Our scooter story

Last Thursday, as I mentioned before, we purchased my birthday present. And then I went silent on the subject. It wasn’t an intentional silence, but the other stuff of life sent me in other blogging directions. And now, since it is my birthday, I figured the public should know the scooter story.

The Background
Five years ago we put a down payment on a Toyota Prius. And then we learned that it would be six months or more before we would get the car and when we took a realistic look at the payments, it wasn’t something that we could afford. So we bought the accident prone Pontiac Grand Prix and dreamt about the day we could take some more responsibility in saving gas in our oil dependant culture.

One day, sometime in the last three or four years, Damon had the idea that what if we got scooters we could save a lot of money on gas and have some fun doing it as well.

Fast Forward
We have hemmed and hawed at the idea of actually purchasing a scooter mainly because of our checking account balance. We looked longingly as others around us picked up on the idea of how cool scooters are, especially since they have the benefit of cutting down the spending in our personal fuel budget.

And then, last week, while glancing at the employee classifieds on my company’s intranet, I saw these magic words:

“Scooter, 49cc, yellow, bought last year, paid $1600 will take $800.”

That was it. That was the ad. Since I didn’t know a cc from a stroke engine, I asked Damon how many CCs Dave’s Rukus is and that’s when I knew that this scooter was something to mention. I told Damon about the ad and he perked up at the $800 price tag. He told me to contact the seller and see if I could find out anything more.

Well, long story short, the something more was that it was purchased by a family that thought it was a toy. A scooter is not a toy. It is a motorized vehicle that requires a license, tags, and respect. The kids got tired of their toy and the parents wanted the space in their garage back. I kind of feel like we rescued the scooter, much like rescuing a puppy no one wants.

We arranged to meet with the owner, Damon test drove the scooter and we said, “Ok.”

Until yesterday, I had never driven a scooter. Damon’s been driving it to work everyday and someday soon I will too. Yesterday I began my scooter lessons, which I will talk about some other time.

But I will say this- it is a ton of fun!

(And I want to give Josiah the credit for the category name. See Scoot City. If you live in Chattanooga or know what the ad campaign for Rock City is, that makes sense.)