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no one said it would be easy

to our loved ones on the wharf below. A band played and fireworks soared, tears flowed and the excitement in the air was palpable. Six years later was providing such a contrast that we couldn't help but giggle. Life's a funny old thing. Set your sight's low enough and you'll always be successful and contented.

We’d also come to the realisation that the earlier period of just hanging around and living, had depleted our kitty alarmingly, so had now decided on a regime of extreme parsimoniousness. To this end, our main meal was changed from ‘Super Stodge' to ‘Basic Regular Stodge'. It would be good to record that one of us was an imaginative cook and that we were dining healthily and well … but that would be a lie. We were pretty much limited to one-pot stuff as we only had one burner, the legendary Optimus 8R petrol cooker. I know we could have several pots and pans etc., and sequentially juggle their time on the heat source, but that seemed way too hard. So it was either a fry-up in the pan, or a stodge in the pot. I have no culinary skills and Lawrie was semi-famous in London when he was part of a clique within Transit House, a big doss-house for returning travellers with Transit Travel. Lawrie's group were semi-permanent and had a roster of each person cooking for everyone once a week. I seem to recall Lawrie's night was Tuesday and religiously every Tuesday evening, he doled out money to each of the group to get fish and chips. This was seen by all as a win-win. Roly was more or less pardoned from cooking because he attended to bike maintenance each evening. No matter the weather or conditions Roly checked the girls out, lubricated and adjusted chain tensions, topped up their oil levels, tightened nuts and bolts etc.

Our ride across Louisiana and Texas had shown up an unexpected issue with both Panthers. They were drinking oil. This surprised Roly as apart from being slightly unusual with a semi-wet sump system of oil containment and distribution, they were an extremely simple four-stroke engine. They were known to have a fool-proof, reliable oil pump. Of course, we were newbies to the marque and there were no publications available to us back in the UK. So apart from a small section in Modern Motorcycle Mechanics which gave basic settings, we were on our own. We’d met a small group of the owners’ club before we left but like us, they were just a group of young long-hairs with an affection for these obsolete old treasures.

With the collective knowledge of the Panther Owners’ Club’s members now able to be shared through the internet … and the fact us young long-hairs are now wizened old white-hairs, who have learned a bit over the years, we now know that