All new episode this week. The rest of the blog post follows the video.

Scooter Sunday Captured Ep. 005 from Marty Mankins on Vimeo.

Special mention to Beth from Copasetic Beth [the word 'copasetic' is part of the song's lyrics used in the above video]

For the YouTube version, click on this link: Scooter Sunday Captured Episode 005

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Gas Mileage Update

The last three tanks I’ve used in my scooter have gone 110, 109 and 115 miles, respectfully. My tank holds 1.1 gallons of gas. Doing the math, I ended up getting almost 105mpg on my last tank.

I’ve been riding my scooter to work most days, not driving my car much. As a matter of fact, I went from August 15th to September 29th on a single tank of gas for my car. That figured out to be 28mpg in my car. Not bad and the savings on gas was nice, too. Not to mention reducing the amount of emissions I added to the air.

The weather here in Salt Lake is changing quick. This last Friday was pretty damn chilly. A high of 47. Brrrrr! I bundled up for my ride, but I can tell you that it was a bit tough. My days of daily riding are coming to an end. So sad.

 
R.I.P. Mother’s Cookies

Speaking of sad, One of my favorite cookies that I’ve eaten for years will soon be gone. Mother’s Cookies abruptly shut their doors after 92 years in business.

“Goodbye frosted rhinos, tigers and elephants”

I had so many memories as a kid, eating those frosted Circus Animal cookies. When I heard the news, I wiped the tears from my eyes and drove to the two local Albertson’s and bought several bags. I am now on a daily ration, which is proving to be difficult. Can’t. Resist. Cookie.

I always preferred the smaller bite-sized version of the iced oatmeal

While the Circus Animals were my all-time favorite, the iced oatmeal were a close second. So tasty and a great little snack. I know there may be another brand out there that’s similar, it just won’t be a true substitute. I will miss Mother’s brand when they are no longer found at the stores.

In last week’s Scooter Sunday comments, Dave2 mentioned how my scooter had been “oddly absent from Scooter Sundays as of late…” And he is right, albeit partially.

Scooter Sunday #17 was a recap of my vacation in Park City, with no scooter coverage at all.

For Scooter Sunday #16, I was on vacation that week, where my scooter remained parked in the shed while I updated my fun time at a concert and the start of my week off in Park City.

Looking at previous posts, there was Scooter Sunday #15 where I raved about my gas mileage I am getting, compared to my car. And then the posts for Scooter Sunday #12, #13 and #14 covered the saga of how the dealer broke my scooter, and it’s glorious [but marred] return.

So while the most recent Scooter Sundays were lacking in scooter coverage, I will do what I can to refocus coverage back on the scooter, at least until the end of the riding season, which I hope to extend well into October.

Speaking of…

I filled up my scooter’s gas tank this last week. The cost was $4.17 for exactly one gallon. It’s obvious that the Honda dealer did some good with my scooter when they did the regular maintenance on it. Either that or it’s broken in now that it’s been driven over 1,400 miles. Regardless what happened, I ended up getting 106 mpg… three more miles per gallon than last tank. I doubt it will get any better than this, but I’m just amazed at how lean it is on fuel [it helps that it doesn't go over 45mph]. And of course it’s still so fun to ride, getting looks from everyone, including fellow scooter riders.

Long Rides

Last night’s ride was pretty long. My friend had a party at his house. He doesn’t live too far away, but it’s at least five miles from my house. And five miles is actually a decent distance on a scooter. Since this was a drinking party, I stopped at the grocery store to get a couple bags of ice. One bag fit into the seat of my scooter and the other bag laid on the floorboard between my feet.

Then a couple of hours into the party, we ran out of few drink ingredients. Since I wasn’t at a state of inebriation that hindered my ability to drive, I offered to run down to the store to pick up the items. The ride home at 1:30am [I was mostly sober by then] was not bad. I brought my windbreaker with me, since the temperature gets chilly at night. Plus with hardly any cars on the road at that time, it made for a pleasant ride home. Can I say again how much I love my scooter. Oh yeah.

Breaking Dawn

The popularity of this book series by Stephanie Meyer is incredible. Older teens and adults of every age have snapped up all of these books, including the latest and final part “Breaking Dawn”. My wife just borrowed the first three books from a friend and will start reading them. I wouldn’t mind reading them, even though it takes me forever to get through a book. I love to read and as a budding author, I’ve got a vested interest in these books that consume the interest of a collective general audience.

Plus, as my daughter told me, there is a movie coming out, based on the first book “Twilight”, which just got moved up by three weeks to open on November 21st, 2008. Let’s see if I can read the first book by then, so I don’t sit in the theater scratching my head while everyone around me is in tune with the plot.

Next Week on Scooter Sunday

Next week, Scooter Sunday will be posted late due to my trip to San Francisco. If it all works out like I hope it will, I’ll have something different to post, which will involve scooters. Stay tuned.