Sunny Day Scootin'

 Today dawned bright and sunny with the promise of temperatures in the low 70's.  Oh for joy!  Let's get out and ride the scooters!  All last week we were snowed and iced in stuck at the house.  That freak ice/snow storm hit Tupelo pretty hard and this town is definitely not prepared for snow, lol. 

The next two pictures are after the first ice/snow fall.  We got more than double that amount the next day and it stuck around for a week.  Fortunately we were prepared and had plenty of food and supplies and the power stayed on and the pipes didn't freeze!  We didn't have anywhere to go but our annual Doctor appointment for the yearly physical.  Well, we couldn't go but it didn't matter because the Doctor's office was closed all week along with most of Tupelo!

The last few days has melted most of the snow and ice and the roads were clear.  With the warm temperatures of course we were going to ride somewhere.  We didn't have any particular destination in mind but we both play motorbike tag games and we thought we'd just go for a ride and hope to grab some tags along the way.  With that in mind, Eric mapped out a 50 mile loop route and off we went.

Our first stop was the Love's Truck Stop to grab a red heart or the word Love for my Iron Butt Photo Tag game.  Score!!

Then it was pleasant riding on small country roads, some two lanes, some one lane and some gravel.  Eric really did a great job on routing us on new to us roads that meandered through the area.  We took a stop at the Trace State Park and rode around to check it out.  Quite a nice park.  Here are a few pictures.

We stopped to check out the "cabins" .  I think there are a dozen or so cabins for rent in the park.  All are waterfront with private docks and some are nicer than others, lol.  

So peaceful and beautiful.  

A fun bit of gravel road practice ;-)

Just a random shot of a cute little Honda ADV150 Scooter!

One of Eric's tags was "Something in process".  Go figure, what kind of tag is that?  Well, he first took this photo at our home and was going to call it Snow Melting in Process, hahaha.

But during our ride through the park he spied this guy loading up his fishing boat.  Score!!

A beautiful, scenic one lane road through the park.

Eric had another tag that was a "Water Tank".  Just got lucky while in the Park and snapped this for the win!

I needed a new tag for the Iron Butt Photo Tag game so we took this picture.  New Tag - Your bike with a body of water.  Shouldn't be too difficult for someone to snap this up soon.

Oh, we're such Scooter Rebels!  No Scooters?  What?  Oh, I guess we're okay since they are legally registered and tagged, whew!

After our tour of the Trace State Park, we rode some more little backroads, enjoying the weather and scenery.  I have to admit that on the small backroads we did a LOT of pothole dodging 😆.

Our return toward home was on my favorite road, the Natchez Trace!  Sorry no pics today 😢😞.  But Eric did score another tag!  This was "Birds in Water".  While we were out and about we scoured the ponds and lakes but couldn't find any darn birds in the water.  But, just a couple miles from home is a prime spot for ducks and geese at Ballard Park.  So Eric scored on the Birds in Water tag, yippee!!

And finally Eric needed a new tag, so... "Something starting in Z".

It was a fantastic little escape on a warm, sunny day.  The high temperature was 73 degrees!!!  Yes, after a week of low teens, the 70+ degrees temp was glorious!  We only rode about 50 miles but we took two and a half hours and had a great time.  We discovered new to us roads and had the opportunity to explore the Trace State Park at a time when it was virtually empty.  

Our very fun little Honda ADV150 Scooters ran like clockwork.  They make riding sooooo easy.  U turns, no problem, gravel, no problem.  I'm sure I had a smile plastered on my face the entire time 😁.

I'm hoping we can get back on the Mississippi Blues Trail soon.  Just need a good weather window because we need to go further from home that will probably require an overnight stay.  Stay tuned, it could be any day.  Or, we could get another freak ice/snow storm and be stuck at the house again for a week, hahahahaha (no thanks!).  

As always, thank you for following along on our little adventures.  You know bigger ones are on the horizon!

Cheers,

Cletha & Eric

Scooters to the Battlefield - Part 2

 Months ago, September 26, 2020 to be precise, we made our first exploration of Brice's Crossroads Battlefield.  Yesterday, February 9, 2021 we revisited Brice's Crossroads to finally finish our tour.  For background you can go read my first post Scooters to the Battlefield.  Wednesday promised to be fairly warm and only an 11 percent chance of rain so we decided to go ahead and head out to the Battlefield and pick up where we had left off.

