Scooter Kitten

MINI to manufacture scooters

2010-09-24T15:58:00.004-04:00

For those of you who don't know me well, I used to be a VW girl. Well, I really still am. But I prefer the old Beetles. Unfortunately I had to give up my bug Gilbert because I didn't have the money to continuously pour into him to keep him in working condition, and without the tools to fix him myself it was a challenge to find someone around my town who could. (Let's face it, old cars require real know-how that can't be taught at mechanics' school.)
A few years back I found Gilbert a new home and settled on a Mini Cooper. I love Mini. They might not be as ecologically friendly as the Smart car, but they are one step above almost everyone else. (Subaru is tops in America I hear. But Mini is tops in England.)
Today as I was writing up an SEO article for extra bucks, (I would never do it full time as a career unless I was desperate. It's selling out.) I came across this article about Mini announcing a new line of scooters to be sold in France in competition with Smart's E-scooter, or electric scooter.
I have to say, they look pretty slick. Much slicker than the traditional Vespa. I'd totally fall for one of these if they were available in America. But that's always the trick, huh. We seem to lead the world in tawdry Hollywood stories and great music, but we are somehow behind in the automotive industry. Especially if it means a non-gas powered vehicle.
While these are just concept vehicles right now, I could totally get behind one. I just wouldn't want one with those stupid U-shaped visors that cover the top. (Check out the photo on the right of the article page.) Though I guess it would be good if you plan to just scoot in all weather.
Hmmm, now there's a thought.

Living without a car

2010-06-06T17:07:00.003-04:00

At left, Steph ready for a scooter ride in the rain by Abbysmal from Photobucket.

One broken wheel and a busy week later and I'm wondering if my past desire to only drive a scooter is a realistic one.

I had taken my Mini Cooper to a local tire dealer who at first ordered the wrong tires, then somehow broke my wheel. Yes, broke my wheel.

They had to special order the wheel, and when it finally came in three days later, it was the wrong wheel. This left me more than a week without a car as my poor Mini languished in a strip mall parking lot. (I won't get into my freak-out when a hail storm hit the area and I thought they'd left my baby outside.)

I learned that if I really want a scooter to travel around on a regular basis, I'm probably better off with a 150cc powered one or higher. I love my 125 Vino, but I couldn't go home to visit friends and family over Memorial Day weekend because it just wasn't safe to travel Route 422 on it. I would've been moving much too slow for the traffic and likely would've gotten blown off an overpass by a semi.

The scooter even proved itself a little impractical for running errands around town. I couldn't fit a full load of groceries in the storage compartment, and I don't have the proper ties or cargo holder to carry stuff on the cargo bar. Of course if I did, it probaby wouldn't have been so bad.

Then there is the matter of rain. It turned out to be a pretty wet week, which kept me inside when I wanted to travel to do something. I have a rain suit for hiking, which would have worked fine for the scooter. It's bright yellow and made by Columbia Sportswear.

I don't have a windscreen, which means even with a full-face helmet, I can find myself riding in the rain and feeling like someone is shooting bullets at me. And forget about going out with the half-face and getting stuck in a storm. Miserable experience. Happened twice.

So is it practical to only have a scooter for a vehicle? Well, if you don't have to travel on major highways to get anywhere, have the right equipment, and don't mind driving in the rain, I guess so, but it wouldn't be easy. I guess that's why most populations that use mostly scooters live in warm, tropical places or major cities. You don't have to travel far when you carry something and home is not too far away when it rains. If it rains.

My fear of hitting living things

2010-06-01T14:57:00.005-04:00

It's a beautiful day. You are riding down a shade-dappled road with the windows open and the music on.

It's the perfect temperature. Things are going well at work and at home. Life is great.

Then some poor woodland creature ventures out onto the pavement in front of you and bam, you see the critter too late and hit it. Horrible.

Bird photo by Amyjane10/Photobucket

It's a scenario I've tried avoiding. To my passengers' dismay I'd rather slam on my brakes or swerve than barrel through any living thing, even butterflies. (Especially butterflies. So few species of them have a fighting chance anymore.)
Thankfully I've only hit one creature in my lifetime and it was a rabbit that ran under my wheels.

But I've noticed that driving on the country roads that I prefer puts me in more danger of a collision with animals than I'd like.

Of particular concern to me are birds who tend to dart out in front of me as I drive by, likely because they are suddenly scared by my quiet engine. I'm worried about what happens if I hit one of them.

It's not going to collide with my hood or windshield. I don't have a windshield. What's going to hit that poor bird is me: my helmet or my body.

A windscreen is already on my list of must-haves for the scooter, but I don't know if that will make it any better. I'm that much closer to the poor dying creature and trying not to flip over my bike.

My boyfriend says birds have "bounced" off him before. I don't know if that means they were OK afterwards but I wouldn't be. I think I'd have to pull over because I'd be bawling.

Luckily swerving is easier on a scooter, but hitting something could cause me to have a serious accident.

I just hope the deer stay out of my way.

Wheelie good fun in Ocracoke

2010-05-20T09:57:00.004-04:00

There is an island halfway between Key West and Nantucket in nature and atmosphere.

Ocracoke on the Outer Banks is still truly an island. Unlike Hatteras or the other islands, it can only be reached by ferry, and there isn't a whole lot of land to go around.

Only 14 miles long, it was mostly sandbar except for its southern point until the Park Service tried to save its beaches by constructing giant dunes. The Park Service took over most of the island when the Cape Hatteras National Seashore was created in the 1930s, though the island is in a completely different county in N. Carolina than the islands above it or below it. (In fact it is the richest town in its county, but the people are bitter because they pay the highest taxes than any other residents and get few to no services. Hey, they're an island. It's hard to get basics like trash pickup. It has to all go to or come from the mainland.)

We went at the end of the off season, which was good for us since we hadn't reserved anything. The island has only 800 year round residents, but a lot of rental houses and hotels that fill up quickly during the summer. It's best to reserve ahead of time if you plan to visit between Memorial Day and Labor Day, or you'll find yourself stuck.

They have a National Park Visitor's Center that can help you with everything (the park service workers are all locals so they know the place intimately). They also offer tours about shipwrecks, the lighthouse, pirates and more for free. The Park Service visitor's center is in the village next to the Coast Guard Station and ferry docks. The Coast Guard Station, is no longer in active use since 1996.

The locals consider the tourist draw a blessing and a curse. Many work two to three jobs during the summer and take off for the winter season. But those jobs help them keep their homes, which many have been priced out of in the recent land speculation that caused the housing bubble.

Even today many houses are listed around half a million. (But if you don't mind buying a house to fix up, the Ocracoke Conservation Association is selling two historic houses for around $200,000. Cheap by island standards.)

So what does this have to do with scooters?

Well, the streets are narrow and many aren't paved (they're sand with oyster shells), but scooters are a great way to get around. The business and residential area is 1,000 acres and not all of it can be fully developed (there isn't enough potable water).

So you don't really need a car to get around unless you are carting something. Most of the hotels rent bicycles, but there is a shop at the pier next to SMacNally's that rents scooters called "Wheelie Fun". It did look like someone had been driving them drunk. The front fenders were all bent and cracked. They use Honda Metropolitans.

I did see other people with tricked out scooters who must live or work there because they had meaty jams and were stylin some pretty fancy paint.

We didn't go for the scooters to get around on simply because they were expensive. (Nothing there is cheap because it all has to be shipped in.) They ran about $30 an hour. Yes, an hour.

When you are staying for a while (we were there about a week) I'd opt for the bicycle rentals at the Pony Island Hotel. It's one of the older hotels on the island and is on Route 12, which becomes the main street running through town to the harbor and ferry. Those rentals only cost $2 an hour and you could rent them for $30 for the week.

Cars are a pain on an island that small. There really is no place to turn around, the speed limit is 25 mph or less (there are people EVERYWHERE so you really have to be careful driving through town).

We rented the bikes for one day, after we got rained out of our tent and stayed at the Pony Island (Nice hotel, cheap rooms, owned by a local. Not all hotels on the island are.). It was great to leisurely ride around and not worry about parking. People don't care that you park your bike someplace but good luck finding someplace legal to park your car.

A lot of people use golf carts as well, but there's something so vacationy about riding your bike, and it's the preferred choice of islanders. (There was only one gas station, but they took it out to upgrade it and might be out all summer. You only can get gas after a ferry ride to either Hatteras or the mainland now. They warn you at the ferry to make sure you have a full tank before you get on for Ocracoke.)

Many may say there is little to do on the island. It was a fishing port and entrepot. Ocracoke, and it's neighboring island, Portsmouth (now a ghost town), were founded by an act of the state Legislature after they had too many shipwrecks from vessels trying to get through the inlet into Pamlico Sound. Even today you'd better know the area before you go sailing. The sandbars like to shift around.

An entrepot is a harbor where large vessels dock and transfer their cargo to smaller ships to get it through shallow waters to mainland towns. Portsmouth was a popular, populated seaport in the 1700s and 1800s until new inlets farther up the Outer Banks opened up after hurricanes in the late 1800s, early 1900s. The shipping traffic went north, leaving the island towns with only fishing opportunities, but those soon died out as new, faster ways to catch fish and get it to market cheaper took over. Ocracoke first started as Pilot Town, which was located around Teach's Hole, a small sound east of the current village.

(A view of Teach's Hole, though it would have looked much different in the early 1700s when Teach put in there to party with his crew.)

The area once occupied by Pilot Town is now called Springer's Point and it is a preserved area for birds. There is a footpath you can take down to the "hole." and it gets pretty creepy. Some of the island's oldest trees are there and there are still graves, old graves, hidden in the underbrush off the path (don't go looking for them, it's discouraged) and there are old rain cisterns from the houses that used to be there still in the area. The townsfolk believe it to be one of the oldest, most haunted places on the island.

Many of the families that lived on the Point were called pointers and the other half of the islanders were called Creekers. It wasn't until the Coast Guard came and filled in the tidal creeks that separated the islanders and built a road that everyone began living near the harbor. (If the bugs on Portsmouth were any explanation, I know why they stayed away from the marshy harbor. Painful biting flies.)

Our walk to the point was quite cool yet eerie. There is a nature tour with little plaques along the way explaining the local flora, and it's a sandy trail until you get to the highest point of the island which has a large, old oak tree on it, and then you see a grave site. It's the grave of Sam Jones, who had two wives and owned the point, but was buried with his favorite horse Ike. Sam was a transplant who built two of the biggest houses on the island at the time. One is still called the mansion. But he lived on the point.

We took a ghost tour and the guide, the last of the Howard family, directly related to the first owner of the island, William Howard, who is thought to be the same William Howard who served as Blackbeard's Quartermaster before Blackbeard was killed on the island, told us that one of Sam's friends saw quite a frightening sight when he went to visit Sam's grave and clean up the area one night. Apparently it was his habit to go and keep the point in shape before it became a protected area. Kids used to go out there and drink. So this friend, Roy, took his boat around to Teach's Hole and came in on the path from the beach. (Seen in the picture above.)

As he came down the shadowy path, he saw a man sitting on the old cistern opposite Sam's grave. This man seemed funny to Roy and was dressed in old-fashioned clothing. Roy stopped and felt odd, so he decided to head back to the beach. As he started walking he heard someone behind him. When he turned around he saw the man on the cistern was coming up the path after him.

Roy began to run at this point, and when he got out to the beach, he jumped in his boat and started paddling. When he turned around he saw the man come out on the beach and walk into the water, and then he dissipated into mist.
The ghost tour really was worth staying for and we did, spending our last night in a campground at the very first store in town, where the gas pumps were. We would've stayed again at the Pony Island but they were booked up for a wedding. Odd thing is the next morning, we decided to go out to the beach one last time, and as Ed flew his kite, what happens but a wedding party comes on to the beach and got married.

Then, when Ed and I went into the water and were getting ridiculously tumbled around by the rough waves, they decided to move down to where we were and take pictures. I guarantee there is a shot with Ed and I being dragged down by the waves with weird looks on our faces in those wedding photos.

There are several places and activities I highly recommend to anyone interested in going to Ocracoke. You can, of course, go surfing, parasailing, or kayaking, renting equipment or buying lessons at one of the surf shops downtown. But you can also head out to Portsmouth Island, which we did. We took the boat tour on the dock next to Kitty Hawk Kites. There are several of these stores the length of the Outer Banks, and they have some pretty cool stuff.

They really want you to reserve for these boat rides and they need at least 3 people to go to the island because of the cost of the fuel. It runs $20 a person, but the captain will also take you past any site in the area you want to see. He took us around to Beacon Island, which once house a fort and a lighthouse before it was consumed by the waves. Oddly the sandbar that is left was visible and above water when we drove by, which Capt. Ron said was really unusual. He'd never seen it.

The island is interesting. The houses are kept in good shape by the Park Service and there are displays in some of them. I don't advise walking off the main path. We made the mistake of going to the school house and were subsequently attacked by swarms of yellow and black biting flies. (I'm still suffering from itchy bites a week later. We had bug spray and it did nothing. But they don't follow you into the houses. We don't know why.)

We ended up running down a forested path thinking we could get away from them. (The other paths through the village are flooded by the tides and you will see little holes in the sand made by little ghost crabs. I saw one scurrying away from me into the marsh. The marsh is also full of baby fish.)

Unfortunately the flies followed us all the way to the old grass airstrip, and we were beating ourselves senseless with our hats trying to get them all off. The only park ranger on the island came riding by on an ATV and waved as we went running past screaming. Some help he was.

The life saving station is quite neat, and you can climb up to the tower and look out to Ocracoke.

We headed for the beach after leaving it hoping to get rid of the flies. Eventually we reached a wide, flat sandy area with strong ocean winds that swept the flies away. But it was a long walk around to the pickup point for our boat.

If you want to find some really awesome shells, I highly recommend heading straight for Portsmouth's beach. It's known for what washes up on it's shore: large, complete shells. Don't waste your money buying them in tourist shops. Go to Portsmouth. You can find some beautiful shells to make jewelry out of with naturally bored holes in them. Some looked like gold.

The first thing I found on the beach, which is about two miles from dunes to the sea, was half a sand dollar. Then I found a perfect one next to it. It had purple spots on the back and looked awesome, but it broke in my hand when I picked up another shell.

I wanted to look for more, but Ed was so worried about missing the boat we rushed down the beach to the pick up spot.

The beach is a real lesson in tidal islands. There are tidal pools where the birds hovered around to eat the small fish that had recently hatched. When the beach floods again the fish will be swept out to sea where they will grow larger.

The sand was carved into strange patterns by the winds and waves, and there were shell "pools" all up and down the beach.

I also recommend hanging out at SMacNally's marina on Silver Lake, which is the name of the harbor in the middle of town. You can get great burgers or seafood there and watch the boats come and cut up their fish. It's not fancy, but it's good.

I also recommend Diajio, which is down the street and has a great bar opening onto a courtyard with trees and tropical plants overshadowing it.

Then there is Zillie's, which is the local wine bar on Back Road which offers a 5 for $15 wine tasting Wednesday's at 6 p.m. They ask you reserve. We showed up but just bought a bottle of wine and hung out on their balcony. The building is three stories and has porches on the second and third floors with brushed metal tables that are great to hang out at. We met a nice couple from Chicago who'd been going to Ocracoke every spring for 10 years. They recommended the ghost tour that leaves from the Village Craftsman shop on Howard Street.

We also loved the coffee shop on Back Road, but there is also a great pastry shop on the main street as well.

The park service campground is the cheapest, but there are two others on the island, one off Back Road and the one off the main street. I'm not sure either has a real name, and one of them was for sale. They mostly accomodate campers who hang around for quite a while or leave their rigs there.

The only thing I regret is not finding some flotsam. Our ghost tour guide said the locals really like to skim the beaches. Considering most of the wood for their houses came from shipwrecks I can understand why.

Our first day in Ocracoke, we went to the beach and looked around for anything that might be interesting. Ed found a piece of what must've been a ship. But we left it on the beach. You can find some really interesting things out there I'm sure, and it was a rough sea. I was hoping to find doubloons, but our ghost tour guide said that the area near the campground was the site of the wreck of the steam ship Home in which 90 people died. She said she didn't like to go to that beach because they buried the dead in the sand, and sometimes people found pieces of human bone there.

I don't know if any beach on the island could be considered ghost, or shipwreck free. It is one of the worst for them. But I think that's one of the things that make it worth visiting.

If you are heading north on your way home, don't forget to stop at the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. I wanted to but we didn't have time.

Next time, when we return. And I won't wait another 10 years. The island might be under water by then, or so they say, but for a sandbar, it's been around a long time. Maybe next time it will just be farther in to Pamlico Sound. Hopefully the old Pilot Town and Teach's Hole will still exist.

May is Motorcycle Awareness Month in Pa.

