Sol Power–BrammoBlog.com

Blog 57. “It’s been a week and a day, since my baby went away.”

Being without the Brammo Enertia Plus has turned me into a BCS:

Bad Country Singer.

(No oxymoron comments about BAD not being needed with Country Singer.

See: Hank Williams SR, George Jones, John Hiatt, Johnny Freakin Cash.)

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Well today is a totally Brammo free blog…well other than the Title…and the blog’s first line…and that last sentence….but no more. Except one more: the Brammo Enertia Plus has been gone since last Wednesday…and:

“There’s been a hoot-owl howling by my window now

For six nights in a row,

She’s coming for me, I know,

And on T’Challa we’re both gonna go.”

Gah, must stop listening to the 70’s radio station at bed time….

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So “currently” no electric motorcycle for me. But I still had a ride planned:

The Marigold Parade/Dia De Los Muertas Parade.

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I couldn’t miss that. For one, I made a special Dia De Los Muertas Panda head just for the ride. And two, it is a nice time with TONS of people.

I did shoot a little video and I took a few photos. But I couldn’t take photos nor video while driving the Maxi-Scoot (horrid name) down the parade street with my panda head on. It felt very much like I was an 80 year old with glaucoma driving to the liquor store for more vodka. (Editor’s Note: A future not impossible to imagine for Gavin.)

Thankfully I was only riding at 1 mph hour. So, even 90 percent blind, I somehow pulled off, by the grace of God,  NOT running over any of the thousand or so kids jumping into the street trying to catch cheap candy. “Hey kids, it’s like 3 days after Halloween; no candy left at home? Willing to be run over by a near blind panda-headed moron for that piece of cheap off-brand Bazooka gum that you will just throw away when you get home?”

And it was HOT. Over 80 degrees….in New Mexico…in NOVEMBER!!! Not surprisingly, inside that Panda head it was much hotter. Sweat dripped into eyes as I tried constantly to re-adjust the panda head to allow some tiny amount of vision. Oh, and I had a passenger.

So that mile ride from the Isleta Police Station to the Southwest Community Center was a long, hot, mildly scary drive. And at one mile per hour that mile ride took….wait, I think I can do this math in my head…let’s see…carry the 1…divide by 1…correct for lowest common denominator (me)…and it took like eleven billionity hours…or it took about an hour. Gah, that part of the ride was painful and distressingly like WORK. (gotta stop saying Gah so much.)

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Jessi and I post ride, wandering around the community center. I was in immediate search mode for FLUIDS.

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Me and Jessi, my passenger. It was great having Jessi there. (photo from the Daily Lobo website–UNM’s college paper)

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http://goodtogrow.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/monday-2012-marigold-parade-in-albuquerques-south-valley/

The above link takes you to a site that has lots of nice photos Many that show the crowd some. None of my photos ever show the crowd 😦

The place was PACKED. Nice.

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At the “staging” area.

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Ron on his Spree.

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Ron, Panda Head and Jessi at the end of the Parade.

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Jessi, her date and the Panda Head 🙂

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My Video. Mostly of the Parade staging/set-up area (we were group 28 of over 100 groups).  I slowed down the beginning part as I was spinning around and it would have made everybody throw up on their monitors. Don’t ask how I know this. (memo to self: buy new monitor)

Then some footage (can we use the word footage any more? Everything is digital…no film footage to handle and splice together) of riding to the start of the Parade. You get to see Jessi coming up with my Panda Head just before the turn onto the street with all the humans. The person squealing like an 8 year old girl is me. 😦

I rode the scooter down to the parade and didn’t want to carry the head. Jessi said she would bring it, but was running late as the traffic was HORRID. So I almost didn’t do the ride in the head. (which would have made me hella sad, but it probably would have been safer and I would have had some video of the crowd)

And finally some “footage” of the end of the Parade site. It was starting to get crowded, and the Parade was still going. So that field at the community center was going to be packed by the time night fell.

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All in all, it was a nice time. I want to invite Brammo to do a group ride at the parade next year. A few silent and clean electric motorcycles riding down the road would get a lot of attention with this crowd. And tons more at the huge party at the ride’s end. And throwing candy to the kids is always fun. And you would get a nice visit to the beautiful Southwest. (Large, vision obstructing paper mache heads are optional)

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And you know it isn’t a Gavin trip unless I stop somewhere to take extra photos of the bike in nice scenery. Sorry, no electric vehicle photos, but here is my Fuoco 500 down at the Rio Grande River with the Cottonwood leaves turning gold.

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Dark shadow at top is part of my finger…I kinda suck at this stuff.

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Till Next Time…

Gavin

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For more info on Brammo, please visit: www.brammo.com
For more images, photos, discussions and all around Brammo goodness: visit, lurk and maybe join: www.brammoforum.com

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Bonus

The Daily Lobo…Physical copy.

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The Road Warrior…In the Future he will be kicking ass, but he won’t be looking for gas.

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