I recently had a birthday and received exactly what I requested: helmet pig tails.

We had a difficult time getting the pig tails to stay on the helmet, even though we followed the directions carefully, so it took almost a week before I finally felt comfortable enough with the suction to wear them on a scooter ride.

Saturday, I went for a ride, and loved my pig tails. I could tell other drivers and pedestrians were also enjoying my pig tails. In fact, several people gave me a thumbs up or waved. They’re so much fun!

Today, on my ride home, I lost a pig tail. They were there at one red light, and gone at the next. Dammit. I quickly texted sherlock my bad news.

He came riding up about ten minutes later to our meeting place, he had a red pig tail in his hand. He looked like he had scalped someone!

I was just thrilled he found my pig tail.

We’re going to find something stronger to bond the pig tails to my helmet. They’re just too much fun to lose again.

This morning was MIX 105.1’s Scooter Rally. It was great fun! In case their web page goes away, here’s the poster they had online:

It was a $15 donation to Arnold Palmer Hospital, and while we didn’t really have $30 to donate, what with me being unemployed for month seven now, we decided to do it anyway. It sounded like it would be great fun; and it was! Also, we’re happy to donate to good causes. So, around 9a this morning, sherlock and I set out for Winter Park Village. Sherlock said he had mentioned it to his co-worker, G-man, so we were pleased to see G-man was there, too!

That’s G-man in the red shirt/black pants with the green Nemesis scooter parked beside sherlock’s silver Ruckus and my red Metropolitan.

It was really neat to see so many scooters in one place:

And everyone was walking around, admiring each other’s rides.

Here’s our three scooters, along with DJ Scott McKenzie’s blue scooter and DJ Dana Taylor’s red scooter:

Me, sherlock, G-man

I counted 30 scooters in the parking lot:

Most of the cameras I saw were Nikons, so it was nice to see they had good representation, too!

Scott McKenzie grabbed a mic to welcome everyone to the first annual Scooter Rally:

Everyone beelined either for the restroom or their bike:

There was a cacophony as the thirty scooters revved their engines:

That’s Scott McKenzie helping scooter-virgin Dana Taylor start her bike.
Dana seemed nervous, in an excited sort of way:

And… we were off!

Obviously, sherlock took this picture as I would never purposely take a picture of my butt:

I wish I could have seen the long line of scooters from the perspective of people we passed, as I’m sure we made quite an impression, what with our wimpy horns honking randomly and all!

(G-man on the green scooter with the Apple sticker)

We stopped in a cul-du-sac in the general area of Windsong for everyone to catch up:

The route took us all around Winter Park, including Rollins College:

And up Park Avenue, on our way back to Winter Park Village:

Scott McKenzie seemed to enjoy leading his gang of scooter riders!

Back at WPV, Crispers provided us all with lunch. It was really a great time! I rode with a big, stupid grin on my face the entire way. I’m so glad we did this. What fun to be in a group of scooter riders with wimpy horns blaring! I’m glad G-man joined us. That was certainly $30 well spent. I will keep my eyes and ears open for more scooter gang rides in the future, because this was so much fun.

UPDATED to add someone’s video:

Scooters! Look that those scooters trying to intimidate that bomber!

We love riding our scooters. Love it! I love that we’re now riding them almost exclusively to work every day. (Not today, since we have to go somewhere after work.) I love the gas savings, and I love the joy riding my scooter brings.

Hubby and I have talked about doing a road trip on our scooters. The problem is, we’d like to ride places that are difficult to get to on a scooter. Obviously we cannot ride on a highway, so we need to plan a trip with the Element and the scooters. Once we get to our destination in the Element, we can ride about on our scooters. But, this is so not practical:

Companies like Auto Transportation Worldwide will transport cars just about anywhere. I wonder if they would transport our scooters? We have talked about finding a company, like the auto train or something, to get us and our scooters to our destination and back. Clearly we need to look into it, because we’re itching to see the world on two wheels.

I had to take the Element to work today because I have someplace to be until late tonight. Hubby took his Ruckus. I followed behind on the drive to work.

And this is where he turns to go to work while I continue straight on to my place of employment:

I rode my Met three days this week, he rode his Ruckus four days. But I’ll kill our gas savings with this seminar I have to attend today and tomorrow.

We rode up to Waterford Lakes Shopping Plaza today. It was a great ride. We thought it best to lock up our scooters while we walked the plaza. So, we parked beside a cart return at the Target end of the plaza.

This three-wheeled scooter was parked outside the Panera:

I’ve only seen them online, so I thought it was really cool!

I took my Metropolitan for a ride yesterday. And by “ride” I mean, loaded her into the Element and took her for a ride while hubby rode his Ruckus behind me. We had to take them in for general maintenance (oil change), but since we were leaving them there for several hours, that meant loading mine into the Element so we weren’t stranded for several hours.

On the way home, I was behind this guy:

We need a trailer like that.

I’m sure it was quite a site, though, to other drivers. That guy in front of me, my Element with the back wide open and a scooter inside, and hubby’s Ruckus bringing up the rear!

We went back to Universal on Sunday. On Saturday, it was too crowded. We walked both parks and managed to go on no rides. We wanted to ride the new Simpsons ride. So, we got there just after the parks opened on Sunday. The sky was ominous on our ride there:

I-Drive & Universal

Universal over I4

We found scooter parking!

The rain started to pour right as we pulled into the parking garage. At least it waited until we were covered.

We walked through the rain, secretly mocking all the tourists who apparently melt if they get wet. We only waited about 25 minutes for the Simpsons ride (hated it), and even managed to ride the Mummy in under 30 minutes. Not too shabby.

I retrieved my scooter (again) last night! I rode her home, and then we rode our scooters up to the local home improvement big box store. My little scooter wanted to haul something big. I had to remind her she’s a little scooter!

It felt good to ride again.

These were taken on May fourth. May the fourth be with you!