Rallies: That Scooter Thing Season Opener

Jude and I complete the cemetery challenge

A few weeks ago, Jude (our son aged 9.5) and I joined our friends at That Scooter Thing for their start of the season gathering. It's been a tradition in their family to invite friends and family over to the garage to celebrate the unofficial beginning of the riding year.

This time they upgraded operations and made it a mini rally, complete with multiple locations, a ride, and awards. It's really targeted more towards scooterists, but all were welcome and here come the cc-advantaged to crash the damn thing anyway. (It's what we do.)

Carrot with her Stella

The That Scooter Thing crew, ie Lee and his wife Carrot, are great friends of ours who do absolutely silly things with scooters on their YouTube channel, mainly using their custom engine-building skills to turn Vespas into deathtrap wheelie machines that none but the bravest of women and men will actually ride.

Matt's Allstate, helpfully collecting rain

They also tune regular scoots that run rul good and show off some great technical skills, I SUPPOSE, but we're skipping straight to the wall-of-death danger brigade angle because that's how journalism works.

True to Ohio's long and proud history, any time you plan a riding event it will be 40° and steadily spitting rain, and this fateful Saturday was no exception. TYPICAL.

Despite the weather, Jude and I geared up and off we went to see friends. I don't give two craps about riding in the rain, but I rarely carry a passenger. So, it was with an abundance of both caution and stopping distance that we pulled into the lot. Luckily also despite the weather, turnout was good including quite a few out-of-towners.

The highlight of the day by far was the Achievement Run, which was the That Scooter Thing version of a scavenger hunt. Now, I've seen plenty of people try the scavenger hunt ride thing and I've seen many flop. This was the complete opposite.

There were a mix of challenges ranging from exploring arcades and bridges to finding a policeman and assembling a scooter, sport bike, cruiser, and dual sport all in one photo. We attempted to make that last one happen but we were suffering from serious lack of cruiser, something I would not normally describe as suffering.

NOT on the achievement list

You got extra bonus points for running out of gas or breaking down (lol), and all entries were confirmed via instagram photos. I have never seen a group of people get so excited about crossing "disrespect a couch" off their achievement list. So without further ado, a smattering of challenge photos.