First, I want to start by saying this is my official first post. I plan to backdate a couple of posts to write about experiences that happened in the past but today is the day I actually created this blog. Now on to today's experience....
Traffic was terrible as my bus reached my stop this afternoon. It looked like there might have been an accident or something and traffic was at a crawl. But it didn't bother me as I knew in just moments I would be soaring through the forest, far from the hustle and bustle. I stepped off the bus into the sunshine and tied my fleece around my waist. The temperature was right around 70*F and there was only a light breeze. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day.
I took the bike path under the road and entered the tree covered forest, home to tens of thousands of gnats. I don't know if you have ever scootered or biked through swarms of gnats but it is a pretty amazing experience, ... as long as you keep you mouth closed. I mean, where do all of these flying bugs come from? How do that many survive? Why are they so attracted to my face? How did they manage to cover the entire one mile path?
I blew puffs of air out of my mouth onto my face to clear them away which helped a lot. (I can't use my hands to swat them away. Last time I tried to scooter with one hand, I became quite familiar with the pavement.) Then I started focusing on all the greenery, the purple flowers, the robins scurrying across the path, and the song of many species of birds. And the gnats no longer bothered me....
Two years ago, I started a new job which meant a new commute. My previous commute was a 12 minute walk which I enjoyed year-round, in any weather (rain, snow, cold, heat, etc.). I knew my new commute would be quite different but I was determined to find a way to avoid getting in my car and to include some time in nature each day.
Hence, this is where the scooter came into play. So after some research online, I bought a Razor A5 Lux in blue and began playing with it. Fortunately I had a few weeks in between jobs to test it out and pick out my ideal routes.
My commute then included a 1.7 mile scooter ride in the morning through my quiet neighborhood and then down a beautiful bike path full of wild life to where I catch the county bus to work. In the afternoon, I alternated between taking the county bus followed by that same 1.7 scooter ride from the morning or taking the coach bus to the park and ride followed by a 2.5 mile scooter ride on the sidewalk along a busier road. They both had their advantages and I liked the flexibility.
Now you may ask yourself, how much of the year could I really scooter in such a cold weather state? The answer is most of it. The cold didn't stop me. It never has. Snow covered trails would stop me though but fortunately my city plowed the bike paths, so they don't stay snow covered for long. And I don't scooter on wet pavement in the morning as the spray up turns the back of my dress a bit muddy. (In the evenings when I can go home, clean up and change, I don't mind the rain or wet pavement.)
In November of 2018, I moved to a new city, Birmingham, AL in a much warmer climate, where my commute is now 7 blocks. It is amazing to now have a 4 minute commute to work! Such a change from my one-way hour commute in Milwaukee!
Let me tell you how I came up with the name for this blog, "The Scooter Lady". I was downtown Milwaukee afterwork one day riding my scooter. (I don't even remember why I was hanging out downtown that day.) I stopped in the local mall and was carrying my scooter when someone yelled out, "hey there's the scooter lady!" When I told a colleague at work this story, he told me I needed to create a webpage for The Scooter Lady. So without further ado, read on for my experiences commuting by scooter.
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