What was I thinking?

For the past few years I've talked about getting a scooter (aka moped) and driving it to work or a friend's house etc. More specifically, I wanted a Vespa. I found a dealership in town last Friday that sells bright, shiny, new Vespa's and was certain I needed to buy one right away. Guy and I spent the night searching Craigslist and didn't find any good Vespa's but did find some other good looking scooters. We talked some people down and ended up going and buying this on Monday:

I became the proud owner of a 2008 Andretti Benelli scooter with only 7 miles on it. Then I tried to ride it. The problem with the scooter is its height - I am much too short to reach the ground which makes it hard to hold the bike up to take off and even more difficult to stop it.

Last night I was determined to ride it and so we went to an empty, open parking lot. I got my barrings, took a deep breath and hit the gas. I took off steady and drove around the parking lot in a large circle and when I was getting close to my stop I hit the brakes and put my foot down and tipped it over, slamming myself and the bike into the ground. I had no real speed going but still fell quite hard. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to fall driving the speed limit.

For now, I am going to continue to keep myself on the back of the scooter, behind Guy and my hands of the gas. We're going to look for a smaller scooter that will fit my size better. This one is just not for me!