2010-05-18T20:22:00.003-04:00

Motorcycles are everywhere, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation wants drivers of other vehicles to realize that. Today they issued a press release encouraging drivers to pay attention to motorcyclists, check their blind spots for them and give motorcycles enough space on the road and not try to invade their space in a lane. PennDOT didn't mention scooters in this press release, but obviously it meant any two-wheeled, motorized, road-worthy vehicle.
The reason for the release is that the weather (supposedly) is getting warmer, and that means motorcyclists are returning to the roads in force. Well, after getting back from a warm vacation I'm disputing the "getting warmer" reason, but it's true, motorcycles are going to be on the roads more often. And because many of those motorcyclists haven't been riding all winter, they're likely to be rusty and not as responsive and practiced in maneuvering their vehicles, at least until they get their initial practice in.
PennDOT is also concerned because there are more and more people signing up for motorcycle licenses. But to get a license all you have to do is pass a written test and a road course, and as all drivers can attest, it's really not that hard, or an accurate test of what could endanger you and the road and whether you can handle it.
PennDOT said there were 12,000 more people licensed to ride motorcycles, but only 3,000 more registered motorcycles. Does that mean the rest are riding unregistered motorcycles or have they been riding without a license all this time? (You can renew your learner's permit repeatedly in Pa., which means many riders may have some experience but never been properly taught how to handle their bike.)
Problem is, and I think PennDOT recognizes this but hasn't pushed for better licensing laws like Europe's graduated permits, there are thousands of people killed while riding motorcycles in the state each year. Just this week a former volunteer firefighter was killed on a highway near me while riding his motorcycle. Police said he crashed because he was going too fast, and though he was wearing a helmet, the force of him crashing into the guide rail threw it off his head. That's pretty fast.
I don't know what his riding experience was or if something caused him to crash, but he's one of several area motorcyclists who have been killed in this area this past weekend. Half the time it seems, at least to me as I write about these accidents, the fault is the cyclist, who couldn't handle their speed going around a curve, but the other half of the time a driver is to blame for not paying attention and cutting in front of the motorcyclist. It's one of the reasons I was so nervous, and still am, about riding on the roads around here. I realize I'm a novice, but the bigger fear is other drivers.
After I posted the brief on the Web site I work on, immediately drivers complained that PennDOT wasn't saying anything about the motorcyclists needing to be more attentive. But if drivers were more attentive to what they were doing overall, instead of goofing around, talking on their cell phones, texting, or even zoning out, then at least half the people who currently lose their lives when riding motorcycles (more if you consider how this would prevent accidents between cars and cars and cars and trucks) could be saved.
Motorcycles and scooters are always going to be dangerous for inexperienced riders, and you can't prevent every accident. Sometimes the elements just work against you, but training and awareness would reduce the danger for both motorcyclists and scooter riders. That isn't going to reduce the danger. Isn't that what everyone likes about motorcycle riding the danger. It's what makes it "bad." But that is turning out to bad for a lot of people who don't know what they are getting into.

Photo by Marc C. Psoras of the Lansdale Reporter

Are Asian scooters a dangerous thing?

2010-05-17T23:08:00.003-04:00

According to a Sunday story in the Chicago Tribune
there is growing concern that the cheaply made scooters being shipped from China and elsewhere to satisfy consumer demand may be creating a safety issue.

Why? Because people see them as easy to ride when in fact they require the same knowledge and experience to properly operate as a motorcycle or full-sized scooter. Honestly, as someone who knows what it is like to be on a tiny vehicle on a major road next to a monstrous vehicle, there is nothing easy about it. According to the Tribune article, the problem is people think it is as easy to ride as a bicycle or car.

Nope! You move your body differently and have to understand how the vehicle's weight shifts affect its manueverability and management.

According to the article by Jon Hilkevitch, "But novice scooter drivers tend to have trouble keeping pace with traffic, making sure they are seen by other motorists, negotiating turns and handling emergency situations, safety experts say."

Cars don't see you, and unless you are conscious of this and know how to react because of the poor driving of others, you're screwed.

What does this all have to do with Asian scooters? Apparently because they are cheap and flooding the market, many more people who wouldn't normally buy one (because they are expensive and most people only shell out for one if they really want a scooter in particular) are doing so, and not realizing the importance of knowing what they are doing on it.

Now, I'm all for people riding scooters more often than cars. They use less gas, take up less space and reduce our consumption of oil. (Need to know why it is bad to consume lots of oil? Look at what that greed has done to the Gulf of Mexico.) I hate seeing people barreling down the road in a vehicle that they drive too fast (because they don't realize how fast they are going in those cush mobiles) and there is no one in the car and no reason for its massiveness other than status or ego.

Get on a scooter and you have to look at other people. You can hide behind tinted glass. In fact, you WANT them to see you. You want them to acknowledge you so they don't accidentally run you off the road.

Riding a scooter makes you friendlier. You wave to other scooter riders and motorcyclists because that is the norm. It also makes life seem a little better, and sweeter and less stressful. But that won't happen if you don't know what you are doing.

Want to get on a scooter? Lured by the cheapness? Take a free motorcycle riders class please. No one wants to hear of a scooter rider getting flattened.

Open face ain't so great

2010-05-08T12:24:00.002-04:00

After a couple weeks of use I have to say the open face scooter helmet isn't the greatest. I don't have a windscreen on my Vino so I get everything blowing in my face.

My open face helmet has a visor that is shaded for the sun, but the air can fly right up underneath carrying bugs and dirt with it. And forget about riding at night. It don't help at all to have a shaded helmet.

I tried using the pilot goggles I got my boyfriend, but you have to pull them over the helmet since putting them on first will compromise the helmet's fit, which reduces its ability to stay on your head and protect your noggin.

So I've resorted to sunglasses, but once again night is a problem. I'm trying to figure out a solution. But I think the only one I have is shelling out a hundred bucks for a windscreen.

Until then I'm back to using the full face helmet. I must say it made riding long distances easier this week. I don't understand how people can ride without a helmet or face protection. It's annoying.

Wishing for a free fountain

2010-05-08T12:00:00.003-04:00

After our disappointing ride to Swiss Pines in Charlestown, Pa., yesterday, Evil Ed and I stopped in Phoenixville to get a bit to eat. On our way into town, stuck in backed up traffic on Bridge Street, Ed noticed a fountain shop raffling off a free fountain. Ed loves fountains the way I love flowers, though it is not practical to put one in our current garden, especially since we don't own the property.

But these fountains are small, and when we went in to browse we found out an awful lot from the very friendly and non pushy owner, Charles Kern, who makes the fountains himself by hand. He'd been making fountains for almost 20 years before he opened Natural Creations, which is at 110 Bridge St., Phoenixville.

Kern told us all his fountains are made from pumice, a lava stone, which is a natural filter, so these fountains don't have problems with gunk collecting on them. (A big issue I have with my current petmate water fountain for my cats.)

He hand carves all the crevices in the stone and even adds real or silk flowers to create a sort of sculpture fountain. These fountains weren't big. The largest was probably about a foot tall and two feet around. They plug into the wall, so they are best used inside.

Kern even had fish in two of the fountains. He said the water only has to be changed every four months and you don't have to scrub off the stone. Just reacclimate the fish. Amazing! But I can't have fish in an open fountain since they will be sushi for the cats.

I asked about using his fountains as a water dish for pets and he said it is perfectly safe and even better for the cats since there would be no bacterial buildup thanks to the natural purifying qualities of the pumice.

Kern said the fountain pumps, which are aquarium pumps, last about 19 years. He just replaced a fountain pump for one of his first customers the week before, which is how he knew.

He even rents the fountains out for weddings, and also sells "cave candles." What these are are pumic stones carved out to look like caves with a holder for a candle in them, so they give a great ambient light. (Makes me really wish I had a green house for a home.)

I looked up pumic stone, and while I don't like it particularly as a source, Wikipedia confirmed that pumice is a natural lava rock formed when lava and water mix.

Pumice is soft and lightweight. Ground up pumice was used by the romans to make a type of concrete that made their buildings last for such a long time. It was used in the roof of the Parthenon, according to wikipedia.

I couldn't find why pumice is a purifier, but it may be due to the numerous pores in the stone that allow oxygen to mix with the water. Not sure. Still have to look into it.

But with the cost of another petmate being $60 or more, and then nuisance of cleaning it driving me up the wall, I might just shell out the $100 it would cost for one of these fountains and rate its use and pleasure here on this blog.

If you would like one of these fountains and don't want to shell out so much money (it is a tight economy), then you can sign up for Kern's raffle. He's giving all the money he collects from the tickets to a program in his church called Love Works, part of Hope Community Church in King of Prussia, which Kern attends. Love Works, Kern told me, helps people in the community (church members or not) who go through terrible circumstances. The organization recently helped a family who lost everything in a fire and raised funds for surgery for a child who suffered from a brain tumor. So if you are nonreligious, you don't have to fret about that cash going to evangelical activities. Kern said he was raffling off fountains every two weeks, but I'm not sure how long he will keep doing so, so you might want to check him out and put in your $2 to win one of these great little pieces.

You can check the Regis & Kelly Web site to also see a video of Regis receiving one of Kern's fountains on their show.

Whatever happened to Swiss Pines?

2010-05-07T23:03:00.002-04:00

(The picture at right is from 1976).
A private gardens open to the public and managed by a little old lady doesn't sound like something that would last, but I wish it had. When I was about 6, I recall visiting Swiss Pines near Phoenixville. I remember a winding road with trees on both sides. Then a pulloff and a Japanese gate across the road.
There were paths lined by bamboo that led to little private gardens with koi and or rocks and tea houses.
I also remember a mansion on a hill with azaleas and rhododendrons all around it. There was only one lone gardener in the midst of it all.
The last time I visited Swiss Pines, I was about 14, and it seemed a little run down, but still there. Still open to the public, and by the looks of the clientele, still loved by the upper classes.
Today my boyfriend and I decided to find Swiss Pines. I didn't really know where it was when I was younger, but when I asked my father, he pulled an old, yellowing pamphlet out of the drawer that had a crude map from a time when the Phoenixville area was less developed.
It gave me a general idea of where it was and after googleing it I found a few references. The most recent was this entry on an unofficial Charlestown Web site.
It was last updated in 2003, but I believe the picture may be much older. There are too many trees, even in spring, throwing shadows on the gate for it to be new.
Swiss Pines is on Charlestown Road, known as Route 113. You drive past Valley Forge Christian College and Cat-Pickering, the Chester County/Phoenixville area technical school where I learned how to ride a motorcycle. We drove (I on my scooter, Ed on his motobike) and the road became more rural and windy, but the traffic certainly didn't slow down. After some harrowing turns at the tops of hills I saw the old pull off to the right of me (heading south) but didn't have time to stop for fear of a truck slamming into the back of me. (That section of 113 REALLY shouldn't have trucks on it).
After a quick, and rather deadly, turnaround and an attempt to go back, I realized it was shut down. The gate was locked up and there was a rope across the old parking lot. I didn't have a chance to stop, but my boyfriend saw it in time to pull off and said there were signs everywhere saying "No Trespassing" and "Area under surveillance."
From what I could see through the fence as I drove by was an overgrown area with smashed pots and toppled statues. It was sad.
The bamboo was still growing profusely along the fence, shielding any more of a view. I stopped at the Charlestown General Store (an old empty, but well-kept building a short ways down the road) and wondered what would become of it.
Ed said there was a row of mailboxes outside, as if the place now housed tenants. Is that what has become of the old mansion? Has it been broken up into apartments with the gardens left to become overgrown? It was very sad. What will happen to Swiss Pines?

It was originally created and developed by Arnold Bartschi, who is credited with saving Charlestown Township and working with the French and Pickering Creek Conservation Trust to preserve the natural area. Swiss Pines was built upon the old Llewelyn Estates.
Bartschi also preserved that still beautiful general store as well as a 55-acre farm on the same road.
With all that still in good shape, it would be a shame to see a gem such as Swiss Pines be lost.
I began looking for anything else about this garden and found pictures on a flickr account from 2008. So I'm not sure what to make of it.

Scootatime, It's scootatime

2010-04-11T00:36:00.005-04:00

My boyfriend stumbled upon a forum that I thought might be useful to those of you out there looking to repair your own scooters, or upgrade them. It's called Scootertime.net and it has full manuals on many makes and models of scooters available for free in pdf form. No more begging a dealer to get you one or paying for it.

It also has a virtual garage where you can share mechanical information and pictures of your scooter as well as get tips from other riders.

It also has gear reviews by other riders. It's technically a forum so you can seek out help or information that's not already on there by registering and leaving a post.

Frozen to a motorbike

2010-04-10T11:46:00.003-04:00

A springtime trip to Longwood Gardens ended with near hypothermia after my boyfriend and I didn't take into account the temperature had dropped greatly from the day before.
I should've said "Turn around" when he asked me about half a mile from home if I thought it was too cold riding the bike. A cold front had moved in and the temperature was more than 20 degrees cooler than the day before.
It's easy to forget, esp. early in the season, that riding makes the air temp. feel different than if you are just walking. While it felt like 60 for someone standing on the street corner, to us it was like 45, and that was at noon.
We had to make an emergency stop at a hardware store on the way down so my boyfriend could get a sweatshirt to keep from freezing to death. You don't want to be too cold while riding cause it affects your senses, and we were driving through some dangerous traffic areas (Route 100 and 30).
We got to Longwood and warmed up a bit in the Conservatory before realizing it was getting rather dark and stormy looking above. We tried to race it home, but the temp. had dipped to 50 and my teeth were chattering. (Mind you I wasn't on the scooter, I was riding two-up on his bike and even with him acting as wind block, I was freezing.)
We attempted to stop and eat somewhere as we thought it would warm us up and allow rush hour traffic to clear out, but no luck. Friday in Chester County and everyone eats out.
So we endured the windy, cold weather and headed north to Pottstown.
The wind was really kicking up and at one point I thought we'd get swept off the road by the gusts. My boyfriend and I both leaned when a large gust came breezing across a wide open field and I wondered if we could make it home without crashing from shear exhaustion. But we got there, unfortunately, I had forgotten my keys inside the house and we were stuck shivering outside until we found a neighbor with a ladder that could get us in a 2nd story window.
I believe it took two hours for my body to stop shivering.

Lesson: If you are going out, always be prepared. We would've fared better if we'd had thermal underwear in the luggage on the bike. At least my boyfriend had his gloves and a balaclava.

Nervous about riding? Join a group!

2010-03-20T17:49:00.005-04:00

I went on my first group ride today, if you don't count riding with my boyfriend as being in a group.
I was a little nervous about riding with other people. The thoughts running through my head ranged from 'What if someone wipes out and takes me with them?' to 'What if I suck at riding and everyone tells me so?'
It was not like that at all. In fact, afterwards someone told me that I kick ass on a scooter and am a really good rider, though I know I took corners a little too tight (out of fear from my past crash when I went over the center line) and didn't keep up with the group.
But we did four rides and were out several hours, and I felt much more confident by the end of it, the reasons being 1. I didn't have to worry about where we were headed or what road I should be looking for since we were following a leader. This kept my head and focus on what I was actually doing and what others on the road were doing. 2. Because I was in a group, I knew if I crashed, the people around me would know exactly what to do and would prevent a car from running me over if I was on the ground (a big fear of mine actually because I know it has happened). 3. Everyone encourages or corrects you at every step. 4. Cars pay more attention to you. Except for one, I saw that everyone who drove around us slowed down or stayed at their stop marks rather than inching out, which is what I'm used to, and which tends to create a lot of anxiety for me.
What really helped is that Hammy, our ride leader for the day, used to be in my shoes a year ago. He told me when he got his first scooter he brought it home, looked at it and asked himself "What the hell was I thinking? I'm gonna get killed!" He joined the Wild Hogs, which broke up and became the EZ Riders Scooter Club (you can find them on Meetup) and he now is a big spokesperson for the group, encouraging riding.
He even sent me an email addressing my fears before my first big ride and saying he would gladly ride around with me in parking lots to get me warmed up.
And everyone was super nice, not at all like I feared. (Of course my fears come from the mean looks from those rider super bikes that are likely stolen in my town. Yes, that is a big problem here. In fact, the police in this area are still looking for someone who broke into the Yamaha dealer in Exter, Pa., and took off with two expensive motorcycles in the back of a van.)
Will I go on another group ride? You betcha. Esp. with that fun group. (Heck, we visited 2 ice cream parlors in one day. How can you beat that! And they love to take rides to hot dog joints.)
Will I be more likely to ride my scooter on my own. Yes, but I think I need more practice on those turns.

Sick days are no fun

2010-03-08T18:27:00.005-05:00

It was a beautiful almost spring day today and where was I but stuck inside sick. Thanks to someone or something I came down with some kind of stomach bug on Saturday that left me delirious and unable to eat for two days and weak in the legs today. But thanks to Dannon I'm feeling better and starting to be able to digest food again.

Since I am stuck inside, and since it is getting nearer to scooter season I decided to share with you a photo of my lovely new helmet, a Christmas present from my boyfriend Evil Ed.

The helmet is from Nexx and has a leather outer covering over a hard shell that actually wraps around your jawbone when you tighten the straps, which protects your mandibular way better than the average open-face helmet. I felt as safe wearing is as my full face helmet, and it's nice that it has the shaded eye covering if needed. You can also buy a clear one if you want to wear it at night.
It pretty much covers my nose, but that doesn't make it bug proof. Heck, not even a full face helmet is bug proof, as I can attest to after getting a couple up my nose riding one-up on my boyfriend's Honda 599 last year.

It is xsmall, but my boyfriend was worried about it being too loose. (Didn't feel that way to me.) But fit is really important with an open-face helmet since it can fly off a lot easier if it doesn't fit right, and there goes your noggin'.

I'll let you know how it wears.

The power of the group

2010-02-22T22:50:00.002-05:00

Martin's Motorsports, where I bought my scooter, offers seminars and other fun events to keep the motoring community interested during the long winter months.

I recently attended one of these lectures, on riding in groups. Unless you count riding with my boyfriend, or avoiding other cyclists on the blacktop course, I really don't have experience doing this. But it's important to know because at some point it will happen when you ride on two wheels.

The seminar was very good, but even better was the group that had sponsored it, and offered some really, really good grub afterwards. The EZ Riders Scooter Club had hosted the speaker from the Valley Forge Star Riders Assocation. Afterwards they offered anyone not in the group to come up and find out more.

And I soon learned that a group might be a way to get on the road, despite my nervousness, and gain more experience and confidence.

When you start out on two wheels, it's hard to feel confident talking to those who have more experience. You don't want to look like a fool, or feel like one. But when I met Hammy, who had spoken about the group, I felt perfectly at ease, maybe because this wasn't a group of people riding to be "bad" or "cool." They just rode for the love of it, and they weren't afraid to admit that love was hard to come by.

Hammy made me feel at ease because he told me when he first got his scooter, he hadn't been able to get through the motorcycle class (kept stalling out when he worked the gear shift) and was deathly afraid of riding his scooter because he kept thinking about how he was going to die while on it.

Those are my fears exactly!

But then he told me once he started riding in the group, he began looking forward to it, and he's riden more than 10,000 miles in less than two years! All because he rode in a group and was no longer afraid.

