It has been a few years since my last posting and things have certainly changed in the riding area of my life.

Back in June 2007, I decided that the VStar was too small for our touring adventures so I put it in the Bike Trader. It took two weeks before someone finally came out to Dunnville to see the bike and the first one was a lady in her twenties who loved it, came back in 10 minutes with $1000 cash to hold it for her until the next day. I thought it was sold, but she called back that evening complaining of furnace/AC problems, so I met her and gave her back her money. I couldn't resist being a "dad" and after giving her the money I said not to do that, I could of kept her deposit. Why give SO much? I think she understood I was just trying to help her out for the next time so goes bike shopping.
Eventually a guy from Woodstock called and said he was coming out to look at the bike, so when he arrived I could see the spark in his eye, took the chance and threw him the keys (after looking at his license), and when he came back I knew I had a buyer. We did the little "barter dance" and I ended up selling it for $5400, not bad 10% or $600 for 2 years of riding. We made the arrangements to meet in Simcoe the next day and after meeting, doing the sale and walking down the road to the local Arby's in order to met my wife for the ride home, the guy rode on by on the bike. Now he was a tall guy, about 6' + so when I watched him going by I have to admit that he looked a little funny on that size of a bike.
Back to the on-line Bike Trader again, this time I had narrowed my search down to a Yamaha Venture. The wife had seen the "lazyboy" seat and loved the look of that, and it had all the storage you could ever want. I was especially partial to the 2005 version with the "liquid silver" colouring. There was a guy out in Windsor, asking $16,300 for 2005 silver with a few upgrades, but when I called and asked if he was okay with he going for a small test ride he said he would have to see me first. I was leery to drive 5 hours to have him not like my looks, so I said forget it. That Saturday we went up to Barrie for a day trip to look at one in the Barrie Harley Davidson dealership. They were asking $16000 but dropped a grand right of the top so I made arrangements to buy the bike. It was loaded with extras, we eventually did a tally of the all the extras and they came to over $4000 and only 3000km on the dial. It was in the basement, (supposedly HD will not allow other companies product on the floor, so said the salesman) and dusty and dirty. They did the prep on the bike and we had made arrangements to go get it on Saturday July 14 2007, but Friday the 13th had me sitting in the back listening to the iron rolling through town on their way to Port Dover. It was driving me nuts, so I called up to Barrie and asked if the bike would me ready today and then called the bus companies and planned the route. All I saw was iron rolling down the highways all the way up north. Everything was going along great until the last bus from Newmarket to Barrie started to do the "every corner has a stop" routine so I was dashing off the bus at the Barrie station and flying to the nearest cab who got me to the dealership just in time before closing. I did a few circles of the court in front of the dealership and then on Hwy 400 I went riding the Silver bus!