who looks like a total badass."
Well, when I think "total badass" I naturally think "Dan Tasse." Congratulations on this serendipitous meeting with zen motorcyclist. Fantastic. But don't go on the autobahn or you'll be squished like a black badass bug.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry, no plans to!
ReplyDeleteDan Tasse, in leather...i just giggled with delight and totally impressed with the bad-ass-ness.
ReplyDeleteawesome, Dan! and you look great! haha have fun with the bike
ReplyDeleteDan Tasse the Bad Asse.
ReplyDelete