I always thought it would be harder in a group, because someone could slide out and into me. But they said they've never lost anyone and all ride as much as they can -- even in the winter.

So I'm going to give it a shot, and hopefully it will be the beginning of something good.

Better get to studying my hand signals while I can.

Next stop, Japan!

2009-10-25T22:02:00.002-04:00

Well, not really.

But I was practicing patterns with cones in parking lots today and must say it really improves my confidence and ability on the road. It would be cool to be able to do pattern runs like these fellows. I told my boyfriend we have to get more cones and set up our own course.

Follow the Red Brick Road

2009-10-04T22:37:00.004-04:00

Sometimes short trips can be bigger fun than long ones. I certainly found that out recently.

We'd been putting off traveling because, for some strange reason, both my honey and I are busiest in the summer than any other time of year. Don't know why, just the nature of the beast.

So we settled on October for our latest adventures. We wanted to try to drive across northern Pa. on Route 6, which used to take people across the northeastern states to Chicago.

Yeah, I know. What the hell is up in northern Pa. worth seeing you may think. It is a harbor for hunters and mountain men, but it is also beautiful. It rivaled anything I've seen in Shenandoah National Park, one of the most visited parks in the national park system, and it has very few suburban hell towns in its vicinity. Actually none.

It truly is remote and beautiful. We just didn't bank on the weather being so drastically different from good ol' Ptown.

It didn't feel like fall but winter.

The leaves had yet to turn much. We got there a little early in the season for that.

Towns north of here are rather sad. Small, with 50 percent of the houses boarded up or falling into disrepair. No industry or much business to be seen. Most towns only boasted a small general store and a bar or gas station. Though there are also plenty of beautiful big houses obviously occupied by the retired.

It's a strange land, on the very of the past and the future. Sleepy, and beautiful.

Our first stop was actually in a lovely old town that was a county seat, Towanda, and its downtown much worse off than downtown Pottstown, though it had no "bad" section as I could see. Just beautiful old Victorians heralding back to the lumber days. (The whole are was once known for its lumber, oil and coal barons, but the only remnants of that are trucks barreling by stacked with tree trunks and stacks of wood and trees in everyone's yards as they still heat their homes in winter with wood furnaces.)

The downtown looked like it could've really been beautiful. It had a few old rail stations on the tracks, one of them a bar and artisan's gift shop where I bought awesome wild berry jam that we opened today and made me wish I'd chosen a larger jar.

We stopped at the Red Rose Diner, a real old-fashioned diner that reminded me of Fegely's diner that was recently put inside the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles.

It was tiny and had the original menus and wooden bar and bar stools. A little old lady ran the place and cooked our meals. They just serve sandwhiches, short-order stuff, but it was cute with it's two-person wooden booths to the original tiny bathroom in the back and books about diners.

I learned there that dining cars started from dining carts which a print man started cause he saw a good business in feeding hungry newspaper workers, who couldn't get a meal as most towns' main streets closed up shop about 8 p.m.

That was back in the 1800s. The novel idea eventually turned into dining cars which mimicked rail cars.

Apparently ladies weren't always welcomed in the diners, since the Red Rose made an exception with its sign above the door that clearly stated it was different: "Ladies Invited"

I had a tuna melt, my boyfriend had a ham sandwhich and we got our drinks in original Coke glasses, not the larger imitation ones you see nowadays.

I highly recommend it and a trip along the Susquehannah River Trail, which runs along the waterfront.

Our goal on day one was to make Wellsboro, near the Pa. Grand Canyon, which is more like the Shenandoah Valley. It does have some amazing red rock cliff faces, but they are hidden by the trees most of the year.

We overnighted in a campground near the Pa. Grand Canyon (also known as Pine Creek Gorge, which lies at its heart) called Canyon Country Campground. We were the only campers, and soon found out why. I was just glad I bivouaced the tent. The rain really came down.

I felt bad for a little outside cat that was hanging around our campsite, and for whom we left out our leftover baked beans. (Though I don't really advise doing that in bear country. Something I forgot since it didn't seem like a campground that had that problem. There were a lot of houses and farms around.)

We survived the freezing night, enjoyed our free coffee from the absolutely lovely camp site (though the ground is ROCKY) to stop in at Animalland on our way out.

Animalland, like so many little zoos, is basically run by a couple who enjoy owning exotic animals, though this one seems mostly to house sheep from all over the world. They had a cute bunny and some interesting birds from Russia with amazing fire colored plummage.

I recommend buying corn before you go in and bring quarters cause those sheep are hungry critters. One of them grabbed the whole bag out of my boyfriend's hand and ate it bag and all. I was horrified. I hope the poor thing doesn't have problems because of it, but he was a greedy sucker.

The highlights of the park are the pygmy goats that seemed to have escaped their cage and were wandering around and started following us everywhere. There were three babies and a mama. I'm guessing she was tired at being near the end of the park and not getting corn.

They would jump at our knees to get at the little corn I had left in my pockets.

They also had cats there. A Siberian tiger, a lynx, a mountain lion (you could run into those just hiking in the area), a jaguar who was gorgeous, and of course some of the many wild kitties who just wander around eating the rats and other critters that try to nest in the cages to get at the corn.

They also had siberian fox and some bears, who looked really depressed.

I feel bad seeing animals in cages. They are meant to roam and despite how well they are taken care of, that isn't the life for them.

My boyfriend asked the owner (who sells you tickets at the door) what it was like dealing with the big cats.

The fellow said they were actually very friendly, for wild animals, and that the Siberian tiger would often try to play with him as he cleaned her cage, pushing him into the pool in her cage.

Apparently all the animals he had were bred in captivity. You can hear the sheep in the morning as you wake up at Canyon Country campground. At first I thought they were monkeys because they have such odd calls.

Next stop was the Grand Canyon itself. We could've hiked down along a waterfall from our campground to the creek at the bottom, which has a lovely, wide, gravel trail for biking and hiking following its length. But the freezing cold, winds, and intermittent rain made us reconsider and we drove to a parking spot at a nice lookout point on the Western side.

The road we took is the one that heads into Colton Point State Park. There are lookouts along the road and a 1.5 mile trail around the parking and group camping area that has lovely views. But we couldn't see the waterfall from there. You can probably see it from Leonard Harrison State Park on the eastern side of the canyon, which also has short, easy trails if you don't have much time to spend there but want to get some of the park in.

We decided to check out the view from the tower on the eastern side which, it turns out, used to be in Valley Forge Park near where I live. It was the strangest thing. It's old, but looks like it was from a carnival ride. It has obvious repairs in the steps, which can make you reconsider its safety. It's owned by Animalland's folks and you can buy tickets there, or you can pay by credit card through a rather unusual machine that controls the gate into the tower.

It was a cold, long walk up and at the top it has quite a view that really does rival the Blue Mountains in color and contrast. We couldn't really see far thanks to the precipitation.

Cost is only $3 a person.

Our lunch stop was a bar called the Smoking Barrel at the foot of Colton State Park's access road. It's a strange place. Has a gun on its sign and you'd think it was tough, especially since its attached to an old house that is missing siding and obviously falling apart. But when you walk inside, you are presented with a gorgeous obviously redone bar that is huge. They also had a new modern kitchen that turns out some pretty awesome food.

Strangely enough we were presented with it by a very pregnant bar tender who was not backwoods in the least.

I get the impression there are two types of people in the area: old school residents who remember the area's gradual decline and young folk who purposefully move out there because they either love hunting, skiing, hiking or mother nature.

But they aren't crunchy hippies.

I wouldn't even want to suggest such a thing to their faces. They certainly aren't 'soft' people. Not living out where they all must have to use snowmobiles to get around in winter.

We next headed west toward the Kinzua Bridge State Park. My boyfriend wanted to see it. It's a former railroad bridge built in the 1800s to accomodate the lumber, coal and brick industries that occupied the area. It was considered an engineering marvel that spanned a valley between two major lumber towns at the time. In the valley was another railroad track that served a brick making factory, many remnants of which are left, including old brick roads that have been uprooted over the decades by plant life.

The bridge was knocked over by a tornado in 2003. Before that, it had tourist trains cross it and pedestrians were allowed to walk over it. Everyone that we met had a story about going out on the trains or walking across the bridge in hairy, scary weather.

Only one man had inside information on what really happened.

We settled the night in a motel, not certain if we wanted to freeze to death in a tent as the clouds were lowering and spitting at us as it got darker and darker. We stayed at a hotel in Lantz Corners and walked to the nearby bar which, it turns out, was owned by the hotel owner.

Our bartender, a young guy formerly from Pittsburgh was the only person in there, besides us.

I warn you, if you stop there (it's the only hotel for miles), they stop serving food super early on weeknights. We got there about 8:30 and they were already shutting down the kitchen, but they luckily have a bar menu.

We got to talking with the fellow, and he told us that originally they didn't want to admit that it was a tornado that knocked the bridge down. They said it was high winds. But that wouldn't make sense with a steel bridge.

They had shut it down to pedestrians and trains a while back and where trying to reinforce it at the time of the collapse.

We asked how to get out to it, and he told us a secret way the locals used to get down into the valley using the Red Brick Road. (Turns out this was the old brick factory road).

He also told us how he survived a tornado destroying his house at the age of 9. It was one of the few tornadoes that ever hit Pittsburgh and they survived it only because lightning had hit the house before the tornado did, causing them to all run downstairs.

He was a pretty cool bartender.

The next day we stopped at an awesome coffee shop that looks completely out of place in Mount Jewitt. Called Kaffe Sol, it is a send up to the area's strong Swedish heritage and is run by a former queen of the annual Swedish festival in the area. She was absolutely charming. They had the best coffee and amazing home made baked goods.

The owner introduced us to the area's specialty: Swedish Rye Bread, which they sell by the loaf and the slice there. It doesn't taste like rye bread. It actually has very little rye in it. It's slightly sweet and very hearty. Toasted with butter it's almost like French toast. Wonderful.

I wish I had bought a loaf to take with me because I've never heard of it before and didn't see it anywhere else on our travels in the area.

The owner is also a wealth of information on local lore and sights to see that you might not notice. And you can get books and novelty kitsch highlighting the local swedish culture.

One of the things I noticed was the hex signs that are completely different from the Pa. Dutch ones you find in the Reading and Lancaster areas. They had their own tole style out there.

Apparently in the harsh winters, the settlers would turn to toy making and one of their most iconic images is the red swedish horse, of which you can buy little ones in the coffee shop.

Sitting right on Route 6 next to the Mount Jewitt Mural (which you only see driving east, not west), it offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and has its own Facebook page.

We set off, determined to find a way into the valley to look at the wreck of the bridge. You can view it from above on a lookout terrace they've built in the park but the trails that formerly led down into the valley are blocked off in the park because people were stealing bits of the bridge and selling it on eBay. The only way to get there is the way we took and I don't recommend it since you'll be trespassing, and possibly shot.

We didn't know what we were getting into, but we found the road we were told about and parked our car in a sleepy, barely there neighborhood and decided to hike in. The road had a "no trespassing" sign posted in the beginning and a ramshackle house sat along the side with two big dogs in the yard.

It looked like hill billy heaven and I feared I might get dragged off into the woods by some half breed. But we saw no one and walked slowly down along the former road into the woods. Surprisingly, as we walked, we saw old posts from former factory roads and we eventually came into a clearing with several options to take. There was a former brick road (you could only tell because of the bricks lying randomly about in the path) going one way, and another going in another direction .. and no sign of the bridge from where we stood. There was a little, rather well-kept bridge over a creek and obviously people came through there on four-wheelers, but it was dead quiet and creepy.

We tried one path, only to find it blocked by a tree. We could've gone around, but the underbrush was high and very soggy. It was almost marshland out there.

So we went back to the clearing and tried the other road, which was really broken up, only to have huge puddles block our path.

We decided against going any further since we weren't sure where we were and didn't want to get lost. So we hiked back to the car, but as we approached the hillbilly house, we heard guys in the yard, and I started to slow down.

I didn't want to get shot in the middle of nowhere.

But my boyfriend walked right up and the fellows said the dogs were friendly and they got to talking.

One of the old fellows asked "So you want to see the bridge?" Then offered to ride us out there in his jeep, which looked like it was in serious disrepair. B
ut it started up right away, despite being from the 60s. It had no windshield and no back seat. I sat on a box in the back and had to hold on for dear life and make sure my skull didn't collide with the winch on the roll over bar. We would've been dead if we had rolled, there were no seat belts in this old thing.

But before we left, our guide had to get his trusty Derringer because he ran into a mountain lion in the valley the other day. No joke. My boyfriend got a picture, but I'm not posting it out of respect for the fellow, who could've just shot us with it but was awfully hospital in everything he did.

We headed off into the wild of the valley, trundling along. And glad we did because hiking would've taken hours, and been quite dangerous. These roads are not for cars. Luckily this was a real Jeep. We were climbing at 90 degree angles over humps in the road and fallen trees. Literally trees, not branches.

Several times I had to hang on for dear life or fall out the back, and I must say, I understand why someone could get hooked on this. But I'm still against four-wheeling for the damage it does to the environment for a few seconds of thrill.

As we drove we could see old railroad equipment rotting in the valley, rusty and overgrown from centuries of neglect. Fascinating.

When we got to the bridge, it was more amazing than I could imagine, the twisted steel looked like it had been taffy.

Our guide said he remembered when it fell. Could hear it from his house. He said he knew the fellows restoring it had taken the steel pins out of the concrete bases before the tornado came through and that was the real reason it fell. Claimed the park service was covering its tracks by saying the pins weren't strong enough to hold the bridge up anymore.

Perhaps he is right, but we couldn't exactly walk around the structure since everything was overgrown and there was water everywhere in the valley.

An amazing sight, but such a shame it came down.

As we stood there getting pictures. The caretakers of the land, which isn't owned by the park service where we were, came riding up in a rather fancy four-wheeler. Our guide got to talking with them.

On our way back, he told us how the caretakers were looking after the land for an Ohio resident who had purchased it. The claim was they were going to turn it into a wildlife preserve, but he believed the real reason was prospecting for natural gas.

We'd seen roads being built into pristine woodlands everywhere and our guide said that streams had already been polluted by the fracking process and many companies weren't getting the proper permits from the town. So the town was screwed when the pollution occurred.

On top of that, he said, the companies that were coming in from out of state were bringing in people, not employing those who lived in the area. He said it was bad enough that they lost their only factory to shut downs and now to have outside companies burden the town and disrespect the people living there in that way was awful. He was hoping to run for town council and fight them.

I hope he wins.

We asked him about the tourist train that used to run through Mount Jewitt that our coffee shop hostess had lamented about.

He shook his head and said, "We're losing everything."

It was so sad. And it's such a shame the state is more interested in making money off the land regardless of the negative affect it has on the people there whom it should be more interested in. They may be poor and there may be only a few of them, but they should be given more consideration than some rotten outside company that takes the profits and runs. These towns are getting nothing and the damage that will be left behind is irreversable, and something these little, poor towns will be able to do nothing about.

It's godawful.

A little bit sorrower and wiser, we headed toward Keene, and had lunch at an old saloon turned into a restaurant. Keene could be nicer, too, if only there were money. It also had a train depot, formerly owned and used by the tourist train that used to run over the Kinzua bridge, but which now hosts a viable local arts shop that unfortunately wasn't open.

There isn't much more there, besides some sorry looking stores. Shame, at one time all the buildings must have been grand. There was some truly interesting stone work there, and the former saloon had the original bar, with ornate carvings and a huge mirror. Fabulous to look at. And the food was pretty good too.

I regret not getting dessert. My boyfriend said we would stop for ice cream, but couldn't stand the muzak piped in over the stereo system. We never found an ice cream stand.

We started heading south, aiming for the Elk highway through a spectacular section of state forest that may soon be subject to drilling thanks to our idiotic state government. We passed through towns that were still doing pretty well and looked pretty big and headed into old growth forest along the Susquehannah. The views were beautiful and the towns, as little as they were, obviously catered to travelers.

We enjoyed the views and hit a state park near Hyner view. It was stunning, sleeping beneath huge pine trees. We set up our tent along a babbling brook and stayed up most of the night around the fire.

We got up late and headed for Hyner View, which is supposed to be a big spot for hang gliding, but the freezing cold wind was blowing the wrong way, and the only people there were other tourists. But the view, stunning.

You must be careful, though, walking around where the hang gliders take off. One wrong step and you'll have a too close view of the valley as it comes up to meet you.

We headed home, making one last stop at the Piper Cub museum in Lock Haven. Housed in the old Piper airplane factory next to the airport, it was a rather small, unimpressive local museum, but they do have some rather funny, unique things there, including a Piper that flew around the world.

We ate dinner at the Texas Restaurant, which has been in business since the 1900s and is definitely visited by the college crowd at nearby Lock Haven University. It looks unimpressive from the outside, but inside is classic 50s diner with unusual circular counters in the back that really make use of the space.

It is known for its Texas style hot dogs, but serves up a mean burger and gyros. There is definitely a Greek air to the menu.

It was then on to home, and back to work, and wishing we had more time.

Style or substance?

2009-09-27T02:37:00.003-04:00

It's funny how the idea of scootering tends to cause some riders, even experienced motorbikers, to throw safety out the window. I don't know why it is, but I've seen people who would think to put on proper boots, long pants and a helmet when riding a motorcycle decide to "skip all that" when getting on a scooter and head off wearing only shorts and flip-flops.

What gives?!

Just because scooters are slower than motorcycles doesn't mean riding them is any less dangerous. The roads you travel are still the same and the drivers just as poor at paying attention. Speed isn't always a factor in bad crashes.

Scooters are often smaller than motobikes, too, which means drivers are even less likely to notice you at intersections, and more likely to slam into you full force.

So why be nonchalant about what you wear?

I'm debating this because as I try to improve my riding ability, I'm wondering how to make the scooter my everyday vehicle, when the weather allows.

I live about four blocks from my job, and while it would seem to be ideal that I take the scooter daily, there is the issue of attire.

