day 4

Since I only had 44 miles to go to Reno today a got started a little late for me around 9 am. I decided to wander the way I really like to and find interesting people.  I turned 44 miles into 104 wonderful miles.

The temperature stayed in the 70's most of the day and the sky's blue. At Trukee, I weighed getting on the interstate or via the two lane roads via Lake Tahoe. Interstates, even if your much slower than the traffic, can be a lot safer than crowded two lanes, I chose the two lane route and made it safely.




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In Loyalton I met Richard and his son Larry.  They were splitting wood for himself, his mother, and another son.  That is a big pile of wood.  Having the logs delivered is cheaper he said than going into the woods to find wood to bring home. He figures he has 4 months to split all this wood.  That is a big job.

I really like signs like this......

.....next to signs like this.

I did found some wild flowers and interesting pictures.

On down the road I went in to visit with theTrukee hotshot crew.  Their area had a few small fires last night started by lighting.  That was good for them as they really make their money when they go fight the fires.  Setting around on standby does not pay all that well.

"Grizzly" ( I have no idea why they call him that) has been fighting fires since 1988 and not one of those was in his beard.

Danny and Jeff were wet with sweat and working on sharpening saws and refuelling after last night.

My neighbor had wanted me to do the Donner pass on the last trip.  Well, Vicki, here it is and I lived to tell about it.

Going up and over the two passes before and after Lake Tahoe, Big Red did well. One area of the climb was steep and we were back to about 45 mph, but I imagine with Scoot it would have been about 20 mph.

The view of Tahoe was  great.  After the Mount Rose summit it was a pretty steep decent with 20 mph bends in the road.  Most people were in a bigger hurry than that and I got out of their way. That is, until we came around a turn and the traffic was stopped because a 18 wheeler had turned over in one of those 20 mph turns. He just missed going over the side.  After that, everyone slowed down

So far I have been good at keeping my speed down, usually below the speed limit if traffic permitted, so as to continue the Scoot mentality of slower is better.  I have to admit that I did cheat just once.

I rolled into Reno about 12:30 and stopped at Joe's Diner.  Oddly, it closes at 1 pm, but they let me stay as long as I wished.  Lauri, the cook,  tried to take a picture but his hands shook so much he could not do it, so Danielle called Taylor the bus boy to do the job.  They were all a lot of fun, but Danielle was just a "cheerleader for life" as the others say.

a little shaky

I skipped the casinos and chose the Quality Inn.  Only fair quality but they let you park your bike on the patio for security reasons.

day 1-3

I flew from Tampa to Oakland on the first leg of the scooter journey.  I would rather take a whippin' than go to the airport and it was re-enforced on this trip.  It all started with the new full body scanners.  When they say "remove everything", they mean everything. A kleenex got me a full body scan.  At least they were jovial about it.  From there it only got worse.  My flight took off at 7:30 am and I landed in Oakland at 7:30 pm.   15 hours en-route. Flying for free ain't what it used to be.  The rental car experience was no better.  I thought we really screwed the tourist in Florida but California makes us look cheap.  I originally booked a car from Budget off the airport for $173 for a week.  The same car at the airport was $458.  I no longer needed 7 days and the 2 days cost me $183! at the airport.

I spent the night with a old friend I had not seen in years, Baby Bundles and her husband Kyoji.  We had a great time and they are great people. Despite being in an urban area there was all kinds of wild animals roaming through.

I left“Menopause Meadows”, as Bundles calls the over 55 community she lives in, and headed for Redding, home of the new scooter. William was waiting with the Vespa and 2 of his other 2-wheeled machines. The Vespa was everything I expected and more. William had it cleaner than if I had gotten it new from the dealer. It has about 10 coats of wax. I had only talked to William once on the phone and, as I expected, he is a great guy. He and his girlfriend put me up for the evening, wined and dined me and gave me a tour of the area. If I had not left he would have given me so much stuff I would have had to add another luggage rack. Thank you William for a great visit and I hope to see you soon and thank you for selecting me to own the scooter.

Big Red and me rolled out of Redding about 9:30 on US44 headed into the hills. Yesterday I had seen 111 degrees on the test ride but climbing to over 8,000 feet should keep it cooler. At the entrance to the Lessen National Park, I met 3 Swiss students who are traveling America and wanted a couple pictures on the sign with Big Red. It was a beautiful ride over the mountain with very little traffic. At the peak of over 8,000 feet, Scoot and I would have been clawing our way over. Big Red never missed a beat. Rain showers were around but never fell on us, but the fresh smell they brought was great. This is a volcanic mountain and there are steam holes. Unfortunately, I got no pictures of them. On the back side of the mountain temperatures climbed again to 100 degrees.

I called it a day in Portola, Ca. as I felt it was time for a celebration drink for owning another scooter.

On my first spring journey several years ago on Scoot, a Vespa LX150, I was riding a long stretch in the back woods of Georgia. Boring is not quite the right word, maybe less than interesting, but in reality everything is interesting if you want it to be. Anyway, I began thinking when I get home I may just trade up to a Vespa 250 which has a larger motor. As I traveled on down the highway, I decided I really should not do that. I was afraid I might lose the most important part of these travels and that is the fact that with the small engine I have no choice but to go slow. It creates the mindset that is the basis for all the joy I get out of these adventures. When I have to go slow making a U-turn to see something or talk with someone,it won't make that much difference at the end of the day time wise. With a larger motor, if I am bored, I just twist the throttle a little more and zoom on down the road possibly missing the most interesting place on the whole trip.

