Tour Denver... via scooter!

Here's a little ditty about Jane and David.

Jane and David have started a new scooter rental and tour business in downtown Denver called ScooTours Denver. With a tagline like, "You're cuter on a scooter!" how could one go wrong with these guys? It's true! So, I contacted David a couple weeks ago about the possibly of becoming one of their tour guides, and I did so just at the right time: they've been building the rental side of the business since about March/April and are now getting the tour side in gear this month. David suggested that if I was feeling ambitious, I could devise a mini-tour on which to take him as a little "audition." I was feeling ambitious!

Do you like my antlers? ;-)

Little Chaos and I decided to go with Riverside Cemetery, which is about the most awesome gem of Denver history ever tucked away in between a coal plant, an oil refinery, and a waste management company located in the industrial northern downtown area on Brighton Blvd. Not exactly prime real estate -- which makes it perfect for a cemetery. Aside from some pretty noxious smells wafting over the place at times, you'll  bask in the thrill of finding several notable Denver pioneers who found their final resting place here. If you visit the office when you first enter the cemetery, you can purchase a couple of tour books to find where these folks rest.


For my tour purposes, I chose three: Silas Soule (a Colorado Civil War hero), John Bass (shortstop in the first major league baseball league), and Lester Drake (not much on this former Colorado miner, but his cabin gravestone is quite the talk of the town!). I'm not going to give you the whole spiel here -- I like to keep my readers' attention, after all! -- but you can find out a lot more information at the Friends of Historic Riverside Cemetery website. Some other notables include former Colorado governors (and you'll see just where we get a lot of our fourteeners' names!), big business pioneers (how about street names?), first African American pioneers in our state, and an amazingly large Civil War section. It's a pretty fascinating place.

A sort of fun moment was when David and I were scooting along, and he asked me if I knew a lady on the Internet who goes by Scooter Lass. "That's me!" I exclaimed. "I can't believe I'm talking to Scooter Lass!" he said. Apparently, he had been searching me out for awhile. Gotta love the Internet!

"Scooter Lass, I want to rent a scooter and/or go on a scooter tour! Where do I start?"

Coors Field! You, too, can be cuter on a
scooter and see the city this way!

Gentle reader, I have your answers! Go to the ScooTours Denver website for a bevy of information. You just need a valid driver's license, need to be 18 and over, and need NOT be inebriated. (Yes, I know you felt really clever and awesome when you came up with the idea to have a pub crawl on scooters, but trust me when I tell you that ending up in the hospital or sitting in jail -- or Riverside Cemetery, for that matter -- is not so clever nor is it awesome). They will also run you through some training and help you out before you go on your trip. The prices are really, really good compared to other cities (I paid $125 for an all-day scooter rental in Vegas, for example). And they provide the helmet, eye protection, sunscreen, self-tour ideas, and maps of the area -- and unlimited gas!

I've agreed to help David and Jane with some marketing for ScooTours, and perhaps I'll have a chance to run a tour before I head to Japan in September. But the main thing I'm trying to say here is: GO RENT A SCOOTER FROM THESE PEOPLE! There's nothing like seeing a city from the back of a scooter, where you can smell the smells and really immerse yourself in the action. The favorite self-tour so far among ScooTours' renters is the Red Rocks tour. Are you kidding me?! What are you waiting for?

Resurrection

Like the phoenix, rising from the ashes... oh, wait. Actually, with all the forest fires around me lately, that's going to turn into a really cruel metaphor. So, let's just say: I'm back!

Scooter Lass had a very, very ... well, I wouldn't say an especially BUSY year, per se (I'm just always busy). It was a transitional year, trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life. At least for the foreseeable future, that evidently entails teaching English as a second language in Fukushima, Japan. I'm heading there in September. This also means selling my beloved Little Chaos to have more money for my journey, but I hope to have a Little Chaos II in Japan. Talk about traveling the distance on two-wheeled vehicles! Japan! Woo! I bet a Honda Met in Japan would be pretty cheap. I'll keep you posted.

Now, stay tuned for a blog post coming shortly about my little peek into the scooter tour business...  it's about time someone brought this to Denver!