I can't go to work every day in motorcycle gear. I need to dress for my job, which can demand I go before members of the public and represent my company. Which means I must wear business attire most days.

I toyed with the idea of changing clothes once I get to the office, but then I ran into the other issue: getting to work on time.

My job (Web site management) demands that I be at my desk, bright and bushy-tailed, before everyone else even enters the building. And lately I've been so overworked that I've left about the same time as the sun is going down. So I've been rolling out of bed as late as possible before heading off to work, because I need the shut-eye.

(For those of you wondering about the time of my posting, I'm on vacation this week.)

Rolling out of bed late, packing up the proper attire, then getting dressed for scootering, getting to work, and then changing all takes up WAY more time than just rolling out of bed, throwing on my business attire and rolling into work in my car.

My boyfriend said I should just ride the scooter in high heels, like Italian women do.

I thought, 'Whoa, I don't think high heels will help me if I crash. My feet will be mangled much easier."

I have seen it, I must admit. The Italians sure do make scootering seem as safe as walking down the street, but it's not. At least not in my town where a motorcyclist is injured in a crash every day. (We have a lot of motobikers which I believe accounts for such crashes being so frequent.)

What I can't figure is why just hoping on a motor scooter, no matter how you are attired, is so "safe" and common in Italy. Is it because the number of cars is less, so severe accidents are less likely to happen? Is it because drivers are more aware of scooters and show them more respect on the road?

I'm wondering if there has ever been a widespread, governmental movement encouraging scooter riders in that country to change the way they dress when they ride to be safer.

But honestly, it would be nice if I could skip the extra step of changing my clothes. It would be great if I could ride wearing high heels and a dress and not feel that I'm taking a ridiculous risk.

But I don't think I ever could. It just doesn't feel safe.

And while it may be that the clothing really does little to save your life in a crash, I'd like to think, especially after my first spill, that it can reduce the damage.

Sure makes me feel less nervous around trucks when I'm properly attired.

And I crashed it

2009-09-01T21:04:00.002-04:00

All during motorcycle class my boyfriend told me I should 'dump it,' meaning drop the bike. I didn't want to. I was stressed so much that if I had, I wouldn't have completed the course. I'd be too rattled.

Then I got my brand-new Vino and I was even more worried.

My boyfriend had already voiced concern that I would get seriously hurt if I bought a scooter. I think watching 10 people drive extremely poorly on a parking lot for two days squashed his past hopes of us speeding around Berks County on motobikes together.

He was worried I could die.

So when I slid out after going around a curve too wide on my first full day of riding the Vino, he almost had a heart attack.

He was riding his Honda 599 ahead of me. We'd both gone to Phoenixville, Pa.'s first ever Bike Day, and had a good time. We were heading home, and he had gone ahead of me. I had to wait for a traffic light. (Let's face it, my scooter will never go as fast as his motorcycle so I'll be spending a LOT of time stuck at lights he's raced through.)

As I went forward, I noticed a car coming out of this side road. I guess I looked at it a little too long cause when I went around the corner, I turned too wide and ended up in the opposing lane of traffic.

Bad, real bad. I panicked because I saw a car ahead. Mind you it was, like, a mile ahead of me, but I panicked and tried to turn, slow down and speed up all at the same time, and found myself sliding on my side, the whole time thinking "oh, no, my scooter."

Two very nice gentlemen came running out of the nearby gas station and helped me up and out of the road. The driver of the car, luckily stopped and also asked about my state.

Surprisingly I was just fine, but a truck driver who passed by told my boyfriend about it as he waited for me up ahead.

My boyfriend said his heart just sunk. I don't blame him. I'm shocked I didn't have more than a scraped knee, but my jeans didn't even look damaged.

Damn lucky. Think I'll stick to parking lots for a while.

My new scooter!

2009-08-29T12:51:00.001-04:00

I'm afraid I'm going to wreck it. It's a Yamaha Vino 125 cc. Rides beautifully. Though it came out being a little more than I expected. Damn taxes.
I got it at Martin's Motorsports. Great guys. Don't pressure you to buy shit you don't want.
I'm sticking to little roads around town, though my boyfriend is pushing me to take it to Phoenixville's first Bike Day.
I'm hoping it doesn't rain. It's cloudy but the sun's coming through.

I'm certified to drive, or certifiably insane

2009-08-21T11:56:00.005-04:00

I've never driven a motorcycle before. Scooters yes, and very badly, but never a motorcycle. So when I had to sidle up next to one for the American Motorcycle Association's basic rider course, I was quaking inside.

It was a rather nice look Kawasaki, smoke gray and a low rider.

In fact, all of the bikes were rather nice looking, especially for a course that was filled with novices of all ages, only one of whom I had any confidence in ... and that wasn't me.

There were about 40 people total in the class for the classroom sessions and they split us up for the two-day practical course, which fell on the hottiest, muggiest day of the summer. Literally so hot, that when I took off my jacket and helmet I looked like I'd jumped in a swimming pool because I was soaked in sweat.

That heat, coming off the pavement, the bike and just the air in general, made it hard to concentrate and made my fears worse. How was I going to get through this?

So many times I was frustrated and wanted to just drop the bike and walk away.

The bike scared me, mostly because it was about three times my weight and I just couldn't fathom balancing the thing. (Believe me, the scooter I ended up buying is much, much lighter, despite being a very solid Yamaha 125 cc).

I wasn't the only one intimidated by the size of it. An older couple had decided to take the class together and neither of them seemed very confident, especially after the woman, when instructed to kick up the kickstand and mount it, dropped it sideways into a fence.

Heck, we hadn't even been told how to start the bikes and they were already getting banged up.

The class itself is built perfect for new riders. Whoever designed it recognized that motorcycling cannot be picked up easily, like driving a car. You really need to be instructed on every aspect of the bike. How it turns, how it runs, all of it, extremely important to know if you want to have any confidence or capability when you ride it.

And considering that some of my classmates had gotten ahead of themselves and already purchased bikes they had no idea how to ride, it was essential to go over everything.

They make you power walk them before you ever pick up your feet, just to get a feel for the throttle. It helped because the one thing I thought I would do (Fred Flinstone the bike) I ended up not even thinking about.

It was way easier than the old Geely which had such a rough throttle that I was constantly putting my feet down to steady myself because the throttle was so inconsistent in starting the bike.

I was actually very nervous on my last day there because one of my class members showed up with a brand-new chopper, and just like the rest of us he was still wobbling all over the parking lot on the class bike.

Riding on a parking lot is nothing like riding on the street. I knew that already, but knowing how nervous I was about turning around in a parking lot made me even more nervous thinking about how I was supposed to take the bike out on the road at some point in my motorcycling life.

Focusing on what I was doing was taking up most of my energy during class, and it was doubly hard when I had to pay attention to what my classmates were doing. I thought I was atrocious through the whole thing, but I just wasn't focusing on what others were doing, and I got to see their progress when we all lined up for testing that Sunday afternoon.

All of my class mates were really nice people: fathers, mothers, girlfriends, boyfriends, laborers, guys just wanting to see if they could do what I suppose is considered a typical guy thing.

None of them struck me as being bikers though, even the fellow who already was riding and who probably did the best out of all of us.

No hard attitudes. Just smiles, nervous laughter and all wondering "Are we cut out for this?"

I think the most embaressing thing would have been to fail that end test. I had almost lost it earlier in the day when I froze during the figure 8s. I had real trouble keeping the bike balanced cause I was going to slow and that was a result from my fears of rocketing off the course and into a car or a tree.

In fact someone in the earlier class had done just that and when I showed up that Sunday afternoon there were clumps of dirt and grass stuck to the right side of my bike and hanging off the mirror.

Later I learned that a second person had wiped out and scraped up the whole side of another bike in that first class. I theorize that it may have been the two friends who came to class because they felt if it was something they could do they should do it. (Bad way to look at this).

But even the black fellow from a foreign country who forgot to pull in the clutch while he braked and successively mashed down on the throttle (almost rocketing off) passed the class.

Though I wouldn't want to see any of them on the road.

I think I passed with flying colors, though I did have to stick out my foot on one of the loops of my figure 8, which I did really well in the test despite freaking out in practice.

Am I ready for the road? Not the highway, that's for sure. And as I watched the one over confident biker ride of and turn very sloppily in front of us (as we drove in a car), I knew not everyone who gets a permit should be using it right away.

But I know if I need to I can pick up a motorcycle and ride it. I even got used to the shifter and kind of miss it now that I've opted for a scooter.

I will likely take the class again. But as for riding an "angry chopper" on Philly's deadly highways, I doubt it. I'll stick to the streets of Pottstown.

It's hard enough minding me, but the real threat out there is other drivers.

Too good to be true?

2009-08-21T11:45:00.002-04:00

I saw this ad on eBay and I don't know if it's heaven sending me a gift, or an offer that just shouldn't be trusted. I would drop everything here in a heartbeat and buy this place. (Though I'd have to be able to pay off all my debts too.)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=160344968985&Category=2992&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2#ht_6979wt_1075

This guy says he is selling a scooter rental shop on Redington Shore, Fla.'s sandspit of land, right near the Isle of Capris, for $79,000, and that the business brings in $120,000 a year. He claims he is selling it so low and for so cheap because his wife, who has parents in Fort Lauderdale about a day's drive away on the other side of Florida, wants to move back to where her family is.

Maybe there is a health crisis and they need to be closer to the 'rents, who knows? Or maybe it is a complete and utter scam.

He claims he needs to be paid in cash or bank check and that the buyer only has to pay off the other $14,000 (out of the $79,000) to him after they've been trained on how to run the shop. He says the lease is paid in full.

Everything comes with the shop: scooters, skateboards, bicycles, a dock on the inner coastal waterway, and all the tools and parts in the repair shop, including a truck for delivery and pickup.

It's near a lot of hotels and yacht docking areas that look full on Google maps, but is this a scam?

It's listed several times on ebay by the same seller and it's only been up for 28 days the most.

As I sit here, stressed out about the idiocy of online commenters who are writing things that have lawyers call us and threaten to sue and wonder why I got into journalism (it wasn't to deal with that bullshit), I wish I had the money to just pick up and go. But I barely have anything saved and a large amount of debt, so I'm hesitant. Maybe if I'd seen this a year or two from now I'd jump on it, but I"m concerned about ending up homeless and destitute in Florida.

And it's killing me.

There is one possibility I just considered. Thinking about where this building is located, on the Gulf side of the Florida coast, maybe this business only looks good in old pictures. Maybe the whole area right now is being destroyed by Hurricane Bill (Don't know what happened there since I just woke up and haven't had time to check the news.).

Or maybe everything around it has and business has dried up.

Mad about the Moto Fino

2009-07-30T22:34:00.002-04:00

I spotted this Moto Fino on Craigslist. Almost new and selling for only $1050. I called up the seller and arranged to come down on Thursday. I knew I'd probably buy it. It was one of the few scooters I'd seen selling for a reasonable sum and which had a title with it.
It's amazing how so many people are trying to sell titleless vehicles, and they try to convince me that it's EASY for me to get a title for them. Yeah, right. If it was so easy, I'd have one in hand for the Geely.
Not happening. Besides, if it's so easy, why don't they get a proper title before selling it?
But this scooter was different. 600 miles on it, pristine condition, and it was Green!
So we head out, I've got the cash in hand though I'm hoping I can talk him down by $100, which would put it more in line with my budget.
We hit traffic, and my boyfriend takes this roundabout way that I don't think was any faster than sitting in traffic. We get there half an hour early and the seller tells me he just sold it to someone else! Hello! Didn't I arrange to drive all the way out there!
I took a huge chunk of time out of my day. I was serious enough to come out to look at it, and this guy, who seemed very nice but daft (he was old) sold it over the phone knowing I was coming!
It might be a blessing in disguise. Maybe Moto Fino isn't a great brand of scooter, but it was waaayyy better than anything I'd seen so far. It was 150 cc, 100 cc higher than what most were selling. Perfect for me.
And now, I'm back to looking at possibly stolen Honda's and cheap Chinese crap.

Michael Jackson on a scooter? Who knew

2009-07-11T01:02:00.003-04:00

At least this was back when he was normal.

This made me cry

2009-07-11T00:47:00.000-04:00

The girl is deaf, if you don't figure it out right away.

A cute scooter, a good cause

2009-07-11T00:36:00.001-04:00

So I'm trying to find a good, well-priced scooter and what do I come across but Schwinn. Who knew the venerable bicycle company that created lust and envy in the hearts of kids from the 60s for their product had broken into the realm of motor scootering? Not I.
To add kudos to their prominence, Schwinn sells the Hope 50 and Hope 150 scooters. Pink in hue, sales of the cute little transportation machines feed a fund to help with breast cancer research. How awesome.
Now I want one. Problem is, I can find no information about the cost online. Guess I'll have to start calling around. Hopefully they'll be under $800.

It's all in the name

2009-07-11T00:19:00.002-04:00

Why must they call those electric wheelchairs people ride around in and illegally on the street scooters? They aren't. They're electric wheelchairs. A different name does not change the ride.
It's so frustrating when I'm searching for an actual scooter or information on them and I get results for the disabled. I wish they'd find another name to use for their mobility chairs and leave scooters out of it.

If I had $15,000 ...

2009-07-10T23:55:00.002-04:00

MSN ran a story about a new type of electric motorcycle. Not a hybrid but a real, practical motorcycle. And it looks totally old school.
I would get one of these bikes in place of a regular gas or an electric scooter in a heart beat. Mostly because it gives you control over how you use the power so you can actually ride it longer distances based upon the settings.

And it has kick! According to the article, you can go 40 to 50 miles on one charge and it reaches 30 mph in 3.8 seconds, depending on the setting you give it. It has a top speed of 50 mph, which won't satisfy those road eating sport bikers but would be great for a girl getting around the city. Only problem, like most motobikes it really has no place for me to put groceries.

Goodbye scooter??

2009-07-03T19:13:00.001-04:00

Finally got my motorcycle permit and now there is a great dilemma — scooter or motobike?

Turns out the scooter my boyfriend picked up from his cousin is falling apart and really not worth fixing up, and I need something I can get past inspection if I want to ride around town.

I'd like a scooter, but even the used ones sell for upward of $2,000 ... way out of my price range.

So we looked at motorbikes, and there was a cool blue green one for sale near my parents in Jersey. Problem is, motorcycles aren't really meant for carrying things like grocery and video cameras (for work). So what do I do? I'd like to make some decision before my pa. motorcycle class at the end of the month but I'm not sure where else to look. So far cycletrader, eBay and craigslist have been a bust.

KYW Newsradio 1060 Philadelphia - Council Considers Bill for Scooter Parking in Philadelphia

2009-06-15T15:20:00.001-04:00

KYW Newsradio 1060 Philadelphia - Council Considers Bill for Scooter Parking in Philadelphia

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An up and down adventure

2009-06-08T22:51:00.004-04:00

(This picture is not of the one in Pa. that I went to, but it gives you an idea of it.)

The dirt was flying, and my earplugs came in handy, at the annual hill climb Sunday at the White Rose Motorcycle Club in Spring Grove, Pa.
If you've never heard of a hill climb before now, you aren't the only one.
I was first introduced to this new form of competition by my boyfriend, who'd seen it once before. The object, riders on motorcycles and dirt bikes that are modified with an extended swing arm for their back wheel gas it up a hill with three "jumps", as they were called. The hill is almost at a 90 degree angle, so the possibility of flipping over backwards or sliding down the hill with your motobike on top of you is very high.
Of course things didn't get that bad, but there were some good falls as riders neared the top which made for an exciting afternoon.
The best was when many riders reached the top and the assistants and paramedics went scrambling out of the way. These bikes don't have gear shifters or brakes, so you have to hustle when one is coming at you, especially since the rider can't slow it down or he goes backwards. Mind you, this hill was about as high as a skyscraper and manmade.
The riders are judged on how quickly they get up the hill, as well as distance. Many couldn't get back the first "jump", which looked like a leveled off plateau, though by the end of the event it was so torn up you couldn't walk across it easily.
One girl was in the competition and she almost had the lead in her class but was bested by someone else, taking in second. Which isn't bad considering how many riders there were (at least 50).
If you're curious to see what this is all about (it's been around in Spring Grove since at least the 30s), the club is located off Hill Climb Road, just look up the White Rose Motorcycle Club. They have another Hill Climb competition in the fall.
Entry fee is $15 a piece for adults and the parking is free, but on the grass. So if you ride your scooter or motorcycle, either drive past the first entrance to get to the blacktop area near the concessions stand (a big white building where the paramedics and firefighters are parked) or bring along a foot for your kickstand.
I also recommend lots of sunscreen, which still didn't prevent a burn for me, but it's better than nothing. You sit on a hillside that's pretty well exposed to the sun, unless you luck out and get there early. The races usually start around noon and are held on Sundays twice a year. You can bring in beer, but no glass bottles and there is a cooler size limit. You do have to go through a security line, but they are pretty decent folk.
You can also walk around the pits and look at the bikes, which is pretty cool.
There is opportunity for an up close look at the bottom of the hill, but be warned: you'll get dirt in your face and there are nitrous fumes.
Also, for the ladies, you might want to bring toilet paper. The toilets are pit toilets in a cement block house, though the men's latrine was flooded and they had to use two portapotties with a rather long line forming. (I guess cause there were more men than women at the event. First time I'd seen that.)
Wish I had pictures, but my camera was dead. Maybe next time.

An offer you shouldn't refuse

2009-05-10T14:44:00.003-04:00

If you've been thinking about buying a new scooter or motorcycle, or have been pondering a first-time purchase, now's the time to buy, thanks to the economic stimulus plan.

The scooter and motorcycle sectors saw a boom in interest and sales when the cost of fuel rose the last few years, but suddenly they've hit the wall, and the interested don't seem so much anymore.

According to a recent Associated Press report, "the same provision that lets taxpayers deduct sales and excise taxes on the purchase of a new car or truck also applies to a motorcycle or scooter. They also can get a 10 percent federal tax credit if they buy plug-in bikes."

