Mia has moved!

Yep, that's right: The Illustrious Travels of Mia Scooterpants has moved to a new domain name!  The blog is now at The Lady Scooterist - and not only talks about the adventures of Mia, but of Scooterlou as well, as she's back in my little scooter family!  Come read about Mia and Lou at the new site!

Why I will never, ever participate in the Jill Behrman 5K

I don't typically work Saturday mornings, but today I had to assist a workshop on campus - which meant primo scooter parking, as hardly anyone is up at 8 am on a Saturday morning in Bloomington.  I think I picked the wrong spot to park in, though.

For those of you who don't know, the Color Run is a marathon where at certain points along the marathon route you get covered in colored powder, and eventually you end up looking like a rainbow.  Scratch that - this wasn't an official Color Run, it was the Jill Behrman 5k.  Well, little did I know that I'd parked Mia a bit too close to the Bloomington Color Run Jill Behrman route...

There weren't any signs stating this ANYWHERE near the motorcycle parking spot I'd parked in, but apparently Mia was parked in ground zero for a purple powder bomb of some sort.  I walked up to her and saw she was pretty well coated in purple stuff.

So, I dusted her off best I could, then dusted myself off, because by that point I was covered in purple dust, then rode home, loaded my pockets with quarters, and took her off to the nearest car wash. (She'd been needing a bath for a week, anyway, after she and I fell into a muddy patch as we tried to sneak down that dirt patch on the hill in the first picture...)  I sprayed her so hard with soap and water that I think I knocked a body panel slightly loose, hah.  As all the purple powder mixed with the soap and swirled down the drain, I thought my troubles were gone - until I got a closer look as I was rinsing her off.

Yes, even post wash she was still spotty, and not just around her speedometer - her left and right fairings were streaked, her trunk not only had streaks down it but also sported a new scratch that wasn't there this morning and was obscured by the powder... I was so absolutely pissed off that I was shaking.  My Mia, ruined by the frigging Color Run.  I didn't know what to do - do I contact parking operations for IU?  Do I call the IU police?  Do I cry about my ruined scooter?  What if this gunk got into her engine and she dies?  I was shaking due to being so stressed out.  Mia's pretty much my life.  Then Ross said "Lemme try using rubbing alcohol on her."  

And it worked.  THANK GOD.  I was about ready to have Wick's Wheels price out a couple of new body panels so I could message Parking Operations and tell them "hey, you never posted anything about an event happening here, and so I'm holding you responsible, pay to fix my scooter."  Now I get to try to come down from the resulting panic attack, haha.  My poor Mia.  I must have hugged her five times after Ross got all the purple off.  But yeah, this event's soured me on the Jill Behrman 5k forever now - they obviously don't give a crap where they spray their color stuff, or if it damages anyone's property, so... I mean, come on, how hard is it to move the color bomb or whatever further down the street so people's personal property doesn't get damaged?

Current odometer reading: 1690ish miles

1 year, 1500 miles

Yes, that's right - I finally hit 1500 miles.  And as of last Saturday, I've had Mia for an entire year. I put probably more than twice as many miles on Mia as I had on Scooterlou, my old Honda Metropolitan, in the first year I owned her.  Speaking of Scooterlou...

There she is!  I've been hoping to meet her new owner for a while now, and when Bryan shot me a message saying "oh, Scooterlou's at the shop", I raced over so I could see her.  And there she is, looking much like when I traded her in last year, but with more miles on her.  (I think she's around 3100 miles - I traded her in with 1740.)  Her new owner is incredibly friendly - he handled my excited flailing quite well!  He even kept her little crocheted basket cozy, and was thinking of adding some beading to the bottom of it to cover up the fraying bits.  I think 'Lou is in very good hands now, especially after meeting her new owner. :)

Today was a very good scooter day.

