{"id":42,"date":"2011-05-26T02:12:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T02:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/?p=42"},"modified":"2011-05-26T02:21:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T02:21:38","slug":"learning-to-dance-with-a-900-lb-hippo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/?p=42","title":{"rendered":"learning to dance with a 900 lb. hippo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The idea for a Very Long ride has been in the back of my mind for  awhile.\u00a0 Four years ago I took a 4,000 mile solo ride on my Yamaha FJR1300,  &amp; hated to see the trip come to an end.\u00a0 But then in &#8217;09 I hit a  deer while riding the FJR thru the mountains north of Durango, Co &#8211;  totaled my bike &amp; gimped up my left shoulder. I&#8217;m not sure how the  deer fared &#8211;by the time I got up off the double yellow lines, he&#8217;d  slipped over the embankment.\u00a0 Anyway, I went from the FJR to a VStrom  &#8211;great bike but the clutch hurt my shoulder.\u00a0 In January of 2011 I  bought myself a 900 lb hippo, aka the Honda Goldwing GL1800.\u00a0 If the Wing  falls over, I plan to stand around looking like a helpless female until a  couple of men come along to help.\u00a0 If it hits a gravity pocket some  where in the outback and goes down, I could probably\/maybe\/hopefully  pick it up using my legs for leverage.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the fascination of learning to dance with this 900 lb. hippo  is that not only can the Wing dance, she dances very well.\u00a0\u00a0 The Wing  has the great suspension that attracts so many of us &#8220;mature&#8221; riders,  but it&#8217;s also very well balanced &amp; nimble with incredible power.\u00a0\u00a0 It took awhile to get use  to balancing that much weight while stopping, but I guess the hardest  part has been learning to keep the speed down &#8211; it&#8217;s so heavy and  smooth, I&#8217;m flying without realizing it.\u00a0 The FJR was a rocket; the Wing  is more like a space shuttle.\u00a0\u00a0 This Spring I took both the Experienced  Riders Course and Advanced Riders Course thru the MSF &#8211;\u00a0 it&#8217;s much  easier to drag the foot pegs on the Wing than on the<a href=\"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/LAURA-SMALL1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"the FJR before it hit the deer\" src=\"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/LAURA-SMALL1-300x244.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a> FJR \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/GL.RS_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"my hippo\" src=\"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/GL.RS_1-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The idea for a Very Long ride has been in the back of my mind for awhile.\u00a0 Four years ago I took a 4,000 mile solo ride on my Yamaha FJR1300, &amp; hated to see the trip come to an &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/?p=42\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}