We hadn't been out on the scooters in quite a while because the weather has not been favorable.  Eric had installed a new, taller windscreen on my scoot and I was quite anxious to try it out and see if I got less wind buffeting.  The original screen, even in high position, allowed so much wind that it often fatigued me and certainly chilled me in cooler temps.  I was so used to the big Beastie bike with all the protection that I didn't realize what a difference an almost naked bike would be.  Well, I'm so very happy with the new wind screen!  Yippee!  It's definitely a keeper.  I still get some wind about the neck but man what a difference in the chest and shoulders.  Yup, I'm happy 😄

Okay, back to the story at hand.  We topped of the gas tanks and quickly made our way to the Natchez Trace which we rode up to the Visitor's Center.  There we made a left turn onto a very pleasant two lane country road with pretty much zero traffic.  The temperature was around 65 degrees and we caught occasional glimpses of the sun between the clouds.  Eric had mapped a lovely route to the Crossroads keeping us on very small, rural roads, many of them new to us.

Before long we were where we had left off and ready to finish the Historic Trail.  Here is where we left off and re-started.

Here is a link to Brice's Crossroads National Battlefield.  This link will give you some history about the Battle and why it was important.  The Battle here was a prime example of winning the battle but losing the war.  Had the Confederates played every battle like this history would be very different.

After leaving our start point we went maybe 1/4 mile down the road and found the last Auto Tour Marker, Number 7.

We rode up the driveway to the parking area at top.  We had the place all to ourselves 😏

We followed the path and came upon a couple of interpretive markers.

The parking lot also had several interpretive markers.

This picture is from where a cannon was located.  In the center of this photo is the Tishomingo Bridge that caused so much distress to the Union Army.  Now, it's February and bleak and leaves are off the trees.  Can you imagine this in June with thick, full leaves on the trees and dense underbrush?  The Tishomingo Creek overflowing from spring rains?  What carnage was wreaked here.

We left this site and just rode down the hill a hundred yards or so to the next site, the Tishomingo Bridge.  We found several interpretive markers here.

Here is the Tishomingo Creek Bridge that created a bottleneck for the retreating Union Army resulting in huge losses and casualties.

And here is the peaceful, nicely flowing Tishomingo Creek.  The reports state the creek was swollen with high banks and soldiers trying to flee jumped into the creek to try and cross since the bridge was impassable with the wagons and horses stalled on the bridge.  Some soldiers and livestock were swept away to their death.  Reading the accounts of this battle is staggering at the errors made by the Union Army.

The Tishomingo Creek site was sobering to say the least.  The interpretive signs give an excellent account of what happened.  Standing there you can almost feel the presence of the soldiers, their fear, the chaos and disorganization of the retreat.

Leaving the Tishomingo Creek site we meandered down the road and came upon James Jourdan's Grave.

We then made our way to the final site.  To get there we turned down a narrow, single lane road that was glorious to ride!  So much fun on the scooters 😁  Here we read interpretive signs about Life at the Crossroads.

Interesting to note that General Samuel D. Sturgis of the Union Army was relieved of duty following this battle due to the huge losses in soldiers, animals, ammunition as well as artillery, wagons, hospital wagons and tents, supplies of all kinds.  He went on to continue serving after the Civil War.  You can read about General Sturgis by clicking on the link.

That concluded our Brice's Crossroads Battlefield Tour.  Fantastic interpretive signs and markers really make the battle come to life.  Too bad many of the signs have deteriorated and need some restoration and cleaning.  I'm glad we took the time to go back and finish the tour.  If you're ever near Tupelo, Mississippi, this would be a fun trip to make!

So, now we were heading home basically the same route we had taken to get there.  I was playing a motorcycle tag game so we decided to ride downtown and see if I could score on a tag.  That put us here at the Private John Allen National Fish Hatchery in Tupelo.  My tag was "Something Fishy" and I thought this fit the bill perfectly!

When you grab an old tag you have to post a new tag so we rode to the local Farmer's Market and I got this photo.  The new tag is any one of three items - a Free Library, a Rusty Truck, or a Produce Mural.  Sure hope someone is able to get this one quickly!  I love playing motorcycle tag 😵  (Yuck!  Covid way too long hair!!!) (Effin' Covid).

We scooted through town and happened upon an historical marker we hadn't see before!  (Isn't this little Honda ADV150 scooter one of the cutest scoots you've ever seen?)

Interesting bit of Tupelo history.

We had a fun outing on the scooters and they ran perfect just as expected!  We rode a whopping 60 miles but every mile held a giant smile 😃.  I'm thrilled with the new windscreen and our next task for the scooters is to figure out a way to mount a roto-pax so we can carry any extra gallon of gas.  We're getting very close to Scooter Cannonball Run ready!

Thank you so much for following along.  We hope to get back to chasing Mississippi Blues Trail Markers soon.  Until then, any ride we can get in is a good ride 😏

Cheers,

Cletha & Eric