Nancy & I are in Florida for the next couple months...thank goodness judging by the weather north of here. We walked into a favorite restaurant on the St. Johns river, passing by a number of bikes in the parking lot including a yellow/white Valk. I watched from our table and finally a group of riders walked out and hung out by the bikes so I walked out to see who the Valk rider was. A middle-aged gent, small in stature, used broken English indicating it was his. I tried chatting so he called his friend over who could speak good but accented English and acted as our translator. He asked if I ride so showed him a picture of my trike to which both really lit up. One guy asked why I ride a trike, I joked and told him she's sitting in the restaurant. Both got a big laugh then asked if I had trouble backing out of tight spaces. I explained about my wife getting tired of being the on-board reverse so swapped the motor with a Wing motor with reverse. Every time the translator told his friend what I said they both had a good chuckle. It was a neat conversation, albeit rather difficult, so I asked where they were from. Turns out they were from Brazil, I tried find out if they rode all the way but unable to make my question understood, they were touring with a group who were getting ready to leave so I didn't pursue it any further. One nice fella came by shaking hands and saying goodbye and shook my hand as well. I told him I was an outsider, he just smiled and asked "do you ride?" "Sure do"...his response was "then you're not an outsider."
It was a fun experience and the food was great...as was the temperature of 76. Next week will be a cold spell of 50s & 60s...but no snow.
