Scooters

Scooters. What else can I say. Our 1st day on the island of Chios we, Tom, Darren, Connie and I, rented two scooters to travel around the island on. One for Darren and Connie and one for Tom and me. The day before when our travel lady showed us around Karfas, she pointed out the best scooter rental place. In the morning we went to rent the best scooters available. Only one problem, the good scooter place wouldn't rent us scooters because we did not have international drivers licenses. Okay, strike one. We walked down the street to the next "Rent a Moto" place. Here there was no problem.

"You want scooters?" the Greek lady asked us.

"Yes please," we replied.

"Do you have licenses?"

"Yes. Here you go," we said as we produced out American drivers licenses.

"Okay," the lady replied.

We continued to follow her out to the street to get our scooters.

"Since you are tall," she directed at Tom, "Here is a bigger scooter. And here is a smaller one for you," directed at Darren.

"Do you have experience in riding?" she asked Tom and Darren.

"Yes, plenty," Tom replied.

"No," Darren said cautiously.

"Oh no. We have a problem," the lady said.

Now of course we are thinking that we are not going to be rented the scooters because of lack of driving experience. But that was not the case. The lady just told Tom to take Darren out for a spin and teach him how to ride. Connie and I waited for Darren and Tom to get back from the driving lesson, and then we all got helmets, paid 12 euros for the scooters, and left for our adventure of exploring Chios.

First we had to get gas, so he rode down the street to find a gas station. Now, Tom is an excellent scooter driver because he has had much practice on dirt bikes and motorcycles, but Darren is not such a good driver. The first gas station came up rather rapidly after a bend in the road and Tom and I turned into it without problem. Darren and Connie did not have as much luck. Darren skidded on the gravel and the bike toppled onto its side. Darren was okay, but Connie hurt her leg. The Greek gas station guy was really nice. He brought a chair and a cup of water out for Connie to sit on and drink. I had an ice pack which we applied to her growing knee. Nothing was broken, except maybe Darren's confidence in driving. Connie was such a trooper and said that we need to get going and we all got on our bikes and kept going. Tom told Darren that his fall was most likely due to using the front brake to much.

"Remember what the scooter lady said, '70% back, 30% front'," Tom told Darren. "Don't be afraid to use your front brake, just be careful with it."

As tom and I rode off in front of Darren and Connie we were worried about how this trip was going to go. For the rest of the afternoon it was great. Riding along in the south of Chios was the best experience of the whole trip.

We did not have much of a plan, just head south-westish. We stopped in Armolia for lunch and then headed south with the plan to go to Komi, Emporios, and Mavros Gyalos(the black pebble beach). Not much has happened yet, injury-wise. Just wait.

The drive was very nice and I had been relaxed for some time now, after I got used to "scootering". Tom and I were usually a little ways ahead of Darren and Connie. Tom and I were rounding a bend just outside of Komi, when a car pulled out in front of us. Tom swerved just in time. I felt the car near my leg. We missed it hitting us by only inches. Luckily no one was coming the other direction because we had swerved to the other side of the road and almost hit a fence, and almost lost our balance on the side of the road. Tom kept his wits about him did not crash the bike but kept it upright and kept going down the street and we stopped to catch our breath at the stop sign. Of course you have to remember that we are on scooters and anything that would hit us or anything we would hit would cause a pretty good amount of damage. I was deathly afraid of crashing with the scooter. But Tom kept control and we did not have to call Space Camp and tell them that we were in a Greek hospital with concussions and broken limbs! The car that almost hit us came and apologized. It was an ancient old couple. The diver had really thick glasses and kept signaling that he couldn't see around the bend. But that of course did not stop him from accelerating out onto the street instead of cautiously creeping out to see if there was any traffic!!

We made it to Komi and relaxed for a 1/2 hour or so before heading over to Emporio. After Emporio we went to Pyrgi and then wound our way home without any accidents. The only thing that aroused was when Darren took a 90 degree turn a little too fast and ended up on the side of the road. No one fell off or got hurt, just shaken up. At that point Connie was ready to walk home rather than get back on the scooter with Darren. We took the rest of the way slowly and carefully and arrived back in Karfas around 8pm. We were all glad to be back home and off the scooters. 8 hours scootering around the island can make you tired. We saw most of what we wanted to, did not die or break anything, and arrived home just in time to go to dinner. Saganaki for starters, and Mousaka for the entree. But, that story will have to wait for another time.