It started at Wall Street Plaza in downtown Orlando, meandered through College Park, Winter Park, Baldwin Park, Thornton Park, and back through downtown Orlando during the ninety-minute ride.

Obviously that’s my red Met and my husband’s silver Ruckus at the start, waiting to begin.

I love my scooter… and my new helmet pig tails! My pig tails were a big hit! Lots and lots of people commented on them, or pointed and giggled, as well they should.

Finally, people started mounting their rides…

and the motorcycle police escorts took off, blocking intersections for us so we never had to stop during the ride (which was actually exhausting and made our butts ache). (sherlock took the sheriff pic)

I didn’t take many pictures during the ride as it’s terribly difficult to ride and take pictures at the same time, since the accelerator is your right hand, and the cameras are all designed for right hands, too. But that one was just after the start, traveling up Robinson toward Lake Ivanhoe, where we veered left under I4 toward College Park.

And this was on Orange Avenue, back in downtown Orlando, and was a brilliant holding my camera over my head pointing behind me with my left hand while trying not to crash since I was clearly distracted! I didn’t crop it well, or it’d be easier for you to see that silver scooter wearing a bright pink bra for the occasion!

After the race, we wandered around the festival for a few minutes, where we encountered Awareness Man. Oh my! It takes a very secure person to wear pink spandex with those boots!

It was a great ride! I’m so glad we did this and look forward to the next group ride.

That’s me! With red pigtails in the wind!

Plenty of pics posted up on this Orlando Scooter Society forum. I’m in some of them!

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.

All I could think was “please don’t let me get hit in the face with dog slobber.”

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:

Since I lost my job in September, I have not been on my scooter much at all. I can’t take it to job interviews, as that is not the image I want for my first impression. And, if I don’t have an interview, the only time I leave the house is to run errands. Those errands usually involve buying stuff, and that requires the Element.

Today is the first time I have been on my scooter in like a month. Holy cow! I had forgotten how much fun it is to ride, and what a stress reliever it is! I was just going to go a mile and a half to the grocery store. But, I decided the grocery store that’s five miles away was a better option. And why not take the long way home? Sure, it only amounted to a ten or twelve mile ride, but it was great fun!

We are now three for three this week. The rain has been early enough in the afternoon to not affect our rides home.

Meanwhile, Bossman rode one of his other motorcycles today. He has several.

It’s doubly appropriate now, eh?

First off, I have very little interest in cars, and from what I have read in the articles and comments on Autospies, I am way out of my league. In fact, I was soundly ridiculed for being a Honda kind of a girl (I comment as SisterOf00J). So be it. Not all of us need to pad our egos with fine German automobiles.

I am not sure if Agent00J is mocking me or not.

My sister in Florida is a good example of action. Currently driving a Honda Element, she along with her husband carpool to work and combine necessary stops as part of the trip home from work to avoid having to take additional trips. Even though the Element they drive is a fairly efficient vehicle, the high price of fuel compelled them to buy scooters. Since purchasing the scooters, the Element spends a lot more time in the driveway as 3-4 days per week they now commute via scooters.

Please note, the reason we purchased the scooters, as I mentioned down in the comments on that article, was because I crashed the car and we did not have rental reimbursement on our insurance policy. Not because of gas prices.

Continuing…

First off, in making the drastic change from car to scooter, was this a knee jerk reaction to a short term dilemma, or is it really a long term solution to a problem we only got a small taste of? In the case of my sister, the 2 scooters cost a little over $4,000 plus tax and interest (I assume she is making payments as opposed to having paid cash) on the scooters, at what point does break even occur justifying the additional expense of the scooters.

00J forgot to factor in an important issue, and something that is often ranked highly on the Autospies site: the Joy of Driving factor. I love riding my little scooter. Oh, sure, it cannot hold a candle to when I raced my brother’s Porsche 911 around the winding Tennessee roads, but for the sheer joy and kick of adrenaline, I have to say the scooter provides an excellent fix.

We paid cash for one scooter and financed the second. The finance fee is ridiculous, and we’re planning to re-fi or pay it off ASAP.

As for the gas comparison, I think I’ve touched on that before on here. My Element, at roughly $4 per gallon for gas, takes $50ish to fill. I have to fill her every five days if I take her to work.

Each scooter takes just over a gallon of fuel. My Met provides me with roughly 85 mpg. My round trip commute to work is 26 miles. So I fill up my Met twice a week. That means instead of $50 for five days in the Element, I’m only spending $8.

Hubby’s Ruckus adds an additional $8. So we’re at $16 for the week for gas.

At the end of your typical four-week month, that would be $250ish for the Element versus $64 for the two scooters. My payment on the scooters is roughly $120. So, 250-120-64 = $66 I’m ahead every month just because I took my scooter to work instead of my Element. That’s $792 per year, and that’s half of a mortgage payment, or several small weekend mini-vacations.

I think that’s worth it.

And that doesn’t even factor in how much better my mood is on days I scoot. I love love love riding my scooter. Sure, the bumps, crazy drivers who try to kill me, and afternoon rain can be a downer, but overall, I love my scooter. I am very proud when I ride my Met. Seriously, I sit taller and just grin the entire ride (bugs in the teeth be damned!).

I think Joy is a bigger benefit than the money saved on gas.