The day was nearing it's finale, and so was my visit to my southern AZ home.
The bike had been a good buy. It should suffice me for my planned trips and travels over the next decade.
I don't have any plans to sell either the scooter or the XT. I will ride them well into my sixties or maybe even my seventies.
That other Frank (Conners) had been one of my many heros growing up in Edmonton, reading about his adventure travels in the Southwest.
I had grown up in the ensueing years and decades.
Having first travelled to California in Canada's Centennial year, 1967... and then again the first trip to Baja, with Phoenix as a base in '98, I was thrilled to now have a more permanent base.
I was twelve then and I had already had a consuming interest in things two wheeled. I'd already had my first motorcycle for many years by then.
A red Brit bike, most likely a Matchless or Triumph or BSA twin... the rider wearing a cap on his head.
That bike was manufactured by the Reliable toy company and to this day, I still have it. The little bike had travelled with me, in the pocket of my riding gear to many, many locations. It was truly, the first 'pocket bike.'
From the wilds of Baja, to the Maritimes, to the windswept, snow covered mountains of the Alps... thru Italy's Tuscany, the Island of Napolean's exile, Elba, the south of France and all the way to the Portuguese Atlantic coast. It has more miles on it than many motorcyclists on the road today. As I write this, it is sitting waiting for my return, in my Glendale bedroom.
Downstairs, hibernating the winter away, the XT and Adventure, join the little Reliable.
Like General Douglas MacArthur had immortalized in his words...
"I shall return..."
