Scooty McBooty

If you’ve talked to me (or Mark ) in person in the last few months, I can almost guarantee you’ve heard about Scooty McBooty.

Call him what you’d like, a scooter, a moped, an e-bike, Scooty is amazing. We’ve had Scooty since the middle of October and Alex immediately named him.  There was a student here selling his e-bike to buy a bigger, faster e-bike, and a mutual friend connected us.  Originally I was so gung-ho to get the scooter “it’ll be so much fun, think of where we’ll be able to take it, blending in …” and Mark was not.  He was concerned for safety, and cost (rightly so).

We met up with the student to take Scooty for a test drive. And as the student is explaining all the buttons and workings to Mark,  I felt the anxiety start to rise and an impending sense of doom came over me… “We’re going to die on this scooter, this is a stupid idea, what was I thinking?”

As Mark put on his Bob the builder helmet and prepared to take a short test drive (on a protect sidewalk, we’re not even talking about the street here) I started nervously laughing and asking if he was sure it was safe.  He hopped right on, scooted to the end, turned around and scooted back.  ” See, no big deal, you’ll like it, give it a shot”

I, very cautiously, climbed on, and went as slow as I could without falling over. When I reached the end, instead of turning and coming back, I got off, walked it to turn it, got back on and came back in a straight line.  Mark was sold and we went home that day with a new scooter.

For a little while, we would ride the whole family on the scooter, I’d be in the back, mark in the middle and Alex would stand in the front.  That makes me way too nervous to do anymore. We talk about buying a second one at some point, but the reality is that we’ll be getting a car at some point soon and probably don’t need two scooters and a car.

It took me a little while, and some practice, but I’m now very comfortable riding Scooty around. It’s actually my favorite way to get around Haining. I feel like I blend in a little more on my scooter, and I can just hop on and run to walmart or the grocery store and get back quick.  There are special lanes for scooters on all the major roads, and a bike lane type arrangement on the roads that don’t have the dedicated lane. So it feels safe too, since you’re not usually riding with the cars.

Another perk to the scooter is that I can pile it up with packages and all the other weird crap that I bring home and don’t want to carry.  I bought a desk online and had to worry about how to get it back to the apartment, no problem, toss it on Scooty and away you go!

It’s a bit too cold right now to be super fun, but we’ve even bought a blanket to keep on the scooter to keep the wind off while you ride.  We joke about going native, but our scooter does look like everyone else’s now.

I took a ride to Walmart the other day to pick up some things for our upcoming trip and I decided to take some pictures along the way to show you my scooter ride.  This is one of my favorite streets to ride down, and while it didn’t photograph particularly well on this trip, expect to see more of this when the weather warms up.