Scooter Adventures Begin

I was on my way out of town today, when I spotted Heinz in his yard waving his arms and Gertrud on her scooter. I was still a distance away, but I started running trying to catch up to Gertrud heading for the store. She hadn't seen me and put on the gas. Well, I just ran for it. Just huffing and puffing in my new purple coat, I must have looked pretty funny running down the sidewalk calling," Mamma, Mammaaa." I was waving my arm and calling trying to get her attention, but it was futile. She was going so fast and then I saw her tilt. Ahh, my imagination was running wild. I could just imagine her tipping, when she caught herself again and righted the scooter. I kept running even harder now trying to catch up enough so she could hear me as I tried calling her again. Then she tipped partially again stopped righted herself once more as she just kept going. I just held my breath every time the scooter tipped. I was envisioning the scooter tipped on top of her. Me calling the ambulance and her with at least a broken hip. I was terrified. Just how fast could a scooter go, that I could not catch up to her? At last she stopped and turned her head. Finally she had heard me call out to her. I walked up to her and she was quite happy and surprised to see me. I was also soo relieved that she was not hurt. I checked the speed adjustment of her scooter and found it was set at half level, which meant it would go about 8 or 9 kms per hour and since she had a head start, I had found it difficult to catch up. It was her very first outing and so she was nervous trying it out. I asked her if she hadn't noticed that she was tipping at times. "Yes, but I thought it was just me feeling dizzy," she answered. I just sighed, then informed her that I had seen the scooter tip twice. So I turned the speed down to about a quarter speed and showed her that she needed to steer gently or she might tip over. It had been her jerking movements which had almost caused her to fall over. It was then, that I decided to give this new scooter of hers the once over. I had not seen it before nor seen her on it. I noticed that Heinz had worked his magic and removed the head rest and that one of the arm rests was off kilter. I also noticed that her feet didn't even touch the scooter floor. She was way too small for this scooter. It was meant for big, heavy or very tall people and Gertrud is none of these. At less than 5 feet tall and less than 115 lbs she is quite small and the scooter is a monster for her. She is likely to lose conrol over it if she is not careful while she gets used to it. So I walked a little way with her to make sure she would be o.k. and then said my good bye's since I was leaving to go home when I had seen her. I worried about her until I got home and had a chance to call to see if she had made it home without incident, upon which I spoke with Heinz to tell him to lower her seat and fix her armrest and put her head rest back onto the scooter. I never thought watching her ride a mobility scooter could be such a terrifying experience! Ugh.