Going electric seems better than ever with that option.

If you live and work in California, you are even luckier. That western state offered grants to encourage trade-ins and sales of two-wheeled electric vehicles, since they are better for the air than a traditional car. And $5 million more in grants has been approved by the state to encourage purchases.

One of the biggest bains to an increase in sales is, of course, the credit market, which is rough right now. Face it, people can't get loans for cars, and with scooters being a lot more expensive than a bicycle, they are just as hard to get loans for. Though one person in the AP story noted they are cheap enough to charge on your credit card. And with the long-term gas savings, it really might be worth it. Especially since you don't usually have to pay for parking, you can always put it on the sidewalk in most cities.

But if you've already gotten yourself a scooter this year, don't forget, you might be able to get deductions off your taxes.

And if you're interested in going on two wheels, but don't have a lot of experience, then check out Consumer Reports Auto blog, where for the first time they've tested out scooters and motorcycles that might be just right for the novice.

Oo la, la, but no scooter ride

2009-04-14T21:45:00.070-04:00

The hardest part of traveling is the frustration and exhaustion of getting to the place you'd rather be traveling around.
It's the queues, the waiting for approval from security personnel, emigration, airline personnel.

I almost lost it in Brussels.

We made the mistake of settling for the cheapest tickets we could find on Priceline, and in hindsight realize it might have been better to pay a little more for less transfers.
We had two. We flew from Philly to Newark, Newark to Brussels, Brussels to Lyon, and I was glad we got there, even though we'd been traveling for almost two days.

We thought we'd missed our flight in Brussels. Getting off the plane, we ran through the airport to our gate, but were stopped in our tracks for over an hour by the long lines at the emigration station. I was furious because none of the lines were moving and there were obviously issues with people coming off one of the flights. My logic was screaming, 'Why can't they move all the problem people over to one line and get everyone else through?'

No one was happy and one man was able to move himself up to the front of the line and probably caught the flight we should've been on.

When it was our turn it was a quick, 'Oh, American? Have a nice vacation!'
Could've moved us through a bit faster if that was it.

But Brussels gave us the finger in more ways than one.
We ran down a flight, got through a security line, up two flights, down three halls, only to find no one at our gate.
One very kind woman working for a different airline helped us figure out where we should go to get another flight since Air France had no one inside the security area.

All the way back the way we came, across the airport, up several flights of stairs then back across the airport again, and winding our way through a poorly organized, giant check-in area, we finally managed to speak to someone about a transfer. Luckily they spoke English because I have no knowledge of Flemish.
And with that there went my hope of being a travel writer. (Just because they teach English in European schools doesn't mean everyone knows it. The lessons are likely equal to teaching high school kids Spanish: They really don't care so it doesn't sink in.) To travel well and get the skinny on an area, you need to know the language. There's no way around it.
Next time I hear someone whinefully wishing they could have such a lush, "fun" job as a travel writer, I'll ask if they want to learn foreign languages, then tell them to shut it, cause you're not serious about the idea if you don't.

Back through the airport and to the security line, again. Three times through security and this time I get stopped. I'd forgotten a small pocket knife in my bag. After a quick pat down and OK by the security chief ("What a girlie knife," he probably thought in a thick Germanic accent.) we were on our way .. to the pub, where our first meal of the day was a beer.

As we sat in the News Cafe, which offered papers in several languages (none English), I noticed a group of students come through and they picked up a discarded newspaper with great interest. Very different from the U.S.
Wondered how I could get the American youth to give such a damn.

Bourgoin-Jallieu: Our first stop and introduction to French wine and cheese.
After a long travel time, all we wanted to do was sleep. The screaming children and restless people on our plane ride over the Atlantic had kept us awake and exhaustion had made us unable to remember a damn lick of French. So wine and cheese it was. Then sleep until late Friday morning.

The stereotypes preached to me about the French had all been dashed — a positive thing since I'd been told they hate Americans and could tell us by our jeans.

Au contraire. EVERYONE in Europe wears jeans. They are the garment of daily wear by anyone in their 30s and younger, or anyone doing a lot of traveling or laborious work.

And our host told us it's not the Americans they hate in France. Everyone wants to be in America, since you can get wealthy a lot easier. What they hate are the Brits (sorry Anglos and Saxons) because they tour France a lot more than Americans and tourists apparently have left a bad taste in the mouth of locals.

And once again, unless you are in a major city, don't assume they speak English. It's unlikely someone can speak it unless they use it in business. If you don't use it, you lose it, and their native tongue is French.
It's also better to know the language well enough to blend in. We were mistaken at one point for being German because we were trying to speak as much French as possible in public but were mixing it with English.

First observations:
Going in circles saves gas, keeps traffic flowing and makes drivers less frustrated. I think there was one solid intersection we had to stop at the entire time. Every intersection was actually a circle, regardless of large highway or small town, and it worked!
Of course it helps that they all use their turn signals over there and know how circles are supposed to work. Unlike here, where drivers have no clue what they are supposed to be doing in a circle.

As long as it's registered, you can drive it.
Two wheelers were everywhere. We saw people driving dirt bikes and ATVs on the road the moment we drove into Bourgoin. As long as they were properly registered it was A OK, and I'm sure it saved money, since even the little Euro cars aren't cheap over there. Like the one we had: The Chevy Matis.

Unavailable in the U.S., maybe because it was only automated in the front and I was stuck in the back with manual windows and was lucky to have a seat belt. This thing is shorter than my Mini Cooper. Yes, and it's four doors.

Helmets are the rule: You can't ride a motorcycle, scooter, moped, ATV without one. They can get away with riding scooters and motorcycles in closed off pedestrian areas, but you've gotta have your helmet on.

France is litter free, well almost, and the graffiti's not bad either. For some reason you can't escape the graffiti in France. It's everywhere.
The litter, on the other hand, is not, even though secular thinking will claim the two go hand in hand.
But they don't seem to mind their graffiti. Then again it's not the typical "knave toof" tag I see every weekend driving home to Jersey on a Turnpike overpass.
No, their graffiti is art. Check out what we saw in Grenoble.

And my favorite ... Cheese Attack!

Ah, only the French would grace their graffiti with cheese.
And it's more like art, appearing everywhere, on overpasses, barns in the middle of nowhere.
But never on historic structures or monuments. Don't know if that's due to pride or just strict policing and cleaning. Hopefully the first.

When we first arrived in Lyon, I thought my boyfriend might have rented a scooter, as he started walking toward a giant touring model in the parking lot. But it wouldn't have held our luggage.
The Matis served us well in the cold Alps, our first stop on the tour of the Rhone.

And the pizza was thin and scrumptious, just don't ask for three cheese unless you like Roquefort.
Our drive took us through Grenoble, Chambery and into a small town that was famous for its hot springs, accessible in a public park, that was right next to the thing my boyfriend loves the most — gliders. As we drove into a town looking for a cup o' joe, there they were, spinning in slow circles above us at the height of the alpine cliffs.
So our next stop — the airport.

It was an old airfield that might have been used in World War I, but only was used for gliders.
Despite the language barrier, we found someone to ask about a ride, but were told unless my boyfriend had an international license he'd have to take an instruction ride only, and arrange that ahead of time.
If he wanted to do more on his own, "learn French," we were told, jokingly. Let's face it, in an emergency, you'd better know what they are saying to you.

After a petite cup of cafe au lait (No mega javas in Europe. They drink in moderation.) we headed to the hills. And saw sights I'd never could imagine.

The Alps are cold and the snow was high. The roads were steep and very few guard rails protect you. And believe me, with the switchbacks the likelihood of falling off the road is very high, since there's no shoulder.
We were turning so quickly in that tiny little car, and I was in the back feeling most of the turbulence and thought I was going to lose my pizza. I was so afraid to look out and see where we were on the road because it was like looking to my death.

We saw snow covered tunnels that we had to go around, towns shut down because nothing could get through and the steeple of a buried church.
To the French Alps, it was still winter.

After realizing we couldn't reach the top of the mountain as our host hoped, we headed back, hoping we didn't fall down into the river valley on our return.

Lyon is a city of wonders, hidden in little alleys and wondrous shops. House boats cruise its two rivers, and there are ancient treasures in places you wouldn't suspect. We were searching out the ancient Roman Theater, built in 15 B.C., but after wandering for almost an hour down cool alleys and past brasseries then down the alley Croix-Rousse, which Napolean scaled with his horse on his conquests, we realized were were on the wrong side of the river.

We made our way south and found it, tucked in behind a school and hotels near the mini eiffel tower known as the Tour Metallique, built in 1893, about four years after Gustav Eiffel's successful structure was erected. It was built by E. Colonge who was asked to build a replica of the Eiffel tower on Fourviere Hill. You can't visit it, but from what I've read, there used to be a restaurant in the bottom and you could take an elevator to the top at one time. It would have an excellent view of the valley below, despite being only 80 meters high.

The Theatres Roman is one of those places where you can ramble as you like amidst the ancient homes and no one yells at you. There were few foreigners there as an astronomy club had taken over the area and was offering views of the sun. We sat down and enjoyed a rest after our wandering, pondering the view from the ancient Roman seats.

Then we headed to the nearby underground museum dedicated to the amazing finds from Lyon that documented the city's use by the Romans. It is built in a circular style, and there you can see the remnants of Emporer Augustus' appeal to the Senate to allow the Gauls representation and, basically, citizenship in the empire.

Augustus was born in the ancient city that stood where Lyon sits now, called Ludugnum. You can also walk on an ancient mosaic floor.

We wondered if we were breaking some kind of rule by doing so, but it was quite an experience, and unavoidable.

The museum has large windows looking out upon the large amphitheater, and they offer quite a view, as seen below.

If you would like less of a crowd, as this will get busy on the weekends, I recommend the smaller Odeon theater right next door to the Grand Theater. I wished we'd thought to stop over since it has a tiled floor still intact despite the years.

The Grand Theater is still used for performances and if you are lucky and plan ahead, you could get tickets to a concert or play there. In fact the British band Blur will be playing there on May 7 of this year. You can buy tickets here.
(I cannot vouch for this site or their reliability/honesty.)

All the cities we ended visiting had long connections throughout the centuries because of one thing, they were on the road to Jerusalem.
We took a step back to the ancient days of pilgrimages when we visited a tiny town on the way to Avignon (a city worth visiting). I forget the name but hopefully will be able to add it to this some day soon.
We actually had to take a very roundabout route off the turnpike to find the place, though you could see it from the highway (I believe it was the D570), so I'm not sure how to get there. We had to take an exit farther south of the castle (which you could see from the highway on the left going south) and then go north again and look for it, finding our way by sight and chance.

It was above a beautiful, ancient town that was as old as the castle, but still inhabited. Old doorways and windows had been stoned over and replaced with new, but the houses were mostly still as they once were, and quite beautiful.

But we had one helluva long walk up a hill to get to the castle.
There were many French natives coming as tourists as well, since the castle had re-enactors. (Likely because it was a weekend.)

Built around the ninth century, it had a lord, and was also occupied by the Hospitalier, a group similar to the Knights Templar that helped those who were traveling on the road to Jerusalem. They would assist the injured or sick with herbal remedies but often had to sleep 30 to a room during the pilgrimage seasons.

They explained weaponry, torture and how people lived, but all in French, so my boyfriend and I had to wait until the end of the tour before our host, a native English speaker, could translate for us. In fact, we were the only English speaking people there, and were a bit confused when the re-enactors tried to engage with us. At one point we thought they were going to take off our host's head because they asked who hadn't "paid their taxes", ie. bought tickets, but had no idea what they were even saying. A bit frightening.
But we stayed to the back and let all the kids whose parents had dragged them their be the center of attention.

It was quite a wonderful demonstration, and the actors stayed in character and were never awkward.

I would've taken more photos, but I wasn't sure when it was allowed.

The last stop was the ramparts overlooking the town and the valley. We couldn't actually go in the towers on the outlying ridges, as they were falling apart and very dangerous. I also wanted to get down below the ancient chapel in the middle of the structure. It was one of the few intact buildings left and had two ancient ninth century icons of saints inside that had the faces marred. There were stairs down below the floor.

As my boyfriend put it, "That's where they must hide the treasure."

We did ramble around the place and found a doorway that wasn't blocked leading into one of the towers, but we could only go on the ground floor. The door to the stairway up was blocked.

So back down we went, and as we walked the steep hill, I noticed stone steps leading off over the hills, and wondered if it wasn't an ancient trail, or at least a current hiking one. Likely there was, at one time, houses all the way up to the castle, but weather and disrepair may have lead them to crumble. There were stones everywhere and it was hard to tell if they had just fallen off the cliffside (or castle), or were at once time used to build walls.

We rambled about the beautiful little streets of the sleepy town, marveling the beauty and noticing some of the houses backed up to the cliffside and the outlying ramparts of the castle, which makes me believe the houses must have caves as rooms.

We wondered just how do you get into those caves. There had to be ways. There were windows in the hillsides. We theorized about whether there really was treasure sill hidden away somewhere. Though the town itself was quite a treasure. With a sleepy little main street with its own unique, and rather modern boutiques, a great bar, and a barber.

It is the type of town I dream of retiring to. Being in the south of France proper, the weather was in the high 60s in the beginning of April, unlike Pa. which still is quite freezing until almost May.

We stopped for a couple of drinks and an Orangina (I became addicted over there since you could get them everywhere, though they are not cheap.) at the local bar, which was perfect for sitting for hours, with the bartender lounging with friends at an outside table.

We decided if we wanted to get to Avignon, we couldn't go exploring. Though it's a town worth getting back to.

Avignon was definitely a highlight of the trip and this video will give you some idea of why.
The heart of the city is taken up by the Pope's Palaces. Originally on the site was a bishop's palace that was torn down in the 1300s. Apparently the whole city was inhabited since neolithic times. Along the Rhone river, which you can see in the video, there are fortifications built out of the rock, which is also where the Pont d'Avignon (made famous in a song) begins. The rock was dug out and used as a Roman fortification, and when the Barbarians began attacking in the 700s, the people in the area lived in the confines of its walls. The fortification later housed a abbey. In 1309, Pope Clement V fled to the city because a group that supported the pope was fighting a group that supported the Holy Roman Emporer (who was NOT the pope). The emporers had trouble keeping power over their lords who would more often listen to and respect the pope.

The papacy was overseen from Avignon for about 100 years. In that time a Bishop's Palace was torn down where the Pope's Palace now stands. There are two palaces, an old and a new, built into each other over the years.

The palace itself is an amazing feat of architecture, tho rather bare inside. But you can take a tour in English using an automated tour guide and it will take you into many rooms going through severe reconstruction. You see, the palace was ransacked over the years by Revolutionaries and then other uses destroyed many of the beautiful paintings that graced its walls. There was also a great fire in the main dining hall that destroyed the roof (though that is now repaired). Most impressive was the treasure chamber where the pope's hid their treasure.
There are also two chapels with paintings on the walls, some by Giovannetti.

In the pope's room you can also still see the original paintings on the walls that look like birds in cages and wainscotting.

It is well worth a visit, and a proper tour. You can also get great souvenirs in the gift shops, such as a necklace made to look like the ancient painted tiles that graced the floor of the pope's bedroom.

Because it was the center of the papacy for so long, there is much Italian influence in Avignon, brought in along with all the artisans commissioned to build the palace. There are stunning little boutiques and gift shops everywhere. And one thing you will definitely see everywhere are locusts: Locust magnets, locust garden sculpture, locust necklaces. Apparently the locust is a symbol of good luck and a symbol of Avignon.

I highly recommend a great little shop down an alley directly across from the front gate of the palace. Here's the picture of tourists looking in the window, though I don't remember its name.
I also recommend you buy material in Avignon, as in Lyon. Both cities were considered part of the heart of textile manufacturing in France and they still may be as there are a great many independent clothiers in both cities with unique fashions. (Wish I'd had the money, I'd have bought myself some. But the American dollar is weak these days in relation to the Euro).

There are many more English speakers in Avignon than elsewhere we'd been, but to be polite try and use French as much as possible. You'll get a much better reception.

And in Avignon we did the one thing I always wanted to do: eat in an outdoor cafe. Most of our meals had been on the fly, but here we took it easy and sat for hours under the sycamore trees that lined the street, across from a park where it seemed a church had been burned out, leaving only it's window arches behind.

It was wonderful, but since the drive took so long we had to make a night of it and stayed at a cheap hotel.

The bar scene in Avignon appears to be hopping, even on a Sunday night. But it might get kind of rough if you don't know enough French to apologize and keep out of trouble.

We opted for an early night and headed out the next day for a traditional breakfast and to see the Palais. A traditional breakfast of course being croissant and really strong coffee.

Staying for the Pope's Palace was well worth it. A temporary home for the pope during the troubles between the small principalities and Roman Emporer, it was added on to for almost a hundred years. There are still two chapels with walls painted by Italian masters, though one was closed off due to restoration.

The most amazing moment, though, was when we entered the great chapel. It's a vaulted room where Mass was held by the Pope. It's bare, except for a stone alter and some benches for sitting along the walls. As we sat there a group of older women came through and decided to test the acoustics by singing a hymn, and it was the most beautiful thing in the world. They were barely whispering it yet it echoed around the room and crescendoed as it bounced off the arches above, and made everyone stop in their tracks in awe.

Then on to the Saint Benezet bridge over the Rhone.

A sheep herder from the Ardeche valley (a beautiful valley that winds along the Ardeche river and is a popular vacation spot for the French) showed up in town a couple of hundred years before the pope and told everyone God told him to build a bridge across the Rhone. The river had to be crossed by anyone wishing to go south and it was often treacherous and took many lives. He apparently convinced everyone this had to be done at God's will by moving a colossal stone that no man at the peak of strength could even move. So they built the bridge, and it successively got knocked down by flood after flood until they abandoned it and built a higher bridge upstream in the 1600s.

The shepherd was never canonized but the locals called him a saint and buried his body in a chapel in the bridge.

