Back when I was 19 and living in Olympia, Washington, a co-worker of mine used to ride a Honda Elite scooter to work. Since I couldn't drive a motorcycle, I thought riding a scooter would be cool, and on his urging, I bought a used one exactly like his. I moved to Portland shortly after that and kept the scooter for awhile to drive around the city with, but I soon discovered there was only a couple of months out of the year you could really ride a scooter there if you didn't want to ride it in the rain. It went into storage, and eventually I sold it to make some money when I went back to college.

For a few years now, I've been interested in buying another scooter. Mostly because it saves a lot of gas but also because it would be fun to ride it around Pasadena. When I visited B.C. recently, my friend had the same model I want to buy, and it reminded me of how much I've wanted one. I hit Craigslist and looked for a week or so before seeing an ad for a 2007 Yamaha Vino 125cc with only 250 miles on it for almost $900 less than what it would cost me to buy a new one. The ad listed the scooter as in Long Beach which is where I headed yesterday afternoon to test drive it. Except when I got the exact address, I realized it wasn't the part of Long Beach near the water, but the part of Long Beach that's about 2 blocks away from Compton.

Dark was falling when I arrived, and believe me, it was a quick test drive through the darkening streets of the hood. I loved the scooter and am buying it. Since I really don't want to ride it on surface streets for an hour and a half with no license or registration through bad neighborhoods, a friend and I are using a truck to go pick it up on Sunday. When I had my last scooter, nearly 20 years ago, I never bothered to get the proper license certification or any insurance to ride it. Now, I'm all grown up and realize what a bad idea that would be. Unfortunately, I have to get full motorcycle certification because of the ccs, so I need to get enrolled in a class soon. Maybe someday I will get a motorcycle...with a side car for Wally to ride in, wearing a scarf, goggles, and a leather helmet.