Wednesday, April 15, 2015

#30DaysofScootering - Day 15 - Scooter Summit, a Tiny Cargo Trike and More


On Wednesdays I work in Seattle. I take the Sound Transit 554 bus from Issaquah to downtown.


The side facing seat in the back is my favorite. Swifty tucks in right beside me, out of the way.


Swifty folds into a pretty slim configuration.


Folding and unfolding takes about a minute.


Today I'm meeting my friend Mark Canizaro for breakfast on Capitol Hill. Pine Avenue is one of the gentler routes up the hill.

 

Back when I worked in software in the '90s, one of my gigs had me working on the 12th floor of the left "Spam Can" tower.


At Summit, I turn left and roll over to Olive.


Glo's is a pretty good Seattle breakfast place. It's not up there with the Issquah Cafe (which is my gold standard of breakfast joints), but it feels like the kind of place Jerry Seinfeld would hang out in.


My friend Mark and has to stay off his bike for a while. He's also supposed to limit his walking. A few weeks ago I loaned him my KickPed to help him extend his range.


We've got the KickPed stashed under the table. It folds even smaller and faster than Swifty.


Mark has experienced the truth of what I've been saying, with a scooter you go about twice as fast as you do walking with the same effort. And the coasting down hills thing is super fun.


Mark still has to take things easy, but his physical therapist has now cleared him for easing back into biking.


After breakfast I roll back down the hill to Lake Union. As you can see, Seattle is looking pretty darn nice this morning.


I wind up waiting a bit at the Fremont Bridge.


Going up...


and up...


and up.


All those very bright colors are new and in fact are still in process. It's nice to see that SDOT is keeping at least one poet employed.

 

Once the boat passes, the bridge comes down.


 It's a really fabulous spring day.




There are fresh poems in the Free Poem box.


It's another groovy day at G and O Family Cyclery. Davey is actually not a giant, this cargo trike is very small.


It's a kid's cargo trike and it's adorable.


 After a busy day working on nifty bicycles, I scooter over to Feathered Friends where Patagonia's roving repair truck is. Alas, I got there just as they were closing up and moving on. They checked out the blown zippers on my Patagonia vest's pockets and said "Yeah, we can't fix that here, but our refurb center in Reno can fix it and you'll get many more miles out of that vest." It's nice to see a company that works to keep their products in use instead of just trying to get you to buy their latest and greatest stuff.


Instead of taking the 554 home, today I took the 214. The 214, stops off at the Issaquah Transit Center, a couple of miles from my home whereas the 554 basically stops at my doorstep, but it's a nice evening and I'm happy to get to scoot a few more miles.


From the bus window on clear days like this you get a nice view of Mount Rainier off to the south.


Back in Issaquah I stop at Trader Joe's for a few little treats and then scoot home.


Later in the year, many of the trees along Gilman Boulevard bear tasty fruit.


I add a couple of pictures to my huge collection of "Kent's scooter crossing the Issaquah Creek" collection.


16.17 miles of scootering today, bringing the month's total to 81.78 miles.

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