Siteline | Yes, Surrey!

Somewhere on the list of things I miss about being young—which gets longer every year—is how easy it was to have fun, especially with friends. I mean the kind of silly fun when you giggle and guffaw and you don’t care if you look ridiculous. (Is that why so many people love pickleball?) To achieve that while renting a surrey, my husband, Adam, and I required reinforcements, so I coaxed two of our more ebullient friends into joining. Longtime locals, they were a tad wary of an activity associated more—or even exclusively—with tourists. “There will be laughter,” I promised.

The operation at Wheel Fun Rentals in the Funk Zone is a little loosey-goosey; the outgoing message on the voicemail, for instance, has info about the hours on Christmas Eve, and I’m confident it’s not this year. I called because when you try to reserve online, the latest slot is 4:30 p.m., but nowhere does it say when you have to return it. I finally spoke with a staffer who said she thought (!) the business closes around 7 p.m. And I got the feeling you don’t need a reservation unless it’s a summer weekend.

The rate is $50 for one hour, $60 for two hours, and $70 for a half day. One hour is probably not enough: you don’t want to be in the position of having to race back, because surreys do not go fast. And even if you stop somewhere for a meal, a half day would be extreme, given that there are limits to how far you can venture.

We received scant instructions: the left steering wheel works, and you pull down on the lever to brake. No mention was made of the “serious injury” warning we later noticed on a sticker.

The squealing started immediately. There’s not much time to get in a groove before you’re thrust into the action on State Street, and no matter how hard you pedal, there’s no pickup, which makes crossing Cabrillo Boulevard rather exciting, in a slow-motion way. Driving a surrey is a strange sensation: everyone onboard can pedal their brains out, but the vehicle never gains much speed—and the harder you pedal, the more you feel like you’re moving side-to-side rather than forward. Also, the person with the ineffectual steering wheel invariably steers even though he/she is fully aware that it’s not doing anything.

The bike path along East Beach was pretty empty, which meant we didn’t get the kind of attention we craved. A few people smiled at us, and the ones that didn’t were probably jealous. We did cause a small commotion when we went off-roading—the squealing kicked up a notch—to say hello to the folks working at a Girls Inc. event on East Beach.

While occasionally frustrating, the pokiness of the surrey was also pleasant in that we experienced a part of town we all knew well at a novel pace—faster than walking, but slower than a bike.

In a surrey, what looks like a small incline is actually a hill.

We off-roaded a second time to a shady spot on the grass in front of the Mar Monte Hotel. The folks at Wheel Fun will be relieved to learn that before we could investigate how to use the surrey as a bottle opener, MacGyver-style, a passerby offered up the one on his keychain.

Renting a surrey is not about thrills, and it’s not about going anywhere. But it was definitely silly—we laughed quite a bit. And it was something different. Cheers to that! Even if it is just with Martinelli’s.