Brian A. Hopkins
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA)

The Baby Beemer Comes Home
BMW F650GS Dakar
(2 June 2005)

"To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall,
And baffled, get up and begin again."
-- Robert Browning

You knew I wasn't going to be able to wait very long before I replaced the Tiger's empty space in my garage, didn't you?   Any semblance of patience I once had ended with my thirties.  LOL.

This afternoon, I journeyed to the BMW dealer in Tulsa (since the one in OKC neither had what I wanted nor seemed very willing to wheel-n-deal on the price).  I came home with the beauty you see in the photo below.  Mine, all mine!  (Well, mine and the bank's anyway.)  Brand spanking new.  She now has a whopping 130 miles on her ... the miles I put on riding back from Tulsa.

It's become something of a tradition, of course, that my new bikes spend their first night inside the house -- just so they know that they're welcome and loved.  Named for the Paris-Dakar Rally -- that grueling enduro race that just this year killed two riders (considered by most gearheads to be the toughest race in the world) -- she's got offroad flowing through her veins.  She's raring to go, but I'm going to have to scrape together money for accessories and whatnot to get her set up the way I want.  Then I'll be scrounging for traveling money.

There'll be more photos as soon as the two of us get out together and do some adventuring.  I expect this'll be a long and tumultuous relationship.  Stay tuned.

Brian A. Hopkins
at Road's End, Oklahoma City
2 June 2005