On my 6558 mile odyssey across America this spring, that slow part got put to the test. 20 mph for a couple of hours going over 10,000 foot passes with 40 mph winds was interesting...the first 5 times. On the way home, someplace in Arkansas I think, I decided to look for a nice red Vespa 250. I decided I had to lose 100# or get the 250 for riding really long distances- and I am not going to lose the weight. Too lazy. I have told myself that I am mature enough as a rider now that I can keep my hand from just twisting the throttle and blowing by the world. Well, with 250cc, I don't think I will blow by real fast, but faster than with Scoot. Having gone slow for the last 3 years and about 11,000 miles of road trips, I know what is there if you go slow and I don't want to miss that.

So, I started a search for Vespa 250. There were several nice ones on the market, but the best price on the best scooter is in Redding, Ca. I am off on Friday to close the deal and begin yet another ride across America. I should start updates on the blog this weekend, so stay tuned.

Coming next week....something new.

Here is a hint.


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Epilogue

1 month, 1 week, and 1 day, 6539 miles, 2 rear tires, 94 gas station stops, amazingly only 3 rain days and 2 of those less than 1 hour, one snow day, too many cold days, is what it took to ride a Vespa across America and back. Was it worth it? Absolutely !!! Any regrets? No. The return leg, after getting sick, became a scooter ride and not as much an adventure, but I loved every minute of it.

Some people said that the trip to California seemed awful fast. Well, look at it this way. It takes you 3 days to cross the country in your car and what do you see? It took me 21 days and I was literally in the scene the whole way. It was all around me. At what I estimate to be an average speed of about 40mph, you see a lot. Going over a 10,000 foot mountain at 20 mph for 1 hour or so, you even see more. Crossing the flat lands with 40 mph headwinds, you see a lot. No, I did not go to all the tourist places along the way. Most of them I have seen and my trips are not to see those, but the people and land around them. To keep from getting long winded, many, many people and places were not in the blog. Breakfast with Mennonites, conversations in cafes, chat's at the gas stations. If there was not a picture, I did not write about and a lot of these encounters I felt that camera would change the event. Maybe I should write about and I have in the past, but at the end of the day, it was to much to put in a blog for me. Those are memories to be shared in the future.

What is the story here? The story is that this is a vast, beautiful and wonderful country. Just as important is that is full of wonderful caring people. Not one person was anything other than helpful and friendly. (Ok, there was the cop, but he was not ugly, just not cooperative.) This is what I have found not only in the U.S., but every where I have traveled in the world. So, I encourage you to set out to see something new. Get out of your comfort zone, you will probably be surprised how good it feels and what new experiences you may have.

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The James Dean Byrd Foundation

www.jamesdeanbyrdfoundation.org

The fund raiser for the foundation was an after thought for this cross country trip. I never knew it would be so successful. To date we have raised $6,425!!! Almost all from small internet donations. THANK YOU!

For you to give to such a worthy cause is heart warming. I try not use the heart tugging scenes you see on TV to raise funding, but we have many of them. Here are a few.

• One mother was interviewed and asked what she likes about the Escuela Bilingue los Algarrobos. Her answer was that she can neither read or write, but everyday after school her 1st grade daughter comes home and child teaches her everything that she learned in school that day. She to is learning to read and write.
• Another family was interviewed and the child said what she liked best about school is that she good food, as there was none or very little at home.

Besides educating the children, the school has outreach programs to the families. They cover a broad spectrum from child nutrition, to medical issues, to child abuse.

I invite you all to come down and visit the school. Canoa is a nice little town. There are no Hilton's or even Motel 6's, but there are clean, safe accommodations and a wonderful beach. Ecuador is a compact country and you can go from the Amazon to the beach in one day, offering you a lot of new opportunities to see a different world.

TAKING IT HOME

I knew today would be just a scooter ride as Scoot and I have ridden this road many times and after 5 weeks on the road we did not want to work to find something new.

US19 is pretty for the first 150 miles and then it turns into a 50 mile ugly strip mall. For some bizarre reason I decided I would ride it all the way home today. I do not even like riding it in my car. After about 20 minutes the strip mall part, I came to my senses and moved east a few miles to East Lake Blvd, a nice calm road. This took me almost al the way home.

The wife and neighbors had put up a welcome home sign. It was great to be back.

Scoot and me slipped out of Selma, Alabama around 7 pm.  We went through town and over the Alabama River bridge.  Never even knew Alabama had a Alabama river.  We joined US80 to Montgomery. This is the road that the civil rights marchers walked in the '60's.  It interesting that in this small town in the middle of nowhere a few people started a movement that would changed the whole nations culture.

We turned of on AL97 to get some back road time.  It was a nice ride through rolling hills with forest and cattle farms. At Luvrne I sat and contemplated what route to take.  I really did not want to make my way back over to US231, the main route, as that would end the adventure and begin just a scooter ride home.  After serious contemplation, I decided I had no other choice.  With a 50% chance of rain and the back road route I would put me to far to the west. So, we made our way over to Troy and joined 231.

Traffic to Dothan was moderate, but after that the rest of the highways, all four lanes, were almost empty.

When we crossed into Georgia we did not see the welcome time until it was to late.  It was a small sign in the middle of a bridge.  I saw no need to return to get a picture. Scoot did stop at the Florida sign to be sure everyone would know that we were back in the homeland.

Getting through Tallahassee took about as long as it did to cross Texas. Must be a lot of politician deciding how to time the lights.  You have to stop for every single one, and there were lots.

About 5 miles out of Perry, our destination for today, we had a flat tire.  Fortunately it was right in front of a repair facility for a logging company.  I pushed Scoot over and borrowed their air and concert pad.  It me took about 10 minutes to repair and we were back on the road.

We rolled on into Perry and went to Deals Oyster house for dinner and called it a day.

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