Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Back for a Visit. NC and Wisconscoot

It has been a while since I moved this blog to ADV Rider's Battle Scooters forum.

You can find it here:

https://advrider.com/f/threads/rocket-me.1374350/

I have enjoyed seeing it grow there with dozens of readers who often play along.

But I have been asked to get back on here by a few of you and will check in often, now that I have found that I still have access after several password changes and finding I have two Google accounts.

The Russians remain the biggest viewers here, and I remain certain that they are up to no good.

I have continued to have fun on the scooters.

After the May ride that I last posted, I have been on many Oyster and Courthouse Tours with Ken.  Also, I went to Wisconsin and rode around with Sam for a few days and Sarah and I joined Ken, Walt and the rest of the VCdM group for a tour of Portugal in September.

Ken and I visited all of the Florida Panhandle Courthouses in December and I have had other rides as well.

I will start with Wisconscoot 2019.

Sam had me check out a 2003 Nissan Frontier pickup truck that he ended up purchasing.  My next responsibility was to get it to him in Chicago.

I loaded up Max, my 2018 Yamaha XMAX, into the bed of the truck and headed to North Carolina to meet a group of Battle Scooter members for a few days of mountain riding.

It was a new group for me, but I got along with all of them, even though our political views were at opposite ends of the spectrum.  All nice guys who rode well and proved to be nice friends.

Part of the Battle Scooter group in North Carolina

From there I drove to Lisle, Illinois to meet Sam at his office, where we unloaded Max and headed north to Wisconsin.

There, we met up with Dave's Wisconscoot group, a fine bunch of guys who Sam and I have ridden with two times before.  They were easy going and fun to be with again.

Dave wearing a Rocket & Me shirt I gave him a few years ago.

After three nights in the Dairy State, it was time for me to return home.

Sam rode with me to Rock Island, Illinois, where we had lunch and went out separate ways.

From there I headed south for an interstate highway run back to Florida.

Riding into Paducah, Kentucky, dark clouds were forming so I got off of the highway and checked into a hotel where I stayed dry and rode to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.

The next day looked rainy again, but I was determined to ride home.

It drizzled for the first 300 miles with some heavier rain in the mountains near Chattanooga.  This was the most dangerous riding I have tried in a while, as the rain and mist from trucks made it almost impossible to see at times.  But I made it through and out of the rain.  I stopped north of Atlanta where it looked clear for the last 400 miles, but I did find a heavy storm entering Florida, that I luckily skirted and made it home safely.  Wisconscoot to Jacksonville was 1260 miles, covered in two days.  Not bad for a 300cc scooter.


Riding in Wisconsin

Through the woods in Wisconsin. 

A shaded, wooded, curvy road in Wisconsin.

The real reason I go is to spend time with Sam.