Afew months ago, Charlotte Hansen, mother of two and grandmother of six, decided to trade in her motorcycle for something a little more "practical." This Longview resident now scoots around town on a Kymco motor scooter. She had been following the growing energy dilemma in the country and just knew she could make a difference. She?s not alone in turning to alternative ways to get around. Charlotte?s riding on the front end of what she hopes is an exploding trend.
|
Lisa Romenesko, right, and Charlotte Hansen enjoy their Scooter Days. When the weather permits, they hop on their scooters for a full day of shopping and scooting around Longview.
|
|
Lisa enjoys the wind in her hair as she rides her scooter.
|
|
Charlotte Hansen straps on her pink helmet as she gets ready to ride her scooter.
|
Revved up
Charlotte, a self-proclaimed "motorcycle mama," spent many years atop her Yamaha motorcycle. She loved so many things about it — the wind in her face, the freedom of the open roads, the camaraderie that came with riding with fellow bikers in the Christian Motorcycle Association.
But recently, she decided to hang up her heavy gear, don a pink helmet and ride something a little more eco-friendly.
"Scooters just make sense," she said. "They save on fuel, they're energy efficient, they're automatic. We're just such a consuming culture, and we need to protect the Earth and our resources any way we can."
Charlotte's friend, Longview resident Lisa Romenesko, couldn't agree more! After a few months of seeing Charlotte joy riding through town on her little scooter, Lisa decided to climb on board and purchase one of her own.
"Getting a scooter was one of the best decisions I've ever made," Lisa said. "It's changed my life. I can have the worst attitude in the world, go riding for an hour and come home feeling vibrant and refreshed. I'm helping the environment and having fun doing it."
Together, these women are the Scooter Chicks.
Scooter daze
Tucked away in their garages, the gals maintain second vehicles. Charlotte's SUV is essential for her job — Hansen High Five Entertainment has Charlotte wearing many hats, from a singer, comedian, ventriloquist and a motivational speaker. Lisa teaches content mastery at Jodie McClure Elementary and, although she uses her car occasionally, she said her primary vehicle is her scooter.
"I try to take my scooter out whenever and wherever I can. I just plan around the nicer weather," Lisa said. "No matter what I'm wearing, I'll jump on it and go! I'm a little careful with skirts, though. I always have a pair of biker shorts handy."
One thing these Scooter Chicks really enjoy doing together is sharing a Scooter Day.
"Lisa and I will go out and have Scooter Days, riding five to six hours around town, shopping or doing whatever, and then end at a nice restaurant for dinner," Charlotte said. "Those are our favorite days."
Shopping? You got it! The girls have found ways to carefully balance or tuck away their shopping bags when they go out on the town.
"Bungee cords are best friends to gals on motor scooters," Lisa said. "When we're going on shopping binges, we make sure we have our bungee cords with us so we can tuck away bags under our seats and bungee bags behind us. With women and shopping, where there's a will, there's a way."
Helping Mother Earth
Charlotte's and Lisa's scooters get roughly 90 miles per gallon, which makes this vehicle perfect for short trips down the road.
"Scooters are a much wiser choice for around-the town-transportation than a normal-sized vehicle because of a scooter's ability to efficiently use gas," Charlotte said. "You may want to use your scooter to run quick errands or hop over to the grocery store."
These scooter gals are always looking for fun friends on scooters to join their small "group."
"We hope the scooter thing catches on around East Texas, because we'd like to start a club and meet more people," Lisa said. "We know there's interest around town. We'll pull up to a red light, and the person next to us in a big SUV will roll down a window and ask us how many miles our scooters get to the gallon. When we tell them, we almost always get a thumbs up!"
Do some research. Maybe you'd like to hop on the scooter trend like these great Scooter Chicks!
