
swim out and meet the bloody thing!” Barry Sheene (1950-2003) He would have been 70 yesterday.

– very happy lass stretched over a long low cafe’d Royal Enfield. Sometime in the late sixties.

– Dame Diana Rigg (1938-2020) played the original action girl opposite Patrick MacNee’s John Steed in the early sixties British TV show. Other notable characters include Countess Teresa di Vicenzo who became 007 James Bond’s wife; and Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones. But for everyone she’ll always be the catsuited Emma Peel.

– everyone’s favorite Balkan, Goran Višnjić, celebrates his 47th birthday today. Lookin’ smart on a big adventure Beemer.

– Brief stopover at this northern Illinois town yesterday for a coffee and seat outside the old bank building watching the world go by. The late 19thC Main Street architecture is still part of the towns character.

– a splendid spin out on the Tiger today under perfect conditions. Being a Holiday the roads were fairly clear and an early autumnal feel to the air. Color just about to turn with the dusty scent of vegetation heading into dormancy wafting across the highways.

– there are too many bikers riding around Illinois, which doesn’t have a helmet law, with no protection to their bonce. They must think their skull is ample enough to protect their brain from a stot along the road if everything turns pear-shaped. I do not, so I’m an ardent helmet fan.

– I finally realized my seven year old Tasmanian boots were in need of replacement; so I plumped for the exact same Blundstone. Once broken-in they are like slippers in comfort.

– Pleasant Friday evening ride north to Zion and back through dragonfly blazed forest preserves in the deepening dusk.

– the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. This publication has been in circulation for nearly 150 years so undoubtedly there has been various suggestions for the improvement of motorcycles. The tracked adventure bike looks particularly intriguing.

– genuine nice guy Keanu Reeves is 56 today. True motorcycle enthusiast and manufacturer. He’s currently starring with Alex Winter in the long awaited latest installment of the Bill & Ted buddy outing franchise.

– on this day in 1979 a NASA probe became the first to encounter Saturn and its impressive rings. A gold anodized aluminum plaque designed by Carl Sagan, was attached to the robots body in case in some distant future should it be intercepted by some alien intelligence its graphics may explain its origins. We’ll be long gone by then… but at least in some far flung corner a little hint of our existence will be drifting about.