Two-wheel Tourist

Amazing stuff Oxygen, I am sure I don't need to tell you, it's one of the very few things you really can't live without. I feel that way about scooters too.

Scootering has given me legs again, I have no problems with my limbs, only my chest and what with chemotherapy this last 6 months, my whole body has been on low power. But I do need to use Oxygen most of the time I am moving around, (frankly my lungs are like bin bags and they need all the help they can get). My kick scooter allows me to halve the effort involved in any trip ( you are either on a decline - they are energy free, or an incline where the scooter becomes a trolley carrying Oxygen canisters, shopping and various other heavy items.... on wheels ). My electric scooter takes all the effort away, with the seat on, it is a two-wheeled mobility scooter. It recently made a week in St Ives a joyous experience, the hills presented no problem whatsover and I literally went everywhere on it. And I made a few good of friends.

I have spent the last year or so seeing where I can and cannot go on a scooter, (both physically and legally) and its been interesting: Public Transport, Art Galleries, Museums, Parks, Footpaths (sometimes) most public spaces and private malls, with the odd exception: I was asked by by High Vis Man to dismount whilst in my local shopping mall the other day because, as he said "Scooters and Skateboards are not allowed in the Centre" I suggested to him that he call the police and carried on my way. He realised it was a no win for him so he swung on his heels to go and deal with a more urgent issue like a pool of wee in the main thoroughfare, probably.

I went to the Mobilty Office in that centre and asked them if I could get a permit or amnesty or whatever. They said probably not, the Centre was private property and they can allow or disallow whatever they like (warning for the future - do not let these malls kill your high street stone dead then start laying down the law on what shoes you can wear, or whether or not you are allowed to wear a hoodie). These Mobility people do a great job and my issue was not with them but they didn't understand why I did not want to take the opportunity of a free mobility scooter (4 wheeler) for the afternoon which was allowed in the Centre. Now I am not severely disabled or unable to use my arms and legs and consequently believe that these vehicles should be left available for those that really need that level of help, I am not such a serious case and I would feel a bit of a fraud using a mobility scooter quite apart from the sense of resignation that it would force on me, the looks of pity or annoyance that I may engender from the shopping public, rather than the smiles and raised eyebrows that I normally generate as I glide through the world with swanlike grace on one of my two wheelers. Quite a few oldies - often old bikers have said to me "I wouldn't be seen dead on a mobility scooter but I would love one of those".

In ending I have to be careful here, I am not saying that scooters are the solution, they are my solution, right now, maybe tomorrow it will be something else.