Ride to the Edge of the City

by Jim Zeiser
(Deposit, NY, US)

There was a sudden break in the weather and I finally had a chance to do a ride I've been thinking about for a long time. The closest big city to me is Binghamton and at the outskirts of it is West Windsor.

We've stopped at the McDonald's there on numerous occasions in the car and as I've ventured further out on Old Rt. 17 I've had it in my head I wanted to ride there on the scooter. The weather was getting colder so I thought I'd have to put it off until next year, but suddenly Mother Nature relented and we got a warm day and the perfect opportunity to take the trip.

It's always nice to find a quiet road to ride the scooter on and the Old Road is a perfect place. The main highway is always in sight and people in a hurry use it to get around leaving the parallel road to locals and slower traffic.

One thing you always experience on a road like this is the flavor of the surrounding area. Stores, schools, churches, used car lots, gas stations and parks slide by as you ride, something you don't see on an Interstate. In the summer there are fairs and chicken barbecues on the roadside tempting you to stop.

At the McDonald's there's a gas station next door and I topped up for the ride home. There wasn't much need it turned out, but better to be safe than sorry. I was tempted to have a little snack at the Golden Arches but I had just had lunch, so it would have been... overfilling. I took one look at the city in the distance and took off for home.

The ride home was just as good as the ride there and I was sorry to pull into the garage and shut the scooter off. I know winter is coming and months of cold will prevent another fifty mile ride like today for awhile. I'll just have to come back to my pictures in January and remember how good the summer was.