So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye Maria

For those of you who've seen and enjoyed the movie "Sound of Music", you know that I've used the names of the female characters in the movie as names of my vehicles.

source: google images

Brigitta, one of the younger girls of the movie's Von Trapp family, is the name chosen for my 1987 R80 Beemer. (Front row, all the way to the right)

Brigitta

Liesl, the "I am sixteen, going on seventeen" girl, is the name I chose for my 1987 560SL Mercedes Benz Convertible. I thought she was my midlife crisis, little did I know it would be motorcycling! (Second row, all the way to the right in first photo)

Liesl

My big 420SEL Mercedes Benz, who was not long with us, was named Elsa after the Baroness in the movie.

Elsa

Lastly, there's Maria, my 2004 R1150RT Beemer, she was named thus because my wife stated: "Once the Captain found Maria, there would be no more for him". At the time, a thinly veiled warning to me to be happy with the RT since I had just traded in my 2006 Honda Shadow Aero (Gretchen, front row, second from right in first photo) for her.

Maria's been with me since OCT of 2006 and today I am swapping her for a 1996 Ural Sportsman Sidecar Motorcycle.

Maria, waiting for her new owner.

She will be missed but I think she'll get more riding from her new owner than from me. My motorcycling focus has gone from long distance riding to mountain trail explorations and wanderings here in the great state of Colorado. It it in this kind of riding that I believe the Ural will excel.

I picked Maria up with 19,437 miles on her odometer, she leaves me with 69,505 miles on her odometer. That makes it 50, 068 miles that we rode together. We had an excellent run, and I believe she'll take Phil right past 100,000 miles with no major issues.

So auf wiedersehen Maria, have fun in your new home in Oklahoma.