When the bridge was abandoned in the 1600s his body was supposedly exhumed and moved, and it was said it was in perfect condition. Odd considering the bridge was renovated several times over the years, including raising its height and adding a chapel to Saint Nicholas on top of the mausoleum in the 1300s.

According to a visitor's guidebook available at the Pope's Palace, there is a belief that a Roman bridge once stood at the site of the Saint Benezet bridge and perhaps Benezet really just raised money and support to have it rebuilt, but it is still speculation as there is no proof of an earlier bridge.

The most famous thing about the Saint Benezet bridge, though, is not its origins but a song, that probably isn't quite right. At some point in the bridge's history there used to be a cafe of sorts underneath one of the arches and there would be bands playing. From this came the song, 'L'pont d'Avignon'. But the words to the song say on top of the bridge when it should be underneath it.

It goes like this ...

Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, L'on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond

Les beaux messieurs font comm 'ca
Et puis encore comm 'ca

Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse, L'on y danse
Sur le pont d'Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond

Les Belle dames font comm 'ca
Et puis encore comm 'ca

We left Avignon and decided to stop in a little country town for lunch. It was a beautiful area and the lunch was huge.

They have set lunches in most small restaurants in France, which means they have one main course with the option of having a starter and a dessert, one or the other of those, or just the main course.

You also get two carafes, one of wine and one of water. You're supposed to mix the water and wine to make it less strong (it is lunch after all), but my fellow travelers drank it straight. I think the bartender was a little surprised he had to refill it.

My fellow travelers had charcuterie, which is a plate of different kinds of meat, either pate, or sohsees (sausage) and some cheese.

The lunch was immense! A huge plate of pasta and a giant pork chop that was melt in your mouth delicious. I couldn't finish it all, especially after the salad. I wanted desert anyway. But the waitress thought I didn't like it. I would've taken it back to the apt., but our host had no fridge.

The dessert was amazing. It's called fromage blanche (I incorrectly identified it earlier as creme fraiche, which is is not), and it is a type of cheese that has the texture of yogurt but is whipped and creamy. They serve it with either fruit on top or sugar on the side.

We drove through the Ardeche region, which is dry and sunny and in the midst of mountains there is a canyon that carries the Ardeche river, which was very dry for springtime.

I'd heard there were caves, but we had no luck in finding any. Though the scenery was as beautiful as the Alps with towering mountains, their gold, red and brown sides covered in scrub and small vineyards everywhere.

There are some lovely little city-towns along the road we took and one was set out on an island, the only access a one-lane bridge that looked like it was from the middle ages. We couldn't even figure out how to get to the top where a small church was. It was amazing that people were even living there. I'm sure in the U.S. they would have evicted them for some code violations, but they seemed to managing fine .. and I envied them.

Our final day was a toss up: What do we see? For staying so close to Lyon we certainly had plenty of options. We could have seen Vienne, gone back to Lyon, or even just traveled to wineries in the immediate countryside. We decided to try and find a castle my host had trouble getting to. It was visible from the highway but there was no exit there. We ended up wandering instead into the most amazing of cities: Cremieu.

You get to Cremieu off the D24. We were on the A432, a toll road, and you take exit 3 toward Charvieu-Chavagneux. Then the D302 at the circle to the D517, and from there follow the signs.

It is an amazingly large town that formed around an abbey on the hillside, which has fallen over the years. Many tourists come to the town, as attested by the tourist's office in the old Augustinian monastery that is now the town hall.

There are public bathrooms, but I warn you, they are the ones where you stand over a hole in the floor ... basically pit toilets.

The tourism office is open most days and offers maps of the area. And there is a lot to see, but since it was such a rainy day we opted for a couple of drinks and then a hike up to the ancient abbey along the old streets, which have grafitti and signs from WWII.

If you are lucky enough to go on a Saturday, all the small farmers and artisan food makers sell their wares in the medieval market that sprung up in the middle of the city.

Across from this, if you are desperate and failed to get to town in time for the short lunch hour, is a Casino, a type of mini market that offers sandwhiches, drinks, snacks and household goods. We had to opt for that after our hike.

And a good hike it was. It was no easy hill to climb, and a hard entrance to find since the road leading up to it is hidden between two buildings, and houses still back up to the crumbling walls that once housed a nonexistent village around the base of the abbey.

Like many fortified structures in France, it was carved into the rock. Someone at some point keeps goats up there as we stumbled onto a small stable constructed into one of the old towers. The grass is green and lush, and you could probably camp out up there, though someone lives in the remaining stable tower. We tried to find a doorway we could knock on but every time we tried to walk up to it we ended up at a cliff face. The only thing we could determine is that one of the house down below in the valley backed up to it and had an inner doorway to go in.
Literally right in front of me, where those trees are growing, is a sheer cliff that runs several hundred feet down.

At the very top, a conservation group is trying to reconstruct the medicinal herb garden that once would have been planted on the crown of the hill inside the abbey walls. It was ripped up and a cement slab for a gun was put in likely around World War II. The clock tower for the abbey still stands and is still working as well.

Down the other side of the hill there are roads leading to private residences and another way out of town.
I wished we'd stayed for dinner, or at least visited the chocolatier, my one regret on this trip. I didn't go into any of them, despite the amazing displays of crafted chocolate items. One shop had a chicken sitting atop a nest, and all these eggs and little chicks around it, all designed exclusively out of chocolate.

True food artistry. I wanted to snap a photo but was afraid I might cause it to collapse.

I'd have to say, each town there is worth a full day's exploration and I'm not sure how it is you can ever see all of France. The amount of history readily available at each step is stunning.

I guess there's only one thing to do: go back.

Traveler's Tips:

Know your French. Unless you are going to Paris it is unlikely anyone will understand what you are saying in English. Think about what you will be doing and what questions or needs you are likely to have and make sure you know those phrases. Let's face it, knowing how to ask where the telephone is isn't really helpful in the age of cell phones. Know how to ask what is in your food, how much something costs, how to say "Just looking", and how to introduce yourself and those in your party. Our biggest faux pas was not speaking enough to get a better deal at the car rental agency or asking where the check-in counter for our airline was at the airport. Much more complex than you'd think since they do not understand our terms for things.

Dress appropriately. They don't wear sweats in France, so unless you want to stick out like a tourist, don't wear them. Jeans are fine, everyone wears them, old and young. But they are never sloppy. Even at the Carre Four, their version of Wal-Mart, all the women looked like they were ready for a dinner out.

Don't drink to excess. The French don't and you'll be considered an idiot.

Changing money. We considered travelers checks and special check cards, but the easiest thing turned out to be just using our ATM cards for our banks. Be sure to ask what the charge is and take out a lot of money at once. If you are worried about having your wallet stolen, then take some back up cash. Also be sure to have the phone numbers to report your lost or stolen cards written down somewhere else than in your wallet. There are pick pockets in France!

Rental cars: You get the best rate if you reserve one ahead of time. You should also check to see if your auto insurance in America will apply overseas. Many times it doesn't and you should buy a temporary insurance policy on the car just in case. You don't need an EU or international license. Your U.S. driver's license is fine. They also drive on the same side of the road as in the U.S., but know how to use a circle and USE YOUR TURN SIGNALS. This is very important over there since drivers depend on them. And the French actually do use theirs.

Bringing wine home. I learned after the fact that if you take a U.S. airline to and from, or have transfers, you will have trouble getting your wine through security. You could hide it in your bag or ship it back, but unless you know enough French at the post office, you'll have trouble.
The best thing to do is to take a European carrier. They don't have the same security protocal as the American airlines and do allow you to take wine on board in your carry on or duty free bag. You also won't go through the third degree like you do with U.S. carriers when you get on your return flight. The best airlines are Lufthansa and Air France for this.

A problem we all have

2009-04-14T21:33:00.002-04:00

Scooter and motor cycle riders alike might be interested in this article from the Columbus Dispatch. Everyone who rides on two wheels will find themselves stuck at a light because the sensor doesn't recognize them. They're vehicle just isn't big enough, or so I thought. Turns out there's just not enough metal in their vehicle to set of the metal sensor in the roadway that affects the traffic light.
A traffic engineer interviewed about magnets that were being sold as a solution for scooter drivers said they didn't work, but he did indicate a way to avoid the light-not-changing problem.
According to Eagan Foster, if you come to a stop closer to the curb or the side of a road, the sensor is more likely to detect you.
I'm not advocating this as a cure-all. I've been there a lot, sitting at a light with my boyfriend, wondering if waving our arms or moving around would do any good. Maybe next time we'll try this and see if it works.
Only problem, you've got to have enough metal on your scooter/motorcycle. And a lot of them have plastic body parts.

Memories in stone

2009-04-14T21:20:00.003-04:00

I'm listening to a broadcast on NPR about memories, and how every time we remember something, it changes from what actually occurred, so that what we remember, years later, is likely far removed from what happened. And they said there was no way to set a memory in stone because it is so colored by the present and what has come after. But I thought, haven't they forgot about the safest way to keep a memory pure? Right it down!
I'm hoping that the memories that I keep here, in a public domain, have some value for someone farther down the road, the way that journals of past cultures and eras do.
I want it to give people the most accurate understanding that I could get of a moment or situation.
Hopefully I do that hope justice.
So I'd better get cracking on that blog about my travels in France.

Je voudrais louer une Moto

2009-03-29T11:33:00.002-04:00

Three days till I step aboard a plane, then another plane, then another plane, and find myself in Lyon, France.
My boyfriend and I have been cramming useful French phrases into our tired brains, and hopefully that will be enough. I have been trying to be as prepared as possible, getting a pet sitter (Thanks Michelle!), getting my passport renewed, arranging things at work to be covered, but I have a new worry, and it's the classic ... money.
I could use my check card from my bank. They only charge 1% interest per withdrawal. But then there is the other bank's fee and a possible fee for exchanging.
I could get a traveler's check card from AAA, which I so judiciously joined just last week, but they charge $3 per transaction, plus the exchange fee and an overall fee of $3, which would add up, especially if you add in the foreign bank's fees.
Or I could go with American Express Traveler's Cheques, which are free to exchange, if you have an AmEx office nearby, otherwise I'm sure you must pay a fee to cash them. I can't tell because AmEx has nothing on their Web site about their fees and when I tried calling their customer service number, no one picked up.
Doesn't exactly build confidence that they'll be there when I need them.
So what should I do? I guess the wisest thing would be to bring some extra cash in Traveler's Cheques and just use my bank card.
Hopefully nobody will steal my bank card. When I called TD Bank up to ask what I should do if that happens, they said just call and cancel it. But they couldn't give me an answer to how I could access my account if I was stuck over there without one.
Not very helpful.
My second concern going overseas is that something will happen at my apartment while I'm away. There has been an increase in drug sales in the area, most in broad daylight and some right outside my apartment. I attribute the increase to the chronic store on the corner fronting as a grocery store.
I've been in there and the selection of goods is paltry and overpriced, and they are always mysteriously shoving things behind the checkout counter when I walk in.
It disgusts me that people who have no residence here and aren't interested in the quality of life think they can just muscle their way in and do whatever they like.
Yesterday I wanted to open the window and tell some of those fuckers to get lost, but my boyfriend was afraid they'd retaliate.
Maybe I'll just wait to deal with them when I get back.

How to change a 599's spark plugs

2009-03-22T01:07:00.004-04:00

My Journey Begins ...

2009-03-21T14:10:00.004-04:00

I had to show off this awesome mug my sister sent me for Christmas. She got it from Starbucks.

Preaching to the streets

2009-03-21T14:06:00.000-04:00

I made my traditional weekly trip to the farmer's market, but instead of ZZ Top guy, standing outside was a group of well-dressed men. Interesting in this crummy, rundown town. But then I noticed one was standing by the street and talking. I thought maybe he was talking to someone in a car up ahead of me, but no. When I drove by I realized he was preaching ... to the street!
He was wearing a gray Members Only jacket and holding a small, black book, which I assume was the Bible but it could've been the Book of Mormon or something, and he was reading from it at the top of the lungs as cars passed by.
The gentlemen behind him were just standing around talking, but were all wearing suits, and at their feet were a couple of suitcases.
Maybe they were traveling preachers, don't know. Wasn't really interested in finding out.
Apparently they disrupted ZZ Top guy's day, but they also were scaring all the old people. I saw a white-haired couple walking from the parking lot suddenly doubletime it when they caught sight of the preachers. Didn't think folks that age could move that fast.

Attack of the Snuggie

2009-03-15T22:36:00.000-04:00

Who knew that an ubiquitous backwards bathrobe would become a cultural icon for the routinely drunk.

The Snuggie, that denizen of late night infomercials that seems to have taken off and shown up, sometimes uninvited, into American living rooms has been embraced in ways that grandma couldn’t have imagined when she first made that purchase call.

Whoever came up with this ridiculous, yet useful, garment is probably cheering in their basement workshop after they saw last week’s sudden onslaught of articles about events across the nation encouraging bar patrons to sign up and wear the monk style robe to a weekend tour of local bars.

Certainly one never to turn down a chance at harmless fun, for some reason I draw the line at the Snuggie. Something about it smacks of an attempt to pretend you’re not too lazy to put on another sweater or wear the right clothes. While useful when you can’t afford to turn your heat up, as my boyfriend says something about it smacks of an attempt to pretend you haven’t just escaped from a mental hospital by turning your robe backwards.

Oddly, before I found out about this snuggled up booze fest, I had turned down, for the second time, an attempt by my boyfriend’s mom to offload her Snuggie on me. She keeps her heat very low and I sometimes wonder if this is not an effort to get us to don the ridiculous robe.

Then today I saw in AgencySpy the announcement of the Snuggie Pub Crawl. The supposedly unofficial event already has 4,361 signed up and claims to be giving money from the event to an orphanage in Tanzania. More than 4,000 crawling from pub to pub in New York? Sounds like a possible riot to me.

But the pub crawl apparently isn’t confined to greater Manhattan. Chicago will also hold one, and unlike the NYC version gives details before it demands you sign up. There are also in D.C., Seattle, San Fransico, Detroit, Denver, all but Philadelphia, though I’m sure the coverage this is likely to receive from a press desperate for young readers may change that.

Question is, is this truly and independent thing? AgencySpy claims it is. But I could think of nothing better for sales than a gimmick such as this.

But honestly, who wants to be drunkenly traipsing around in a Snuggie through the gross streets of gritty cities. I can’t imagine what the hem of these long blanket robes will pick up. Though I doubt the crowds of frat minded men wearing them really plan to keep them for those cold nights on the couch.

Whether the NYC event manages to keep its pub crawl date quiet or not, I guarantee not so great videos will show up on YouTube, but I very much doubt this will hurt the Snuggie’s reputation. It might actually make it the most popular garment to bring to college in the fall, creating at least one money maker in this dire economy.

I’m just wondering how it’s going to look as police beat back blue and red Snuggie wearing, drunken patrons of packed bars. And will it still be cold in April?

And what will happen if you show up for the crawl without a Snuggie? Already, the Chicago event was pushed back "to allow for additional
time for our guests to acquire their Snuggies™ and for the bars to
prepare for our volume."

A hot little town

2009-03-15T22:35:00.000-04:00

Bustling with green-clad students, the main street in Newark was alive Friday night as my boyfriend, his parents and I traveled to a hip restaurant named Homegrown. It was actually more hip than I thought his parents would like, with vibrantly colored walls and local artwork hanging for sale. Space-age style lighting hung down like fruit from the ceiling, small, globular and colorful.
I was prepared for eccentric, experimental cuisine that only certain palates might like, but was surprised by the seemingly main stream tastes that were accommodated. There on the drinks menu at the half-pear shaped bar surrounded by circular wood tables and chairs with X-shaped backs were the trendy pomegranate martini and Godiva chocolate shots.
I settled for a somewhat expensive Grasshopper martini, which was perfectly made to resemble the cookie, or for those of us with the memory Grasshopper pie. Though at $7 a glass (which had enough liqueur for two drinks), it was still cheaper than the coke and Jameson’s my boyfriend had been drinking the night before at a local St. Paddy’s day party in Bally, Pa.
After a few minutes we were led to our booth, which line the walls of this nicely sized establishment and were handed our menus on steel clipboards. Printed on antiqued paper, the offerings covered all price ranges and included the traditional salads and wraps, but with their own twists. A Green Apple wrap, for about $6.50, included chicken, green apples, cherries, walnuts, lettuce and tomato, and made note that all apples were organic and came from Lancaster County in Pa. Hmm, a taste of home in Maryland, or Delaware rather. Though tempted, I settled for the chicken bacon wrap, which had honey mustard dressing. My boyfriend ordered the lamb gyro, his father got the hanger steak and his mom the chicken mozzarella sandwhich.
We started off with some crap dip that was served with slices of French bread and green apple. I thought the apple might be an odd combination, but when I bit down on the tart slivers with a big swab of crap dip on them, the taste was fantastic. The tartness was enough to eliminate any fishiness the crap might have and accented the musky flavor of the meat. The sweet actually worked.
The wraps were fresh, fresher than I’d ever expect, which goes to show that quality ingredients can make something ordinary divine. The tomatoes were at the peak of freshness and the ingredients had been tossed in the dressing, versus the traditional deli style of glopping it on top like a glue.
My boyfriend said his gyro was great, though a bit garlicky, and his parents said they’d never been disappointed in their choices. The hanger steak came laid out in dial style on top of garlic potatoes. The mozzarella was piled thick on the chicken sandwhich.
Trendy this eatery certainly was with its mozzarella, which has become a craze in the U.S. after its explosion on the Italian scene with newly opened mozzarella bars, which only serve homemade versions of the cheese all on their own. For an appetizer we could have had a plate full of the homemade cheese balls. But eating it pure is definitely an acquired delight.
For desert we opted for the crème brule which was perfectly heated on top. (I’ve had it burnt before) and an apple flavored cheesecake, which my boyfriend’s parents sparred over. For those who didn’t like the options presented, there was a cupcake bar down the street. Though I don’t know how that craze will take off.
I’d heard about the rise of cupcake bars, which apparently offer gourmet versions of the grade school birthday treat, last year. This one, called Sas, announced its “spring collections” with what one of my colleagues described as “food porn” pictures in its windows. Apparently it caught on to eat cupcakes at a special café just like people choose to have their coffee, elevating something simple and cheap to a status object. This particular cupcake bar, which we did not frequent, had a plate glass window with a bar behind it that numerous female students had sidled up to. But inside there were not cases of cupcakes as I had expected. Instead it seemed to be making money of handmade purses, cupcake logo T-shirts and jewelry.
In the far corner was the small offering of cupcakes, which though pricey apparently don’t pay the rent.
It seemed a fixture in this college town that jewelry and other handmade goods were up for sale, despite the real purpose of the store or even restaurant. In the foyer of Homegrown there was a selection of unique, obviously locally made glittery things to wear, which struck me as odd to be the first thing that greeted us. Not a menu or pictures of food, but something you could buy real quick in case you didn’t feel made up enough. I wonder how they do with this.
But Newark is definitely a city worth visiting. Though if you don’t like the young crowd, it might make you a little uncomfortable. Luckily there weren’t drunken gangs carousing in the streets and puking everywhere. Though the night was still young when we headed out of town.
I would recommend knowing how to parallel park, though, if you drive in. Bring quarters for the meters, which are digital and can be paid for up to 3 hours. We managed to be seated and eat everything, including desert, before our two hours were up, and I credit the efficient wait staff for that.
For those who can’t afford to drop $30 or more a person, there are plenty of pizza shops, including a branch of Peace a Pizza and a Subway. There is a traditional steel train car style diner in town, but it was undergoing renovations when we were there.

