Rebel Scooter Ride

" You gonna get up and ride with me today?" asked Eric as he poked at me.  My mind said FU but instead I just grunted "Let me wake up."  Who gets up before 7 am?  I'm retired and don't like to get up so early anymore but heck, now I was kind of awake.  So I crawled out of bed, washed my face, brushed my hair and teeth and threw on my LD Comfort tights before donning my riding gear.  Didn't even make a cup of coffee which is my usual routine.  Oh well....

The scooters were quietly waiting in the garage ready for a new adventure.  We loaded a few items onto the scooters like water, wallets, rain gear, etc.  It was overcast and didn't look so promising but Eric kept reassuring me that the forecast was rain after 3 pm and clear until then.  Well, the sky didn't look so clear to me but I played along and got ready to ride.  I figured if it started to rain I had my rain gear and a pinlock in my helmet visor so I should be okay.

We managed to hit the road by 7:30 am.  Eric is playing a motorcycle photo tag and the goal today was a photo of a "Welcome To" sign for a town that begins in "O".  Olive Branch, MS is about 85 miles away and a straight shot on MS 178 which is a nice, rural two lane road.  We gassed up at the local corner Texaco and made our way to MS 178, maybe 4 miles from home.  So early on a Saturday morning, there was very little traffic and the road was damp but not too wet.  The sky still looked kind of ominous!

The speed limit was 55 mph for most of MS 178.  Only slowing down for small towns and large intersections.  The scooters performed flawlessly.  About 20 miles into our ride we stopped at Scarlet's Donuts for a donie and coffee.  Oh that was good!  Just the pick up I needed to clear the sleep cobwebs from my head.

Yummy!  I had a cinnamon twist and Eric opted for a Maple Bacon Donut.

I had a delicious cup of decaf to wash down the cinnamon twist.

Oh, that was a nice stop!  Scarlet's drive-through was doing box office business!  We then got back on MS 178 heading north to Olive Branch.  Our ride was pretty uneventful (which is good) until we encountered road work signs saying the road was closed ahead and we must detour.  Well, being the little Rebel Scooterists we are we just continued to see exactly how blocked the road really was.  We really weren't prepared to make a detour and certainly didn't want to take the ADV 150's on the freeway which was the best option of detour.

So we scootered on.  ROAD CLOSED!!!!! Not only were there big signs but there was also huge road working equipment, (motor grader), parked across the road blocking access.  Crap!  But no, my honey just kept on motoring so like a good wife, I followed (LOL).  

Hey, it was Saturday morning.  No traffic.  No roadworks going on.  No need to pay attention to or heed signs.   Hahahahahahaha.  Yeah, we're Scooter Rebels and are darn proud of it!  We just rode around the equipment and signs on both ends of the bridge that was under construction, (but finished except for some paint lines).

Road closed?  Not to Rebel Scooters!!!!!  We just motored on!  A pleasant road with little traffic and a nice cloud cover but no rain.  The temps were around 80 to 84 degrees F but without the sun it wasn't that hot.  It was a comfortable ride on fun little scooters :-)

We reached the goal of Olive Branch, MS and Eric got his photo for the tag game. 

We turned around and took the same route home.  Yes, we again were Scooter Rebels and shot through the Road Closed signs and navigated around the equipment blocking the road.  Gotta love these little Honda ADV 150's.   We made a quick stop at Potts Camp for another "Welcome To" tag.

At some point along our ride we encountered a very long uphill section.  This is the first time I had the throttle WFO, fully pegged and managed to scale the hill at 57 mph.  Of course, I didn't max out the downhill before the uphill :-)  Maybe could have done better had I revved the downhill.  Dunno, but everything was fine, still going about the 55 mph speed limit :-)

My bootie is not used to big rides because I haven't ridden much since last November and I needed a bootie break.  We stopped here along the road for a bit of a respite, a swig or two of water and a smoke for me.  The sky looks ominous but nary a drop did we encounter!

Now it was just motor on home.  We noticed traffic picked up a bit since it was now after noon.  We got home about 12:30 PM, made a lovely lunch and discussed what farkles we might want/need on the scooters.  It was a good ride of about 180 miles.  The break-in point is 300 miles and I'm almost there and Eric is just over.  First service due at 600 miles.  I'm thinking we might be ready for first service sometime next week.  Stay tuned to find out!

I've kind of planned a bit longer, overnight ride.  We'll see if that pans out for next week.  Until then, thank you for following along!

Cheers,

Cletha