Charlie Ray, 1961
Our first bicycling trip was just the beginning. Just a couple of days ago Daddy sent out an e-mail, trying to organize us for this summer. August? Oregon?
When Daddy finds something he enjoys, he wants to keep doing it.
I had no idea our bike trip would become an annual deal. Daddy and I went together the following year. After that Sabrina joined in.
We varied up the itinerary. Once we rode around Lake Tahoe. Another time we went along the coast near Arcadia. We let the kids join in now if they want, and I organized a bigger deal in Marin County one year. But really….biking was just the start of the plotting. Daddy did other trips together, to Laos for Room to Read and Zambia for World Bicycle Relief.
And then came the scooters. Daddy rode a Vespa to work when I was little and always had fun memories of riding on the back of the scooter. So when Vespa reintroduced Scooters here, twist-n-gos as they call the non-shifting variety, it didn’t take much to get Daddy interested.
We went and kicked tires at the shop in Santa Monica. I loved the idea, thought it would be fun, and another fun thing to share with him. But Vespas are expensive. What if I didn’t like it?
I did some poking around online and thought about getting a “starter” scooter, a little Chinese one, so I could get my license, and try out the idea. Daddy was also interested.
I went to go look at the cheapie scooters. “If you buy one for yourself,” said Daddy, “buy one for me too. So we can have the same.”
We bought seven.
