Parked at River Pointe Park

Woo hoo! I thought my poor little scooter was down for the count until Spring, but today it was 51 degrees, so I decided to take a ride while I could. OK, then the cold my husband battled all last week hit me like a freight train. So I wasn’t gonna go, but when I went outside to check the mail, it was so nice… and the first sunny day we’ve had in a couple of weeks.

So, I bundled my runny nose self into my scooter gear and went the 2 miles to our local river path. In Boise, we have 25 miles of paved path along the Boise River. A real local treasure. I live within walking distance (about a 10 minute walk), which is great, but today, I thought I’d ride my little scooter over to it.

Now, 50 degrees and sunny is a lot warmer when you’re walking out to the mailbox than it is when you’re riding. Still, I enjoyed the chance to be out on my scoot. It’s been several weeks of wet, snowy, rainy weather, and I missed it!

From the river, I can see the beautiful wintry, woods, tons of ducks and geese and our snow-covered foothills. I live in a beautiful area and the scooter allows me to enjoy it in a very different way than the car or truck.

So, thank you universe, for allowing me a brief respite to the awful January we’ve been having so far and getting out on my scooter, even if I am sick and even if I did only ride for 10 minutes!

Boise River Ducks

Snowy Foothills in Distance

Fishing the Boise River in Winter

What I’ve found since building my Motor-Scooters-Guide.com website is that “it’s all about community” or making scooter friends. My husband jokingly calls the people I’ve met through my website as “your online boyfriends and girlfriends”, but the truth is, I really have made some good friends here. People who care about me and each other, even though we never have and probably never will, meet in person.

I think that’s pretty cool. It wasn’t really my intent when I first built the site, but I’m definitely enjoying it.  There are lots of opportunities to interact with other people on the site. You can ask or answer questions about motor scooters at Scooter Answers. And please… join in… there’s a lot I don’t know, especially when it comes to engine and mechanical stuff. So I can use all the help I can get!

You can leave a review of the scooters you’re familiar with at our Reviews section. Or comment on someone else’s reviews. Again, I need help here. I really only know my Genuine Buddy brand very well. I can find info on the Web, but I’d rather hear what you all have to say.

You can join our eScooter Club by submitting your profile… and then keep us apprised of your scooter adventures. Hey, I don’t get out as much as I’d like, so I love living vicariously through you. :) We’ve got 39 US members already (from every section of the country), as well as 1 member from Canada, 1 from Algeria, and 1 from Brazil. Join us!

Finally, I started a scooter forum a few months ago. Despite all the daily activity on the main site, the forum has been rather slow to get going. But it’s starting to pick up. So be sure you check in there at least weekly to see what’s new. Right now, it’s mostly Texas Boy talking, and I’m sure he’d love some company! So join the discussion there, won’t you?

I’ll close with this new picture submitted by eScooter Club member, Victor Kelly, in Phoenix, AZ, where apparently you can ride even in the winter (boo hoo):

Victor Kelly on Group Scooter Ride in Arizona

Once again, we enter what I like to think of as my “winter scooter woes”, that time period when the roads are too treacherous or the weather is too cold or I am too unmotivated to venture out on the scooter. It stinks, doesn’t it, that we can’t easily ride or enjoy our rides during those long, cold winter months? I’m not afraid to drive my car in the snow; after all, I grew up in the Great Lakes region and I’m used to bad weather driving. But it’s a lot scarier on a 2-wheel scooter… and wetter.

Also, I’m not really a fan of feeling the cold wind whip around my face, neck and ears while riding, much as I like the sensation when it’s warm. I know I have readers who ride all winter long and more power to you guys. But it’s not for me. Especially when our temps dip down into single digits as they did for a couple of weeks early this winter.

So, sad as it is, I suspect my scooter is stuck in the garage for the next couple of months. I have gotten a couple short rides in when the temps were in the 40s, which is still cold, and if the roads are dry and it gets that warm again, who knows? I might venture out. We’ll see.

How about you? Do you ride all year? If so, what kind of weather and temps are we talking. Use the comment function to share, OK?

If you do stop riding, then please take a couple of words of advice from someone who’s been there. Put some Stabil in your gas tank to keep your gas from turning to sludge. And remove your battery or you’re just going to have to re-charge it when you are ready to ride again.

During these cold winter months, there’s still a lot of discussion going on in these sections of my site:

• Scooter Answers, where you can get help for your most burning scooter questions
• Scooter Reviews, where you can share your experiences with specific scooter brands
• Our Forum, where you can engage in discussions with other scooter riders of all types

I’ll try to start posting in here more regularly too. And I’ll let you know if I do get a winter ride in now and then!

Till then… Happy Holidays, Everyone! Kathi

I’ve owned my scooter for just about 2 years now, and I just hit 1000 miles today, out running errands. You might say, “What the heck took you so long, Kathi?” and you wouldn’t be out of line. But for me it’s quite an achievement to get a 4-figure mileage on the odometer in my little Buddy.

You see, about 10 days after I got my scooter, my mother went into critical care and nearly died. Following that, she came to live with us. One of the reasons I’d justified getting a scooter was to travel back & forth to her house every day. So can that justification…

I work at home, so I don’t use it to commute. Basically, it’s just for running errands and joyrides. So it’s taken me all this time to accumulate my first 1000. Still, I’m thrilled to have done it. I now consider my scooter to be MY main mode of motorized transportation (I also walk & ride my bicycle quite a lot when I go somewhere.) I use it to go pick up prescriptions for Mom and mid-week groceries at WalMart, to get toiletries at Walgreens and other such errands. And, occasionally, like yesterday, I just go out for fun.

My scooter represents freedom for me. It’s one of the few times I get to be totally alone and also out from under (if only for an hour or two) the burden of caregiving. I love it!

So… onward & upward!

Kathi

I thought it might be fun if we all went on a virtual group scooter ride together one weekend. Not all of us live in an area where there are organized group rides or maybe we’re too shy to join a group on our own (me!).  My husband suggested I organize a group ride for my readers here and I thought it was a great idea.

Here’s the idea… I pick a date for the ride. Anyone who’s interested gets on their scooter and rides that day, either by themselves or with others. The ride is going to have to be a significant distance, say at least 10 to 25 miles and should take you somewhere you’ve never been before, or at least somewhere fun/interesting/beautiful. Then, after your ride, you come back here to the site and share your experience in a few paragraphs and pictures. That way we all get to share in each others’ adventures to some extent!

What do you think of this idea? Please use the Comments link at the top of the post to let me know, OK?

I’m looking forward to your input!

Happy scootin’ Kathi