Changing perspectives

2009-02-16T21:55:00.002-05:00

It's a rough thing to be writing about scooters all the time, especially when mine doesn't work (yet, hopefully) and it's too cold out to ride it.
I'm also still waiting to take the learner's course so I can actually use the scooter on the roads around here.
So I've decided to make this blogspot more. I travel a great deal, and do a great many quirky things, so why not write about those? The adventure and unique perspective from the seat of a scooter was what inspired me to start this blog, and I'll bring that sense of adventure and viewpoint to everything else I do.
Hopefully it will be just as interesting to those who've stumbled upon this little spot.

Are electric scooters safe?

2008-11-09T13:18:00.004-05:00

So I was reading about an electric scooter company called Vectrix based out of Rhode Island. They produce an electric scooter that's comparable to a gasoline-powered one. It can reach up to 62 mph and can travel 65 miles between charges. The company only has one model out, the V1, and it's a bit pricy, over $5,000, but still cheaper than a car, both to buy and operate. It's also larger than most scooters and highway legal.But no one is buying them because they aren't available in many places. Apparently they were hoping Piaggio or another scooter company would buy the design from them, but it didn't flesh out. They are finally opening sales centers throughout the U.S.If I get a bigger scooter, I'd definitely prefer electric, but my boyfriend brought up some good issues. I've heard of people with electric vehicles just plugging in to the first electric socket they could find, but don't people mind? Eventually as, or if, electric vehicles become more popular and prolific, those who have electric sockets out in the open and easily accessible might start getting big bills from their electric companies, unless the infrastructure is put in place at gas stations. I'd get a little annoyed as a home or business owner if someone just walked up to my house or business and plugged in their car or scooter.The other question my boyfriend raised is the safety of the vehicle in an accident.I looked it up and MSN autos had a good article talking about this subject. According to the editorial, it said emergency workers are currently taught to make sure the key is out of the ignition and the battery cables are cut on a gasoline powered vehicle before a rescue to make sure airbags don't suddenly deploy during a rescue, which could cause serious injury to EMTs and the injured. According to the editorial, hybrid cars and electric vehicles are designed so once there is no charge from the ignition, there is no charge running through the car. As for scooters, most of the time the injured party is far from the wreckage, so I don't see it as being a hazard to EMTs. Tow truck drivers and mechanics, on the other hand, would have to worry since they'd be dealing with the damaged system.But isn't there always a danger to them from a damaged vehicle? You might as well say gasoline powered cars are too dangerous because they can catch fire and they have toxic liquids leaking everywhere after a crash. So mechanics have a choice: get blown up or electrocuted. As mechanics, they should be well-versed on how all vehicles they might come in contact with should be handled and fixed, shouldn't they? A doctor wouldn't have any excuse for not knowing about a disease or how to treat it, aren't they supposed to keep up on the latest news and information to be an effective doctor?Personally, I think safety is a really weak argument against electric cars or scooters. No vehicle is going to be absolutely and undeniable safe. Even horses and carriages are full of danger, you can get run over by the horse or the carriage could go out of control and crash into a tree or over a cliff.I also found a blog post recently on "V is for Voltage Forums" about whether or not loud pipes save lives and if electric scooters and motorcycles had that against them in the safety arena. The poster, reikiman, made a good point, loud pipes don't always factor into whether a driver is paying attention before they slam into a motorcyclist. Regardless of whether your scooter or motorcycle is quiet or loud, safety really is depenedent on the cyclist because drivers just don't pay attention.

Scooters, scooters everywhere

2008-10-01T10:12:00.005-04:00

My boyfriend and I once discussed scootering in Key West and we both thought it would be nice if the world was more like it, with scooter shops everywhere and everyone able to rent one for cheap to get around.

That hasn't exactly occurred anyplace else that I've been too, but I thought it notable that Greensboro, NC, which we are currently visiting has its own little slice of Key West cool - Scooter Nerds. It's a shop on one of the Main Streets in the city and offers an array of scooters of all engine capabilities, including what looked like an off road scooter to me called The Rattler withh some high front forks offering some major clearance.

They don't rent, unfortunately, so I was stuck riding around town on a bicycle that was much too big for me and feeling way to intimate with it.

We also didn't luck out on new carboratuer jets, which we seem to have trouble finding.

The guy in charge of the shop said they didn't make anything for Geely anymore, but then my boyfriend spotted a scooter that was EXACTLY like our Geely, the same seat and fender style, even the exact same speedometer. The brand was Keeway.

So I guess that's what we should be looking for. Funny enough, when I looked up the Keeway brand I found a Web site saying it was owned by Quangjing in China, (looks like still made with the same Geely parts). The model that's like our Geely is the Venus.

As you can see from this "borrowed" photo, the Keeway Venus has the exact same seat as our Geely, the same headlight, well, the same everything.

Here is our Geely.

On the road again

2008-09-14T12:02:00.002-04:00

Well, I don't know if it was a break-in now. My boyfriend finally got around to looking at the ignition switch and he think he might've broken it moving the scooter around after he locked it. Apparently the switch covering is really cheap aluminum, easily bendable and breakable.

So he took it apart and we can start it now with a screwdriver. Not really road worthy since I can't turn it off without a screwdriver, but I did take it around for another spin. I went up and down the alley. The first run I was really nervous, mostly because it was about 6 p.m. and everyone was coming home from work. A lot of people park their cars behind their garages rather than in them and I was afraid I might run right into one.

But nothing bad happened, though I went so excruciatingly slow I was dragging my feet at one point, afraid I'd tip over.

My boyfriend said that was a bad move cause I could break an ankle or foot. I was also starring way too much at the giant potholes and patchwork in the alley that I wasn't sure I'd get over easily.

The next run I did what he said and went faster and focused on where I was going rather than on the ground, and it worked out much better.

The next step, outside of getting the ignition fixed, is taking the basic motorcycle course. I'm a little nervous. I'll have to learn how to use a clutch on the handlebars, which the scooter I have doesn't have. I'm afraid I might grab the clutch thinking it's a brake.

The Gang in Blue Mob

2008-08-28T20:37:00.004-04:00

Someone left a comment calling the cops that on the story about the ABC producer who was bullied then arrested by the cops in Denver.
It's sad but true that police don't look out for the rights of the people. I've probably only heard one good cop story in my lifetime and it was about them helping their own. How about they do their job properly and help the people for once?
To watch the video of the harassment, click here.

Hilarious, but real?

2008-08-28T20:14:00.002-04:00

I saw this on the Scooter Scoop and had to pass it along. Why is it the Japanese and Chinese make up the worst movies in all seriousness and they somehow are so funny?
Watch this trailer to see what I'm talking about. (And be sure to read the subtitles. There's one in there about noodles that I was snorting over so bad.)

A scary series of warnings

2008-08-17T16:25:00.002-04:00

This week in my town three people have suffered serious injuries, all of which could have been lessened by the use of a helmet. A man crashed after trying to pass someone on the highway and he is still in the hospital with serious injuries. No helmet.
A little girl rode right through a stop sign without looking and ran into a car. She's also still in the hospital. Again, no helmet. And an ATV passenger was seriously injured when the vehicle she was on the back of had a serious accident. The driver, who turned out to be drunk, had a helmet on, but the girl didn't. She's also in the hospital looking forward to surgeries and a long stay.
It's one of those things so often overlooked. The uncomfortable, dorky looking helmet. But when you are flying at an object, out of control, you're really going to be wishing you had one.
I've heard many people argue that if you drive safely you don't have to wear a helmet. But what about the millions of other motorists on the road? Do you think they are driving safely. It's such a roullette game to think that way. There's only one guarantee, if you get into an accident without a helmet, you could be a vegetable.
The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration recently released a report on motorcycles and crashes. Out of more than 4,000 accidents it found the following to be true:

* The majority of motorcycle crashes involved another vehicle, usually an automobile.

* A motorcyclist is 37 percent more likely to die in a crash, per mile traveled. Mostly because there is no roll cage protecting their body.

* In those fatal crashes, head injury was the leading cause of death.

* Helmets reduce the liklihood of fatality by 37 percent. So if you're 37 percent more likely to get into a crash wouldn't you like that same percentage to favor your chance of living, and not like a vegetable?

* In its evaluation of crashe, the NHTSA found that helmets are 67 percent effective in preventing brain injuries. While I would love it to be 100 percent, it's still way better than the 0 percent effectiveness of not wearing a helmet.

* From 1984 to 2006, helmets saved the lives of more than 19,000 motorcyclists. The NHTSA says if all the people involved in fatal crashes in that time period had worn helmets, more than 12,000 people would have been saved.

* The NHTSA also found that in states where only minors were required to wear helmets when riding on two wheels, only 40 percent of children wore them. So leading by example does happen. Betcha if mom and dad wore helmets the kids wouldn't be so hesitant to put them on.

Now, I'm not sure if I like the idea of people being forced to do something. I've always been of the philosophy if someone does something dumb and gets hurt, why should the rest of us be legislated to death because of it? However, when it costs me money because someone is doing something dumb, I've got an issue with it.

According to the NHTSA report, costs to cover medical bills for motorcyclists in Florida who didn't wear a helmet and crashed were $10.5 million for "charitable and public sources." That is 21 percent of the motorcycling population involved in an accident in Florida .. just Florida. The report said one of those public sources was Medicaid.

Last time I checked my pay stub, I had an awful lot going to that program. While I don't mind helping someone out who is in need, I do mind that money being used to help someone who made a stupid decision when they should have known better. I'd rather see it go to help someone who's suffering isn't their own fault.

Now, before anyone starts lambasting me for being "anti-motorcyle," I'm not. I love motorcycles. I think motorcyclists too often get a bad rap. I'm just concerned that with the increase in popularity of motorcycles (and scooters which are often grouped in that "class" of vehicle) stupidity will take over and smart riders will suffer because of it, if not all ready. There's enough of a stigmatism attached to riding on two wheels, shouldn't the motorcycling and scootering communities be pushing for responsibility before we start getting legislated to death? It hasn't happened yet, but it certainly could.

Another obstacle

2008-08-17T14:30:00.002-04:00

Sometime in the last month someone got into our garage and tried to steal the scooter. My boyfriend just noticed last week that the ignition had been messed with. We knew the battery was dead from someone trying to turn it on, but the ignition had been fine then.
Now we'll have to pull the whole front off the scooter to get at the wiring. When my boyfriend stuck the key in, nothing happened. That's when he noticed the ignition was loose, like someone had been jiggling it.
It's really unnerving to realize someone got into the garage somehow. I feel like we should put this place on lock down with cameras everywhere, but the one I have was pretty expensive.
By the time we get everything fixed, it will probably be winter.

Hitting pedestrians

2008-08-10T15:21:00.002-04:00

I was always taught from Kindergarten on up to stop before crossing the street and look both ways to make sure no cars were coming. Apparently no one in the town I live in ever was taught that, cause they don't stop or look, let alone give any clear indication that they are going to suddenly start walking in the street.
Where I live there are a lot of pedestrians. And the biggest complaint in town is how annoying it is that they walk into the road while you're driving past.
Some say that drivers should stop and let pedestrians meander in no direct line across the main street, that that's the law. But I don't think the problem is drivers not wanting to stop, I think it's the fact that pedestrians don't stop and look first.
I have seen it a million times and have almost had a heartattack as someone, who seems very focused on hustling down the sidewalk suddenly, without warning, veers into the road, not even stopping, looking or slowly their pace. I had it happen to me just yesterday. The person was not even five feet in front of me when suddenly they were in front of my car. I'm sorry, but I don't think it should be my fault if someone walks in front of a moving vehicle and gets hurt.
If they were a driver, it would be considered reckless driving to suddenly pull out into traffic without looking to see who was coming.
What's worse, they don't even seem to realize that there is a car or bike right there. And then they look at the driver with this shock and anger on their face. It's not like people are driving their vehicles on the sidewalk!
Rather than drivers getting the rap for not stopping for pedestrians, maybe it's about time pedestrians get ticketed for not following the rules of crossing the road.
And now that I'm about to be a scooter driver I worry, will I be able to move around them quickly enough without crashing? Hopefully I will notice them more since you naturally do when you are on a motorcycle or scooter, but will they notice me? And since they don't have the foresight to stop and look before crossing in front of a car will they have the intelligence and understanding to recognize that I can't stop as quickly as a car because I don't have the braking power.
I don't want to wipeout because some idiot didn't stop and look before stepping into traffic.

The monkey bars

2008-08-09T12:24:00.003-04:00

Last year, as my boyfriend and I were driving someplace I spotted someone with extreme ape-hanger handlebars on their motorcycle.
For those of you who don't know what an ape-hanger is, it looks like this:

Though that's a pretty extreme ride, what with the tailpipes sticking up in the back like that.
But when I saw a similar bike, instead of saying, "Whoah, look at those ape-hangers" my mind did a Freudian slip and what came out was "Whoa, look at those monkey bars."
My boyfriend started laughing hysterically. "Don't you mean ape hangers?" he said.
I felt like such a fool. But he won't let me live it down, and just last week, as we were driving back to the airport from Lake Placid, N.Y., we saw some bikers heading the opposite direction with one rider who had ape-hangers on his bike.
My boyfriend decides to stick his head out the window and yell, "Yay, monkey bars!" at the guy as he drove past.
I bet he'll still be doing that when we're 80. Though, will they have ape hangers and motorcycles still?

Check out this ape hanger stroller:

Unique scooter paint job

2008-08-04T00:00:00.003-04:00

Was looking through old photos of my Key West trip when I came across this awesome shot of a custom painted scooter.

A town in need of a scooter shop

2008-08-03T22:22:00.004-04:00

I had the luck to take a spur of the moment trip to the town of Lake Placid in the Adirondacks, N.Y.
It's a former frontier town with its past displayed in its architecture: the Olympic stadium where the 1980 games were held, old german churches with unique square shaped steeples that look like hats, and Queen Anne style buildings that now house a vibrant downtown business district.
It reminded me of Key West, but surrounded by mountains and pine forests. There were outdoor restaurants everywhere and all the hotels had balcony rooms so you could take in the gorgeous view of the mountains surrounding the lake, much like in Key West, though there the view is the aquamarine ocean. But both have towns full of people in love of flowers. Almost every house had windowboxes dripping with them and even the empty storefronts were well-kept and had flowers blossoming all around.
Lush is the perfect word for it.
And the rains can be just as fickle.

As we drove down the main street through Lake Placid, I noticed they had electric cars. Little four seaters with no doors and open roofs, just like in Key West. And while there were many people on their own scooters and motorcycles, I didn't see any scooter rentals.
The towns are close together because you can only build in certain areas since the towns are surrounded by parkland. And there is very little street parking, making it the perfect place for scooters. I was very surprised, therefore, when my boyfriend, who goes up many weekends for work (which was one of these), told me they don't have any scooter rental places in any of the Adirondack towns!
I was very surprised.
With all the empty storefronts and the perfect driving conditions for scooters, Lake Placid is certainly in need of a good scooter rental shop.
There is one setback — the winter. I'm sure there'd be no business in the snow; but why not have a scooter rental place in the summer and a ski rental place in the winter? As it stood, I saw many of the empty storefronts were still decorated with advertisements for skates, skis and other winter sport offerings. I'm guessing they didn't figure out a way to keep the cash flowing. It's plenty touristy in the summer, too. So why not take advantage of the lack of scooters?
After some discussion, my boyfriend and I agreed. If we had the money, we'd certainly relocate and take advantage of the market.
We'd always discussed taking off and living in Key West with a scooter rental store supporting us. But there are so many of them in Key West already.

When crime drives people from what they love

2008-07-30T20:35:00.002-04:00

I hate it when criminals force good people to give up something or compromise their lives.
This entry in the Baltimore City Paper's Newshole by Chris Landers ends with this comment by a woman who had her scooter stolen: "I think I'm done with having a scooter," Tomlinson says. "I'm taking the bus to work."
How awful, to give up on what you love because someone's stolen it.
Of course, she may have no money to replace her scooter. According to the article, it was a 2007 Kymco, which goes for more than $2,000 on the high end.
I think, when they find the thiefs, she should be able to take away from something they love. It's only fair.

