Scooters and authors and books. OH MY!!!!!

Well, yesterday the family got up at 4 in the morning (after I only got 1 1/2 hours of sleep) to make a trip to Conway, Arkansas. There was a 2005 Yamaha Majesty there that I wanted to take a look at.

One of the things that we noticed in driving to Conway was that were a lot of trees lining the highways there in Arkansas. Also the roads in Arkansas were head and shoulders above what we have in Oklahoma, lots of smooth pavement in opposition to the pothole filled monstrosities that we call roads.

We got to Conway about 9:30 and went to find the area where the bike was at. There were some really nice homes in the area. Since I wasn't able to get in contact with the owner we decided to drive around in Conway to kill some time.

While driving around Karma saw a Hasting's store and I figured it would be a good place to kill some time. For those of you who don't know what a Hasting's is, it would be similar to a Border's or Barnes and Noble but it has books and movies.

We got in there and the staff seemed to be busy working on something. I ignored it and went to look at the books. Karma was noticing there were a lot of books by Charlaine Harris on the end caps and she heard the talk about preparing for an author's appearance. She asked the staff and found out that Charlaine was going to be in the store for autographs at 2PM.

Charlaine is one of Karma's favorite authors. She wrote the Sookie Stackhouse books which is the series that HBO's True Blood is based on. Talk about fate, Karma didn't even know that she was making an appearance anywhere that day. We obviously had to go back.

The owner called me with his address and advised that how would be home around noon he had gone camping the night before and wouldn't be back until then.

Around 11 we decided we needed to go to lunch as noon would be about the time to test the bike. We found a place called Pickles Gap and ate there. They was an antiques store there and a fudge shop. An old home type of feel. We really only had time to eat but I was able to get some catfish (it was good). If you are ever in the Conway/Little Rock area I would recommend it if you have some extra time.

By the time that lunch was finish we headed back toward the bike's location and rode around some more to kill some more time. The guy finally called me and we stopped back by to give the scooter a test ride. It was a blast. I decided to buy it.

Now we had to stop back by Hasting's so Karma could get her book signed. I filled up both the car and bike while Karma and Tempus stood in line. Once Karma was done, we stopped by a convenience store for some drinks.

From there we hopped up onto the highway. The Majesty's ride was really smooth and it got up to highway speed quickly. The posted speed for the highway is 70 and I was trying to keep it between 70 and 75 on the speedometer but there were a couple of times that I had it at 80 while not paying close attention. It wanted to run fast.

We had to stop a couple of times on the way back home. I had a couple of times that were a little scary on the way back. I almost pulled into a red sport's car on the way home as I didn't see him coming up on my right until the very last second. Another time there was a car that was merging onto the highway that I had to slow down to make sure to she didn't hit me.

Also, on the way home I had to stop and pay the tolls since I don't have a pikepass for the scooter. When I stopped at the Creek Turnpike northbound at about 31st street I tossed the 85 cents in it and it never registered anything. Even throwing an additional dollar in it never took it. I put over 2 dollars in the machine and it acknowledged nothing. Finally the guys behind me told me to just pull through. He was going to leave a note to let them know the machine was broken.

I was getting closer to home and when I went to take the turn off to get on 44 westbound I noticed that the bike was jostling around a little bit in the slow down. It became more prevalent as I pulled up my street. I pull it into the garage to find that the thread on the back tire had blown out. It looks like the tire might have had some dry rot in it, if nothing else it is another causality of Oklahoma roads.

There is a motorcycle shop right up the road that I will call tomorrow to see if they can get it in to replace the tire on it. Next thing is to get the insurance on it and transfer the title over.

*SIGH* I was hoping to show it off today to some friends and then tomorrow at work. Guess it will have to wait a couple of days.

Later peeps.