I Scoot

Here is a picture of our vehicles. Now that we are a clan of four, we have upgraded to the Town and Country. I viewed this as a necessary evil, but it's a suprisingly nice ride. I told Christine though that the next vehicle we purchased would be my long-desired scooter. I didn't realize it would happen so soon. A friend of mine is graduating and needed to get rid of his, so I relieved him of the burden.

Now I am a proud owner of a 2005 Honda Metropolitan. It has a 49cc engine (which another friend helpfully pointed out is approximately the same size of his chainsaw motor). It tops out at about 40 mph (maybe 45 downhill). And, according to the exhaustive Excell spreadsheets the previous owner maintained, it averages between 70 and 90 miles to the gallon.

I'm excited. It's fun. I got the helmet, the sweet goggles, and the motorcycle endorsement on my license. (In Mississippi, apparently, "E" stands for motorcycle.) It's got a luggage rack on the back, storage for the helmet under the seat, and a basket on the inside of the faring on the front. The twins don't seem too excited by it, but Christine likes it. She hopes that when I "step up" to the 250cc Piaggio, she'll get this one.

We'll see how parking works out. I'm not sure if I should treat it like a bike, hop it onto the sidewalks, and chain it to the bike racks or if it should be parked more like a car and take a full spot to itself. Apparently no one down here really knows what to do with them. I'm sure it would be much clearer in California. We'll also see how sharing the road with Hummers and the Oxfordian assortment of Land Rovers goes.

More posts as events warrant. If anyone runs across any Autobot sigil decals in kiwi green or white, let me know.