Mistakes on two wheels

2008-07-28T13:57:00.002-04:00

I was reading an article on Union.com about the increase in scooter use in Nevada, and how people are getting hooked on the vehicles after buying them just for economical purposes.
At the end was a comment that, in light of my previous post, makes a good point.
It was from a man named Neil who said, in part, "sheesh, I sure hope these boomers bopping back to two wheels spend a little time practicing, maybe even get their M1 endorsement like their supposed to do -- mistakes on two wheels are mistakes on two wheels, regardless of whether you're riding a step-through with automatic trannie or straddling a Harley."
In Pennsylvania, they offer free motorcycle beginner's courses.
You do need a motorcycle permit, which you get by taking a test, much like a driving test, at the DMV. There is a cost for the permit, $10, but you don't have to make an appointment, just show up and take the test.
I have to admit, I have yet to do this, but scooters are treated differently in Pa.
According to the DMV's Web site, I will need to get my scooter inspected and it must have a license plate. It doesn't say anything about engine requirements. I've heard that if the engine is 50cc or below, you don't need to do this, but the DMV doesn't say that anywhere on its site.
The DMV site does say "Its engine must produce between 1.5 and 5 brake horsepower."
I don't know if that means it can't be driven on the road if it doesn't or what, but I think my scooter is well above that.
You must have protection for your eyes if you ride a scooter in Pa. And it says helmets are required for scooter passengers and "some drivers."
The list it gives is as follows:

* Driving a three-wheeled, closed cab scooter

* Older than 21 and have operated a motorcycle for at least two years

* Older than 21 and have completed a motorcycle rider safety course approved by PennDOT

* A passenger aged 21 or older who rides with an exempted driver

So helmet for me until I pass that basic safety course.
Oddly, the site also says, while motorcyclists with experience don't have to wear a helmet, bicyclists do. Hmmmm.
Sorry, but I think bikes are a little safer than a speeding motorcycle/scooter.

A questionable statement

2008-07-28T12:27:00.002-04:00

I was reading the news this morning when I came across an AP report out of Philadelphia, and I was kind of taken aback by a statement in the story.
It's about the reaction of Ohio State University's president to the death of his son-in-law after a scooter crash in Philly. He apparently died. The president, Gordon Gee, said his daughter was undergoing rehabilitation for injuries she suffered in the crash.
According to Philly.com, Gee's daughter, Rebekah, was on the back of the Vespa scooter she and her husband were driving in Bryn Mawr when they crashed into an SUV.
This is the part that bothers me. In the AP story, it says, "Gordon Gee says she got into bed with her husband at the end so Moore died in 'a magnificent way.'"
What? Is that implying what I think it is?
I don't know, no matter how much I loved a man, that I could do that at the END.
Kinda creepy.

It is easy to commute on a scooter

2008-07-25T12:51:00.004-04:00

I was telling a friend about my scooter and she said she was jealous. She'd love a scooter, but then she said she didn't think it was practical for her to have one since she commuted such a long distance to work.

I didn't understand that.

She claimed that because she used major, congested highways, it was too dangerous, and would be "hard" because of the distance.

I thought about it and don't think that's true. Of course she lacked any experience, but I don't. I've ridden long distances (at least the hour that she was talking about) on the back of a motorcycle on highways, and I'd have to say that it's only a little more tiring than driving a car. But it also is more likely to keep you aware on the road.

It is more dangerous riding on a scooter or motorcycle not because of what you are doing, but because other people are not paying as much attention in their cars. So you have to pay more attention.

Of course if you are like the majority of commuters, you probably aren't really paying attention as you commute because you always travel the same road and have become complacent (or are half asleep because you felt you had to watch that "American Idol" rerun).

The only detriment I see is if you have to carry a great deal with you to work, like some of my friends who are teachers.

But if all you need can fit in your scooter bucket, a scooter is perfect. You can actually fit a lot into the boot of a scooter. And you can scoot around other cars sitting needlessly in traffic.

I'd recommend being careful about doing this since drivers aren't going to notice you with their peripheral vision as they would a large vehicle, but there's not point sitting in traffic adding to the congestion when you could get around everyone and be one less vehicle on the road keeping things stalled. It's really handy. And can save you time commuting to work.

She was worried about getting into an accident. And that is highly likely no matter what time of day simply because of complacent drivers. But you can also get into a deadly accident in your car. In fact, I thought back on all the accidents that I'd heard about on her commute route and realized that all the people who died were in cars, so I don't know if it would make a difference what you were driving if you get hit on that route. You might as well try saving money since the odds don't seem to be good anyway.

But I also thought about the fact that she was taking a major road when there are plenty of options for her to take going in the same direction. While major roads can be faster, if you're on a scooter you want to enjoy the ride, so why not take alternate routes with less traffic and enjoy the fact that you are outside having fun on your scooter?

It seems the only thing stopping her are her fears and a lack of knowledge.

If everyone commuted in a scooter or a smaller vehicle, we'd be a lot better off.

Below are some tips on how to commute on a scooter.

Wondering about the rain

2008-07-25T12:41:00.003-04:00

After a day of pouring rain, I got to wondering what I should do if I'm ever stuck on it in the scooter. I don't have raingear, so I guess I should buy some, but that's pretty pricey. My boyfriend has been looking for some reasonably priced rain gear for a while now. It looks like he'll have to spend the $100 or so.
The reason rain gear is so expensive, I believe, is it has to stand up to wind whipping against it.
My boyfriend bought a cheap rain suit one year, and after an hours drive down the highway, all that was left on his soaking wet body were a couple of strings around his wrists and ankles. The suit literally shredded and flew off him.
If you've ever been on a motorcycle you know that rain is no fun. It can be hard when you're just standing in it, but add speed and those little drops feel like bullets. They sting against your exposed sking.
No fun.
Add to that the slipperiness of wet pavement and it can be a nightmare to ride in the rain. When you only have two wheels, your traction can be lost a lot faster than in a car. And you're already distracted by the discomfort of being soaked, pelted by bullet like raindrops and then freezing to death because you are trying to get somewhere fast and the wind is whicking away all your body heat.
Bleck.
But I'm also concerned about the scooter. I'm thinking we need to cover the exposed wires so I don't wind up with a shorted out headlight at the worst of times. I'm also wondering how slippery the foot rest will become in rain and if there are any parts to the scooter that could start to corrode if I'm caught out in the rain too often.
This isn't a new scooter so I don't think it was manufactured for everyday driving, like many new scoots are.
Guess for now it's a fair weather ride.

2008-07-24T23:57:00.003-04:00

more cat pictures

A little thing called safety

2008-07-20T14:20:00.004-04:00

For some reason people think scooters are safer than motorcycles.
Sure, they run a little differently. Most scooters don't have a clutch you worry about and brake handles on both handlebars, but many of them can go just as fast as a car. So why is it people think they are safer and don't require a layer of protection?
I wondered this when I visited Key West for what will probably be the only time.
In that island borough scooters are everywhere, and they aren't to strict about who can rent them. Problem is everyone goes around on them without a helmet or proper shoes.
Maybe it's the laid back element but just because it's a small machine with just enough power to go on a highway doesn't mean it can't lead to a dangerous situation.
Without the proper shoes you can have rocks fly up and cut your feet, or get them run over by an unthinking driver.
Just like a motorcycle, you're exposed to the elements, wind, rain, heat. So you should wear the proper clothing.
And just like a motorcycle, scooters are small, so unwitting drivers are less likely to notice you and more likely to pull out in front of you and cause a deadly accident.
Yet, too many people don't wear helmets when riding them. Don't wear the proper shoes. Don't wear pants that cover their legs and protect their skin from abrasions if they fall. Don't think that yes, it's small and fun to buzz around on, but that SUV following you isn't. And isn't thinking to be very careful.
That's up to the scooter driver.

And there are a lot of people who think anyone can do it. Watch the fool below who doesn't even buckle her helmet before she crashes. (Won't do you any good if it's not on your head!)

Broken already

2008-07-20T14:10:00.003-04:00

I came home the day after I learned to ride the scooter, at least in parking lots, and learned the throttle handle was broken. It's got this crack about halfway around it.
It actually looks like someone tried to cut it off. It's very odd, esp. after we found someone had cut the wiring for the headlight. I'm wondering if this scooter was vandalized while sitting idle in my boyfriend's cousin's yard.
There's no real reason why those two things out of everything else would be broken unless someone was trying to make sure it wouldn't be ridden again.
In light of the stories I've been told about the previous owner running amok in Philly on the machine it may be possible he pissed someone off who decided to do some damage.
Just waiting on a new throttle lever now.

Tottering along

2008-07-16T20:57:00.007-04:00

Well, I'm a little nervous about the headlight, since it dims a great deal when the bike isn't running full force. Also because my boyfriend had to splice the wires together since someone (or thing) chewed them up and they weren't connected.
We also need to figure out how to get a proper title for this scooter. The only thing we've got is a piece of paper that served as the receipt and is written in Chinese.
My boyfriend's cousin never got a proper title for it and I'm assuming he'd have to be involved in this somehow.
The one thing I'm not nervous about? Whether or not I can drive it.
I didn't crash!
I was very nervous. So nervous that I forgot my helmet after nagging my boyfriend to wear his. It was like those stop smoking commercials that say "If you can quit smoking you can do anything."
Smoking has never been one of my habits, but I felt so distracted and numb, my mind not working right.
My friends know craziness and daring are my habits, but I was very worried that this daring move could kill me.
As I traveled to Memorial Park to meet my boyfriend who had scooted on ahead, I could barely focus on driving. Not a good sign.
Taking deep breaths as I stood there, I tried to listen as closely as possible as my boyfriend gave me instructions. I just had to remember not to grab the throttle when I was trying to brake.
So I get on, push it off the stand, and start it up, forgetting to hold the back brake at first. But I got it going. As I let it move foreward I was afraid to take my feet off the ground and put them on the footrest. I worried that I wouldn't be able to stop myself from either falling over or rocketing forward. (Like that would make a difference if I'm going very fast.)
Cramps started to plague my legs since I was holding them funny so I took a rest as my boyfriend scooted around the parking lot.
Eventually I felt comfortable enough to put up my feet. It was a little hard to keep it steady going slow, but I was too nervous to give it more gas.
My boyfriend showed me how to do a couple of turns, telling me to look where I wanted to go. Apparently the worst thing you can do is stare at the scooter, cause you lock up.

I tried it, and it worked! I didnt dump the scooter!
So I did a couple of more turns but decided to quite while I was ahead.

Apprehension rises

2008-07-15T21:26:00.004-04:00

After a road trip to Maryland and a daylong reassembly the sooter's mostly ready.
I feel like such a slacker cause my boyfriend did most of the work while I was at work. But I helped near the end to keep him calm and help with some tight spots. (Small hands are useful sometimes.)
It looks pretty chic with its line of checkers down the side. Though I don't have a photo of the front. Looks cool from the back too.

My boyfriend took it around the block for a trial run after we got most of the parts on. The gas gauge doesn't really work. Read E even though it had gas in it. Might need a new one of those.
It seemed to move pretty good. Didn't think it would go that fast. Ed said it went up to 60, but that's as high as the speedometer WILL go.
Ed had me practice walking beside it as it ran because I was nervous about riding it right off. I have this fear that I will turn the throttle when I'm trying to brake and cause myself to skyrocket into something, like a telephone pole or garbage can.
My boyfriend said I needed to practice keeping my fingers over the brakes. There are levers on both the right and left sides. The right controls the front brakes and the left the back. You don't want to grab just one or the other cause it will make you slide.
That didn't calm me much cause it's one more thing I could screw up and killed by.
So I had to practice braking cause I forgot as I was walking along and grabbed the throttle when it started going too fast.
We're supposed to go out to the old Rickels parking lot on North Charlotte tomorrow and I'm going to take my first ride. I'm a little nervous that I'm either going to get really hurt or destroy this scooter my boyfriend has been working so hard on.
Wish me luck!

Pimped out

2008-07-09T22:49:00.002-04:00

The scooter coverings are painted.
They look pretty sharp. My boyfriend said hopefully I won't crash it right off.
He immediately began looking for new pimping up parts. Some sharp handles, an alarm system, then he stumbled on a sub woofer. For a scooter!
I asked him if the scooter had a radio.
Of course not.
So why would I need a subwoofer!
But the alarm system sounds like a good idea.
As my boyfriend put it, I'll be driving down the street, ggrrr, grrrr, chug, chugga chugga chugga, chuchunch. Beep boop.
Alarm system set.

Safety is everything

2008-07-07T21:07:00.002-04:00

I'm a little worried about having the scooter in Pottstown.
Recently the house in front of my apartment (which is also rented) was broken into, and my boyfriend's car had its window smashed by some petty criminals while it was parked right outside my window, and while I was awake. (Never caught the guys.)
I'm a little worried, what with gas prices and all, that someone's going to come along and spot it and break in to the garage and steal it.
My boyfriend is smart and removes the battery on his motorcycle when he's not using it. You can't move it without the battery or the key.
But I don't think the scooter battery is that accessible. It's also not very heavy, so someone could easily carry it away, well, two people.
I'm hoping that we can pimp it up enough that it would be hard to miss, but if someone's determined enough they can hide it and strip it.
We're considering getting an alarm on the door so at least it will alert the neighbors, or us, if someone tries to break in to the garage.
My boyfriend got me this gigantic chain to secure it with when I take it out.
I don't want to find myself at the Walmart with several bags and scooterless because of some jerk who couldn't bother to find a piece of junk scooter of his own and fix it up.

Almost there!

2008-07-07T20:58:00.002-04:00

The call came today and the scooter body panels will be finished tonight.
But I'm having second doubts about the colors. After much debating, my boyfriend and I settled one hunter green and silver. (I wanted white but he thought that would look a little cheesy.)
Then someone at work pointed out that silver and green were the Eagles colors.
Now, I'm not in to sports so I'm not an Eagles fan, but I also don't have anything against them. I don't really know anything about them. But I don't want it to seem like I am. I also don't want to look like a traveling sign for a sports team.
I just wanted it to be an extension of me.
My boyfriend says the colors won't instantly remind people of the Eagles.
I hope not.

Decked out scooter seats

2008-07-01T18:32:00.004-04:00

Should a scooter seat be garish and standout? Is it a requirement?
I have been told that it's the standard for the seat to contrast with the rest of the scooter.
Some businesses have arisen around this fact, most notably scooterseatcovers.com.
Colored leopard prints and fuzzy seats seem to be big. I don't know why since they must feel kind of slimy when hot, like most synthetics.
The scooter my boyfriend is putting together will be green and silver, but he wanted a totally crazy seat, made to look like a Japanese flag (as a send up to Yamaha). While I thought that could look classy if done right, I'm not sure if it would be taken well by the WWII vets in town. I don't need people throwing their canes at me as I drive by.
There's still a backlash amongst people 50 and over against any country the U.S. has warred against, at least in small towns like Pottstown.
So what should the seat look like?
I don't want to keep it the way it is, with a nice track across it from the former owner's bike laying on top of it for years, but leopard print, un uh.
I don't mind a normal looking new seat, but will that make me look like an obvious scooter novice?
I've seen a lot more scooters around town since gas prices have been skyrocketing and none with tricked out seats or bodies, but I think most people are just desperate at this point, not really into scooters.

Eurotrash — The group

2008-06-28T20:43:00.004-04:00

This is not me by the way. And yes, I know it's not a scooter.

When I first drove into Pottstown it struck me as a microcosm of a city.

Rather tall buildings for a little town.

There was also a European flavor about it. Everything was walkable, there were parks everywhere, one with a flowing fountain downtown. The garden club keeps up the flowers hanging from lampposts and giant flowerpots in the business areas. There are also wooden park benches everywhere.

The buildings are mostly brick and dating from the 1800s. A lot of them could use fixing up and some have crappy vinyl and aluminum siding hiding them that dates to the 60s and 70s. But it has potential.

It now has an awesome coffee shop, Churchill's, that opened a year after I moved here. It's technically a chocolatier's, which is very European. How many towns can boast a chocolatier?

And it finally has a wine shop downtown, though it could use some asthetic improvements.

Which brings me round to the Eurotrash concept.

My boyfriend loves everything Euro: cafe racers, cool mini cars and coffee shops. So when the scooter became a reality he wanted to start a scooter club for all those folks who love everything Euro but were American. He wanted to call it the Eurotrash scooter club.

I guess the idea of it being "trash" is because we're American and really don't have the "Euro" thing down, but love the style. But we dumb down a cool pair of graphic but sexy shorts with flat sandals, which really doesn't look good, but hey, we're American and we love comfort.

Plus you really can't comfortably stop a scooter in high heels. Though I'm sure Italian women have figured it out.

What have I got myself into

2008-06-28T18:57:00.004-04:00

This is not what girls my age do.

It all started with a simple statement from my boyfriend after he moved in.

"We should go get my cousin's scooter for you."

One of those statements I disregard because it came out of the blue. It was a whim, surely. Wasn't it.

He asked a couple of more times, obviously intent on getting it fo

r me whether I responded or not.

I was very hesitant to want it. First, where were we going to put it?

We live in a tiny apartment over a garage, and while I'm allowed half of it, my mini cooper and his sport bike just about fit — along with all his junk from his old apartment.

Second, the only time I've ever ridden a scooter, I

almost s

mashed head-on into an SUV as I attempted to turn a corner in Key West.

Nightmare.

Let's face it,

motorized versions of the bicy

cle aren't good for everyone. Most people can't figure out how to handle a clutch in a car. (I have and I like it.)

But most scooters don't have clutches, so I can't let it out too fast and crash, right?

But I still wasn't sure.

I didn't want to get hit by an SUV and die just tooling down the street. But I guess that could also happen while I'm walking ...

Then one weekend my boyfriend announces that he's borrowing his coworker's truck and running down to get it.

I'd already had plans and this was out of the blue, and when I came home that night, it was in the garage, in pieces.

I still have no visual concept of what this Geely will look like once he gets the pieces together, but the body has been sanded and sent out to be painted. And my boyfriend has dedicated a lot of time to fixing it mechanically, so I can't really say no at this point.

But what there is of it here looks so small. Almost like it belongs to a child. Which makes me a little nervous.

Check back. Hopefully I'll have a video of my successful ride down the back alley.

2008-06-28T18:57:00.001-04:00