This past weekend my girlfriend, Amelia, and I decided to take a little vacation and get away from the city. We have both been working our tails off and needed some R&R someplace warm. So we booked a last minute deal to Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
While there I couldn't resist getting some time on two wheels.
Motorcycles on the island and on Nassau were rare sightings. I had no expectations of finding a place to rent a motorcycle anyway. But scooter rentals were popular. So with a recommendation from the guest services at the resort we were promptly picked up by J&S scooter rentals. Show a drivers license, sign a short form, be reminded that driving is on the left, and hand over $50 and we're set.
This thing was smaller than I expected. They didn't have anything bigger. What the hell, we're on vacation and just plan on tooling around the island a bit to explore past the resort.
Driving on the left didn't seem to be a big deal. I just needed to pause at intersections for a second and remind myself of which way to look. We planned on getting off Paradise Island and exploring Nassau a bit. Well, you have to go over a bridge to get away from the resort and into Nassau and our little 1/2 horsepower toy didn't make it even a third of the way up the bridge. Just a few sputters and then nothing.
I tried restarting. Nothing. There is no shoulder on the bridge and Bahamians don't exactly drive very carefully. So, we start walking back. I'm not taking the toy with us.
As luck would have it the guys that rented us the scotter happen to be driving by and we wave them down. They didn't seem surprised and quickly turned around to go bring us another scooter. Cool. This won't be so bad afterall. Well, after 10 minutes the Bahama version of Evil Knievel comes skidding to a halt sideways to leave us with our new ride. He is gone before we can say thanks. The 'new' scooter looks like its been through a war. But we're on vacation and feeling adventurous, so what the hey. We don our skull caps and head over the bridge.
At every bump and turn we hear parts scraping and shaking. The front brake doesn't work. The headlights don't work. The plastic is cracked everywhere and held together by zip ties. Back brake, horn, and turn signals work though. As does the throttle. The little engine that could got us over the bridge and soon we're cruising down the main drag of Nassau, splitting lanes when possible as there was traffic. I did say we were feeling adventurous.
After a short while we randomly pick some side road to see where it goes. All we find is a residential neighborhood and a dead end after a half mile. So we turn around and start talking about Amelia having a turn at the throttle. She has never ridden a scooter before. There is no traffic here what so ever so it'll be OK. So she gets some instruction, "go easy on the throttle", "squeeze hard on the back brake".... She starts off easy on the throttle and next thing I witness is the engine revs increase quickly and her veering off into the brush.
My heart stopped for a moment, I'm worried about her and I'm thinking "Oh sh*t".
I run over and she's laying there giggling and smiling. Not a scratch on her.
After making sure she's OK I proceed to get the scooter up and out of the brush. Then my right foot feels like its on fire. I didn't smell gasoline....Nope....I'm being eaten alive by ants! They're all over my foot and the scooter. Those little SOBs have quite a bite!
Enough of this,.....let's clean the ants off the scooter, get it started again and head back. Go for a walk along the beach and get a drink.
"Hey! They have jet ski rentals on the beach! You've never ridden a jet ski before? No problem. Just go easy on the throttle."
