Riding in style

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I traveled to the city of New York for a scintillating 1-and-a-half-day treat (a treat for New York, that is, to be graced with our presence!). Always on the cutting edge of cool, he and I blazed our way through the city like conquering heroes, riding high on the backs of our magnificent kick-scooters.

That's right, dear readers! The toy that you lovingly abandoned in your garage at the age of 10 and neglected forevermore has become our new, stylin' adult mode of urban transport. Here's the story.

Do you remember when the Razor scooter first came out, and it was such a big deal that it was right up there on the Cool-o-Meter with Heely shoes (even though they came later), but only among those who had not yet reached puberty? Well apparently at that time, my boyfriend had reached puberty, and in fact surpassed it, but still coveted one of the slick silver rides, ever since his tobacco-peddling, scooter-riding classmate at college had let him try out his delivery "vehicle."

Fast forward to 10 years later. He has 3 motorcycles and a car, but still hasn't gotten his hands on the simple self-propelled transportation equipment of his dreams. Four days before we were supposed to leave on our trip to New York, he called me and said he wanted to get us scooters to ride around the city. He launched into a discourse on the varying benefits of different brands and models of scooters, thoroughly overwhelming me with possibilities, and then said, in a voice filled with urgency, "Go try one out." He was contemplating ordering a pair online, right then and there, and getting 2-day shipping, but he didn't want to spend his money on something I might not like.

Unsurprisingly, I was unable to find one to try out within the next 2 days (although my story of trying to accomplish this task at Target during a power failure is worthy of a post all its own), but Rico cleverly located a store in New York that carries a wide selection of kick scooters, so we decided to stop there on our incredibly busy first day and try them out.

We did. Rico had been so anxious I wouldn't like them, that I wasn't sure what to expect. Would I be falling over every 5 seconds? I wasn't. Although I was a bit wobbly on my first try, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. The only problem was...the price. We tried out all 3 adult models, which I liked to varying degrees, but Rico was really only interested in the Razor A-5, a larger stunt model technically designed for kids, but big enough for your average sized adult who just wants to get around cheaply—it was half the cost of the adult scooters. The store wouldn't let us try that one out, and I was still kind of concerned about whether I could comfortably ride a kid's scooter, so we left and trudged our way back to the subway.

By the next day, though, Rico had commented so many times on how much faster we'd be getting around on a scooter, that I knew he wasn't going to let it go. He found a toy shop that carried it, and off we went. They did let us try one out, and it was quite suitable for me, although the price wasn't as good as it would have been online—or at the other store. I would have probably encouraged Rico to wait and just buy it cheap, except the storekeeper had been forced to mutilate the box in order to take the scooter out for testing, so I felt kind of guilty and we just bought 2 on the spot. Then we underwent our conversion from our usual plodding pace to ridiculous speed!

With emphasis on the ridiculous. If you've ever disrupted a sophisticated metropolitan scene by weaving at high speeds around the more sedate pedestrians on a child's toy, you will understand how I felt. If you have ever walked around in public in a dinosaur suit on any day other than Halloween, you will understand how I felt. If you have done neither, you need to loosen up a little! What are you, sane?

Just in case you are, I'll say it simply: I felt conspicuous.

But...conspicuous is good! We were the vanguard! Our Razors are on the razor edge of transportation innovation! We made the 3-mile trip from our hotel in Brooklyn to lunch in lower Manhattan in a little under 40 minutes! I am in awe of the efficiency! Travel twice as fast as you can on foot, with half the bulk of a bike, half the danger of a skateboard, and none of the shoe-changing of rollerblades! Scooter commuting seems like the best of all worlds! It's the next big thing, and Rico and I are at the forefront of the wave!

We are not the only ones who have chosen to commute around New York City on kick scooters (in fact, after we bought them, I saw several other full-grown adults with them). But we were still the oddball minority. Not that that's a big concern. To be honest, I'll secretly be a little proud if the rest of the world never gets in on this game, since then the joys of scootering will be forever my own "in thing."

But you, dear readers, are not part of that clueless "rest of the world." I want you to join me as a member of the elite few.  Get yourself a scooter and become as me and Rico, gliding effortlessly on the wheels of wisdom.