Its spring and its snowing

Yesterday .........................................and today

They waved at me!

Just had to share with you all what a beautiful day it was on Saturday! The sun was shining, our dirt road was clear enough to ride down, and I saw a fox at the side of the road.

I put-putted on our flat road and intended to turn around at the paved road/highway and take the long way around on dirt roads to go to the post office and mail off a gremlin bell. Once I got to the end of the dirt road, the highway was clear with almost no traffic.

It looked so inviting and empty, my inner voice said, "what the hey, I'll go into town this direction". Getting my courage up, I pulled over, removed the ice-chains from my shoes, and rode my scooter into town.

The main road to town for me is the Peak-to-Peak highway which parallels to the continental divide at ~8000 feet.

My heart pounding, I pulled out and started accelerating my SYM up a mile long hill. Would I get up to 45 mph? The answer was yes! and without a problem. Next time I'll tape my GPS on board so I can check it, but the acceleration seemed at least as good as our truck and certainly better than our neighbor's Subaru.

After stopping by the post office I puttered around town - hey, look, there's a scooter! (its a small town).

On the way back, after practicing small circles at the elementary school parking lot, I was feeling really confident and the road was still very clear of traffic so I continued on past my turn off and zoomed on northward toward Ward. And I see my first motorcycle coming towards me, so I waved... and they waved back! A couple of miles later a few more motorcycles come by, and we all wave to each other. I'm so pysched!

The SYM climbed the hills without a problem. I was keeping my speed to 40 - 45mph (indicated) and eventually a truck started to gain on me while we were climbing up a long hill. Well, I didn't want to be in his way so I turned the throttle up and ended up accelerating to 60mph while still climbing the hill! GULP. I slowed down. The truck was nowhere to be seen.

I had been wondering about high altitude tuning on the SYM because it had seemed like I had to rev it up higher than I expected. The SYM does fine at altitude and yes it can get up to speed and keep going at speed. It even handled well and was stable when getting pounded with 30mph crosswise gusts (me, I was quietly freaking out and had to keep telling myself to relax and trust the bike). The little windshield does a decent job, especially when I leaned slightly forward, the wind just flowed right over my head.

Oh, here’s my gremlin bell hanging from the lowest part of my scooter. It needed a little coaxing to start ringing – the clapper was twisted inside the bell – and now it gives a beautiful little ring as I maneuver her out of her parking spot.

And this is what a Yak-trak looks like.

Caution if you choose to wear them – they’d be a hazard on a scooter with a clutch as they can snag on the brake and shifter. And they could get hung up on the side-stand…

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Its feeling like spring!!

I missed my bus to Nederland on Friday and so took a walk around downtown. The sun was pouring through the canyon gap, lighting up the Pearl Street mall with a late afternoon glow.

Being a good Boulderite, I bought some coffee and strolled down the mall. After making my way through juvenile zone, I entered children zone and sat on a bench near the old courthouse.

After a moment I realized I was right next to the children’s fountain. This fountain is special. It kind of looks like a hop-scotch and in the summer time, it spurts up water from a bunch of holes in the ground so kids can play and splash around .

Right now there’s no water flowing but you wouldn’t know it! Little kids kept walking, running, skipping over to look at the fountain. They looked into the holes, ran around and giggled, hopped from one square to the next, and made little squealing and fountain-like noises.

Their parents, thinking they were be reassuring, were sayings things like, “there’s no water right now because its still winter” (but its warm out now!) “you’ll be able to play in it soon” (really?)… Fuddy-duddy parents, don’t they get it? (many did after they stopped talking and just watched).

These children were completely re-living last summer and were in-the-moment now, seeing the water soar over their heads, jumping from spot to spot to catch the next stream... what do you need water for when your imagination fills in the missing pieces?


With a smile on my face, I walked back to the bus stop dreaming of riding my scooter tomorrow.

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