Minnesota Trick

Minnesota has been playing one of her tricks the past few days. Each spring, we'll have some very warm days, tricking us into thinking, "Winter is over!" Of course, experience tells us that cold weather and snow can still happen in April and May.

Today it was 81 degrees, though, and the sun was shining in a bright blue sky. So, out came the scooter, and off I went.

I decided to visit Grey Cloud Dunes, a scientific and natural area in Cottage Grove. I read about it in the Rather B Camping blog, and living so close, had to check it out for myself. I stayed for an hour, hiking through the prairie, on the dunes, and down by the Mississippi River. It was a peaceful walk, and a nice change from the parks we usually visit. I'll definitely be back, maybe even in the winter.

I'm so excited to be able to ride my scooter again. We will be going on a lot of rides with friends this summer, so Doug sold his Vino and bought a Genuine Scooter Company Buddy from Scooterville. It's another 125 cc scooter, but it is faster than the Vino, so he shouldn't have any problem keeping up his speed on the steeper hills where we ride.

He bought the limited edition Italia Series, and I love the two-tone color scheme and whitewall tires. I test drove it this morning before my ride to Grey Cloud. It is very quick, and handles great. Doug is going to have fun riding it. He is more of a motorcycle guy, so I really love that he rides the scooter with me.

Friday Photo Post: Scooters

These are my favorite scooter pictures from last summer. The picture above was taken in Dublin, Ireland, and the one below is from Mykonos, Greece.

We saw the highest concentration of scooters in Athens, Greece and Kusadasi, Turkey. I was surprised by all the scooterists driving between lines of cars or driving on the sidewalks. On Mykonos and Santorini, the roads are so narrow and crowded, sometimes a scooter is the only thing that can get through.

Scooter Blogs

Continuing the theme of scooters this week, here are two blogs I found just yesterday. Scooter in the Sticks is written by Steve Williams, who lives in Central Pennsylvania. Steve rides year round and he has some great pictures of his scooter in mostly rural settings.

Steve also has a blog roll where I found another site, Midwest Scooter Enthusiast. It caught my eye because of the midwest, and then I found out the writer, Harvey Binder, is from my own state! He lives in St Cloud, about one hour north of the Twin Cities. Harvey mentions the conflict that sometimes happens between vintage and new, automatic scooterists in a recent post that was very positive.

I'm looking forward to reading their archives, which are probably full of interesting stories.

Vroom with a View

Searching the internet for ideas on scooter trips, I found a book written by Peter Moore that I immediately ordered from Amazon. Vroom with a View is about traveling around Italy on a Vespa. The following review intrigued me,

"As an owner of a Vespa with little free time or enough daring to travel solo through Italy myself, I found this book to be a wonderful way to fulfill a fantasy. Moore's writing is accessible to all readers regardless of their Vespa status. It works as well as a travelogue for anyone considering an off-the-beaten-path tour of Italy as it does for those of us with a special love for the joy of riding a Vespa."

I can't wait to read it.

Rattle My Bones- Twin Cities Scooter Rally

I am excited about attending my first scooter rally this year. Someone recently asked me what a scooter rally is. I told them that as I understood it, it is a mini-Sturgis on "hair dryers."

I got that idea from an article the St. Paul Pioneer Press did on last year's rally in Minneapolis. There is a quote from Ed Raschke, a salesman from Scooterville, that made me laugh. He said, "It's hard to be pretentious when you're sitting on a hair dryer."

The Rattle My Bones scooter rally is being held in the Twin Cities August 16-19th. It will include a Thursday night Scavenger Hunt, Friday night rides separated by types of scooters, Saturday Big Ride and Gymkhana, and Sunday Relaxed Ride. Friday and Saturday night also have bands, DJs and raffles.


I don't know if it will be my first scooter rally, though. I'm really hoping we can do a road trip and trailer the scooters to another rally earlier in the summer. I'm looking at the Scoot.net calendar for ideas.

Scooter Addiction

I love my scooter. Many diehard scooterists would scoff at it, a Vino 125 automatic twist-n-go, but I'm crazy about it. My friends, Dave and Julie Lee, got me hooked. When I met them, they had four vintage scooters, three Vespas and one Lambretta, but then Julie and I both bought a new Vino. Although the vintage scooters have a certain mystique attached to them, you can't beat the comfort, reliability, and ease of driving of a new twist-n-go.

Sometimes I feel self conscious about my Vino because some vintage fans deride them as "plastic". Kent Aldrich, a scooterist I met through the Lees, declared it was the "Plastic Fantastic". I liked the superhero tone of that, and asked him if I could use it for my scooter's name. I might as well embrace the label and have some fun with it. I'm thinking about it, a scooter's name has to be just right.

The picture above is from a city ride we did one day last summer. We rode from St. Paul to the Uptown area of Minneapolis, with a stop at Minnehaha Falls. It was a great day for riding along fun roads like Summit Avenue, and the West River, Minnehaha, Lake Harriet and Calhoun Parkways.

The picture to the left is of Kent and his wife, Emily, on their customized Stella.

The Vino gets great gas mileage (80 mpg), and is plenty fast (it can go 55-60 mph.) With the large under seat storage compartment, it's great for running errands. It's one small thing I can do to decrease my ecological footprint in the summer. Of course, the times I ride for pure pleasure might offset that benefit.