Cletha's Adventures: Scooter Ride For Pie!

Thursday morning brought us a bluebird day, nothing but sunshine! Of course we had to take the Honda ADV150 Scooters out for some exercise. And, what better exercise than to ride for pie! We originally planned on leaving about 9 am but it was rather chilly and we ended up leaving just after 10:30 am.

A quick splash of gas and then off to the Natchez Trace where we rode south for about 45 miles to our exit. I absolutely love starting and ending a ride on the Trace. It is so relaxing and peaceful and gets me in a great mood. As usual, Eric had routed us to avoid major highways so we meandered along rural county roads enjoying the scenery. We can tell spring is just around the corner as we saw many daffodils along the trace and other roads. Heck, we even have some in full bloom here at Cottonwood Cottage!

Our view while on the Natchez Trace.

We rode into Starkville, home of Mississippi State University and parked on Main Street across from the Starkville Cafe, a local favorite.

I felt comfortable going inside for breakfast as they were following effin' Covid protocols. This is what I had. Perfectly cooked hashbrowns, you know the kind, crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and just the right about of grease! Yum. Nicely scrambled eggs with excellent thick cut applewood smoked bacon and toast that was actually toasted. I hate when I order toast and I get warm bread, hahahaha. Anyway, brekkie was perfect!

Our mission was to find the Ole Country Bakery in Brooksville, MS. It is listed as one of the stops along the Mississippi Donut Trail. We didn't have time for the entire Donut Trail so we just picked one that was fairly close and made that our destination. However, we got sidetracked along the way.

We had a section of about 15 miles that were on a 4 lane highway. No problem. It was lightly traveled and the speed limit was 65 mph. We could hold 60 mph and traffic just passed us in the left lane. Anyway, as we were traveling this highway I spotted a sign that said "Mississippi Blues Trail" and suggested we take that exit and see if we could find a marker we had missed. So, off the highway and into the tiny berg of Crawford, MS we rode looking for the marker.

We stopped at the post office to pull the information up on the phone and while Eric was doing that I spied the marker a hundred yards or so down main street. We were both wondering how we could have missed this one because we had already done this area. Oh well, let's go see.

No we didn't miss it. Been there, done that! Only when we grabbed the marker we came in from a different direction so everything looked new to us. Once at the marker we recognized it. And, in case you missed it, you can find the story in my blog, Mississippi Blues Trail Part 6.

It was a pleasant little detour although poor Crawford is half a breath short of death. Not much happening in Crawford these days.

Back to the big highway for our remaining five miles where we took the exit for Brooksville, MS.

We thought we were at the Ole Country Bakery but we weren't. Instead we were here.

We were intrigued by the sign listing all the things they offer so we had to go in and check it out. Yup, they had all that stuff and more! But they didn't have PIE! So off we went in search of the elusive Ole Country Bakery.

And just down the road, success!!!!

It was quite popular even after lunch on a Thursday afternoon!

We each bought a donut, I got a Maple LongJohn (Bar) and Eric got a raspberry filled donut. And we bought a PIE! A whole, freaking PIE! A whole, freaking, Blackberry PIE!

Just look at the ooey, gooey, juicy, scrumptious Blackberry filling and lightly sugared crust! Oh my! Now, if this doesn't get you Jonesing for pie then you have issues!

Side note - one of my favorite donuts is a simple Maple Bar. They do not exist in Mississippi. When you inquire about it people look at you funny and say no, don't have anything like that. So, it's been at least TWO years since I've had a Maple Bar fix. You can only imagine my delight at finding that Maple LongJohn. And it was so delish and satisfying. I might have to put Brooksville on the rotation of places to ride 😆

Well, there, we found, we conquered. Where next? Guess we'll take back roads and get back on the Trace to head home. We meandered along some small roads and must have missed a turn because we weren't where we thought we were, hahahaha. No problem, it's all an adventure! Now some of these little, tiny rural roads had potholes as big as our little scooters! At times it was a challenge to spot and avoid the pothole because the road was so sun dappled that they were hard to see until you were right on them! YIKES!

Riding along we found ourselves at the Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge! Wow, what a pleasant surprise!

We had no idea what was in our backyard, lol. It was very pleasant to ride through the Refuge. There are lots of hiking trails, wildlife viewing areas, fishing, birding, etc. Surprisingly there were a number of people enjoying the Refuge on a Thursday afternoon in early March. It also contains a very large lake. Actually, there are two lakes but we only saw this one.

Now it was time to head for the barn. The afternoon was getting short and we wanted to be home before dark which occurs around 6:10 pm here. But....we needed gas. Eric was already into reserve so we knew he only had about 15 miles before exhausting all the fuel. So, another sidetrack to find a filling station. Mission accomplished and disaster averted. But, now GPS Jane wants to take us a different path than the one we had been on. Okay, fine, off to French Camp which would give us access to the Natchez Trace.

We took a short break here to shake out the booties before continuing the 75 miles to home.

From French Camp it was the Natchez Trace all the way to Tupelo and home. On our ride we spotted quite a bit of wildlife. We saw numerous hawks, a Blue Heron just taking flight, a couple of squirrels, an armadillo (!!!!), a big fat turkey, two giant turkey buzzards feasting on what appeared to be coyote carrion on the side of the Trace, and then deer, lots and lots and lots of big, fat deer!

It was a glorious, delightful scooter ride for pie! The little Honda ADV150's are so easy to ride and just like any Honda, they are tractors and just keep on going 😉 Our ride was just about 250 miles and we arrived home at 5:50 pm, just before sunset and in time for cocktails. We hit a high temperature of 74 degrees. Our Shad topcases were perfect to keep our yummy pie safe. We still need to figure out some more luggage options before the Scooter Cannonball Rally but we have a few months for that! Although, time does fly and it will be here soon. Hopefully effin' Covid is enough under control for the event to proceed. Fingers crossed 😃

Here is a screen shot of our route.