November 2024 Central Virginia Guzzi Lunch Report

[Michael S. Jones]

Greetings, Moto Guzzi friends. Today was a beautiful day for riding: cool but not cold, sunny, with dry roads. There are several routes that I could take to get to Buena Vista from my house, and of necessity, all of them cross the mountains that lie between me and the Shenandoah Valley. I chose to take 501 on the way there, but on the way home I joined Dave Phillips and Nate Jones and took route 60 to Amherst and then 29 the rest of the way. Route 60 is a really great road for motorcycles. My Convert was loving the cool, dense air, and I was enjoying the sounds and feel of a Guzzi in the autumn. :-)

I arrived in Buena Vista a little early and took a leisurely ride through the Glen Murry Memorial Park, where we used to hold the annual Virginia Moto Guzzi Rally. It hasn’t changed much, though they’ve fixed up the old mansion. To my surprise, there were people camping. I miss holding the rally there, though I also enjoy holding it in Meadows of Dan.

Nine people gathered at Nick’s Italian Kitchen. The nine riders on their iron steeds (shades of Tolkien there) were Nate Jones on his 2004 Breva, Dave Phillips on his KTM, Al Chappell on his V7iii, Bob Corfield in his V85tt, John Howard on his V100 Mandello Aviazione Navale (but without the color-coordinated outfit this month), Larry Echols on his V100 Mandello S, Rob Prins on his 1971 Ambassador, me on my Convert, and David Youngblood, who arrived in his red ’94 Corvette. If you can’t come on your bike, showing up in a Corvette is a good substitute. Our seven Guzzis ranged from a 1971 loopframe with stone ax simplicity to two 2023 liquid-cooled computer-controlled V100 Mandellos. That’s quite a spread!

The food was very good. People ordered Italian hoagies, a sausage hoagie, veil parmigiana, spaghetti, eggplant, at least one (giant) calzone, and of course, one eggplant parmigiana sub (for me). Everyone seemed to like their food, though one of the people who had the Italian subs remarked that it was just a normal Italian sub, nothing special. My eggplant parmigiana sub surprised me: I’ve eaten at Nick’s many times and always found it to be good, but I think this time the sub was pretty much as good as the ones at Sanzone’s. That means it was truly delicious! The one at Sanzone’s last month was the same price, but Sanzone’s was much smaller and came with fries; this one was much larger but no fries. So if you want a really big sub and don’t care to have fries with it, I recommend Nick’s. I should mention one negative, though: they do not serve coffee. (John was disappointed by that.)

There was lots of friendly banter around the table, with subjects ranging from engine noises to wheel balancing to volunteer work for retired people. Once the food was gone, though, several people had places they needed to be, so we didn’t linger around the table very long. Nonetheless, it was clear that everyone had a nice time. Next month the weather will probably be much colder, but I’m sure the fellowship will be just as warm. Hopefully you will be able to join us!

Wishing you a safe and healthy month,

Mike



M. Jones, executive editor, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies (www.jsri.ro)
"The heart has its reasons which reason does not know." -Blaise Pascal
"With man, instinct and reason avoid each other with adversity, yet, by repudiating each other they lure each other to reach mutual correction." -Lucian Blaga
"Human reason has this peculiar fate that in one species of its knowledge it is burdened by questions which, as prescribed by the very nature of reason itself, it is not able to ignore, but which, as transcending all its powers, it is also not able to answer." -Immanuel Kant