Current odometer reading: 1504ish miles (Mia's currently parked in a parking garage while I'm on campus)

Spending a little more time with Mia

Mia, hanging out with some other scooters in the IU Art Museum parking lot

Yes, I'm spending a bit more time with Mia these days.  And, well, downright spoiling her, too.  We (Bryan, myself, Ross, and Gina) all moved to a new house on the west side of town - and because of that, my commute to the office has ballooned from a 3 minute, half-mile roll down a hill to a 20 minute, 5-ish mile slog through traffic to get back over to the east side for work.  So, since I work a lot, of course I'm going to be riding a lot. :)

from left to right, starting closest to the garage door:  Mia, Donna Stella, Big Macintosh, and Carmen Stelladiego closest to the camera

Plus, we've now got a garage!  Which makes for happier scooters, I bet.  Or at the very least scooters that aren't exposed to the elements so much.  I noticed that due to all the winter riding I did earlier this year, there's a fair bit of rust on Mia's exhaust and other metal parts on her underside - going to have to get in the habit of at least toweling her off when I get home once winter hits, if we have another nasty winter.  (I plan on upgrading her exhaust once her warranty expires, so I'm not super worried about the rust.)  It's incredibly nice to have a place to keep Mia where she's out of the weather and kept warm and dry.  (And it makes getting ready to ride in the morning much more pleasant, too!)

Current odometer reading: 1287.2 miles

Finally hit 1000 miles!

Yep, Mia finally hit 1000 over the weekend!  I crossed the 1000-mile threshold while scootering through beautiful Brown County on the way home from Nashville, IN.  Sunday was a beautiful day for a ride, especially through the woods - not too hot out, nice and sunny, and lots of road to ride on.

We even made our way out to Bean Blossom, and found the covered bridge there - it was a little nerve-wracking, trying to go slowly and not wobble so much on the raised wooden tracks for cars to go over, but it was still fun!  My friend and fellow seafoam Buddy rider, Mary Alice, took this picture.  I swear Mia's in there - hiding behind Donna Stella, the blue Stella, but there!  (There's really no way to get a good picture when all your scooters are in a covered bridge...)

Current odometer reading: 1028 miles

Scooters at the car wash, and more

Yes, that's right - I took Mia to the car wash to blast off the layer of pollen she'd accumulated while I was in Florida.  It was actually kinda fun!  Mia and her scooter buddies (Big Macintosh, Donna Stella, and Carmen Stelladiego) got all nice and clean and shiny.  I also found out that thanks to the new transmission, Mia now tops out at around 50 mph - granted, that was at full-throttle after a few minutes of warmup, but still!  I can sort of keep up with all the scooters that are higher than 50cc!

One of my new scooter buddies, Melissa, has a little tree air-freshener hanging from her scooter's hook - so, while I was at the car wash, I figured, why the heck not?  I'll get one too. :D  Now the entire hallway in front of my apartment smells like vanilla.  Awesome.

I also captured this elusive sight - Bryan on a Buddy!  He said Mia's a bit slower than he's used to, haha.  

On top of all the fun we had cleaning scooters, we also went for a bit of a ride yesterday and today.  It was much needed after being in Florida, absolutely scooterless, for a week.  I think I went into scooter withdrawal on day two of vacation.  It was bad.  But this weekend fixed that!

Current odometer reading: 929.7 miles

Mia had a busy Saturday last weekend.

Yes, Mia had a very busy Saturday last weekend.  Usually I end up going for a ride on Saturday, if I'm feeling up to it, so that ends up with Mia seeing a lot of action - but last Saturday was exceptionally busy.

It started off with bringing Mia to Wick's Wheels to get a windshield installed - and Scott surprised me and showed me new performance transmissions he got in. (It's this one, by NCY, if you're curious.)  So, Mia underwent a fair amount of work before our Saturday ride.

And there's Scott, hard at work on Mia.  The new transmission went in pretty quickly, and the windshield, while puzzling, was a pretty smooth install too.  (Although it turns out that the brackets were originally installed backwards, oops)  Once everything was all done on Mia, we went on a nice ride - off to Griffy Lake, then to the IU stadium for some awesome pictures.

All in all, it was an awesome day - Mia rides so much more smoothly with the new transmission, and while I didn't figure out the windshield installation issues until after I got home, that's gonna make future rides much more pleasant.

Below are some more pictures from our ride!

Current Odometer Reading: 905ish (not entirely sure, as I'm in Florida right now, and entirely scooterless! Boo.)