GRAY, Maine–Midge, this cute Italian followed me home. Can we keep her? Pleease? Well, we did it. We brought this piece of Italy home to remind us of the old country every time we step out the kitchen door into the garage there. As if we need Italy reminders!
Could a stranger be forgiven for thinking this part of Maine is crawling with apes? Apes around every corner like we were in downtown Siena or something. Having one in town is just some guy (Paul) being eccentric and leading edge. Two is surely the beginning of a trend, no? I drove it around the yard a bit last night and realized I was way too trippunchy to do that so I bucking bronco’d it into its new home and turned off the key. And went to bed. whew. Going to get comfy driving it this weekend. I’ve never had a motorcycle with hand operated clutch, so I keep moving my left foot around over there. Nope, still nothing there. I’ll get it. Until then, looking into the garage you just want to pinch it on its cheek, it is so cute sitting there.
Before calling it a day, we stopped at our major benefactor’s office, so Bill Goddard could see the whole righteous rig that his valiant Tahoe drug across all of Northern New England and a full Canadian province. Then we showed the STV marketing team the new Company Car and then home. Home. Love the sound of that. By evening I had confused the town hall and the State of Maine as well. They really didn’t have a book sitting around where they could research initial sales prices of one of these. But they kept after it and eventually it worked out, I gave them some money and they gave me a plate.
All’s well that ends well and this may be the end of this part of this adventure. I will try to do one more wrap up with the a photo gallery that shows the Canadian Countryside and the trip adventures in more photo detail. We’ll see how the weekend goes. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Saluti a tutti!
(travel note: the Lavazza Cafe was a giant fun surprise to find on the Mass Pike. Plaza just before Worchester.)
See you in Italy,
Stew Vreeland
Great, you got it all the way there. It was a good story.
Amen – not really, just the beginning. I wonder if #99 on your hats helped out with the State Trooper? Enjoy to the fullest. Bringing home another one shortly, powder blue she is. These Ape’s seem to find new life here in Bayfield and to well-up tears to a Sicilian is worth the effort. Now, maybe a red one with ladders, hoses, buckets & axes? – all the best – Ken & Delores
Boys: I’ve uploaded two movies, “Vespacar in Bayfield” and “Off to Maine, USA” and as soon as my chap does the link they’ll be available for viewing on http://www.kjjohnson.ca on the Piaggio side. Great gales of laughter at the Red Pump tonight when I told (embellished) the story of this great adventure, and we all want to see a photo of the “Maine” plate framed and mounted on the wall in Paul’s garage with the LED light mounted above, shining on the plate! Ken
Congratulations – looks way too good for an Ape. Engineers need more data. Got a “born on” date (year) for the Ape and Lancia? More close ups soon?
So damn quiet on our street since the green flash tore by I took the black P501 Furgone down to the Town Hall last night for a big bash and auctioned off a bunch of interesting packages to raise funds to preserve & run the place. Appropriately there was an Italian dinner for 6 spread over three homes. The Vespacar waited at the door and as I tore home in the start of another storm you boys came to mind and I did my fly-by down Tuyll Street with equal speed and noise. Nothing like a “Bee” – Ken
Middle One – My black Furgone (van) and Stew’s Pianale (pickup) were three apart on the assembly line when they were produced on August 3, 1982 in Italy. They are Piaggio P501 Vespacars with a 189cc two stroke motor and were imported to Canada and these two were sold originally by the importer to a chap in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in February 1983. The Department of Transport here in Canada classed them as Motorcycles mainly due to the handlebars. The P601 (with twin headlights) was also available with a steering wheel, clutch and brake pedals and gas pedal (it’s the one Stew keeps reaching for) – A number of these P501’s were exported to the USA in 1983 but I’ve been unable to find many, Paul’s being one exception. – Ken
I can’t wait to get home and see this!
And what do you mean nobody writes you about this stuff? Look at all your comments!