Hello! I’m James, and I’ve been honored with the responsibility of writing this post. I’m a junior at Carleton and I spend much of my free time exploring and/or biking. I arrived in London a bit early and spent five days wandering around on foot. I averaged around ten miles per day, mostly moving in between museums and exploring any seemingly abandoned areas I could find. The city was great, but I quickly realized that I needed to improve my mobility. With that in mind, I looked up “skateboards in Cambridge” and hoped for the best.
In retrospect, a used skateboard probably wasn’t the best move…
Problem #1: I don’t know how to use a skateboard. I have a longboard, but I quickly discovered that skateboards are much less suited to long distance travel.
Problem #2: Perhaps even more problematic than #1, the streets and sidewalks here are not smooth at all, and in some places using a skateboard feels like off-roading.
In any case, as soon as I arrived in Cambridge, I set off to find the seller. I ended up walking over two miles, only to find myself at the wrong address. Turns out the seller entered it wrong. Nevertheless, I had a great conversation with the lady whose house I ended up at, although she seemed very surprised that some random American showed up in her yard. Some more walking later, I find my new skateboard at the correct house and hit the road.
The problems stated above quickly presented themselves, along with some new challenges. It was midafternoon, and all the schools in the area had just gotten out for the day. Also, this was a very old, slow skateboard. I wish I had a picture, but imagine several hundred kids in school uniforms lining the roads outside the school I had to pass, all the while desperately trying to master my new skateboard.
I eventually made it back to the hotel we were temporarily staying at. It was very clear that a new method of transportation would be necessary. To that end, I made friends with a local bike mechanic. We chatted for an hour or so, and cobbled together a working bike from a pile of scraps. While it hasn’t been the smoothest ride I’ve ever had, it’s certainly one of the fastest bikes I’ve ever ridden.
In any case, my adventures finding means of transportation has taken me all over the area in search of parts to repair these devices, and I’ve managed to meet a few local mechanics and hardware store clerks who I otherwise would never have met. I’m looking forward to some longer journeys soon, just without my long-suffering skateboard.