Scooters - Ending Social Isolation

 November 2019 was the last time Eric and I can remember being socially interactive with a quick trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico for the Rocky Point Rally with a group of friends followed by 10 days in Maui.  Not too long after our return from Hawaii is when Covid started getting ugly.  And, of course, 2020 was pretty much canceled.  Yes, we went on a few trips, bought our scooters and took some lovely rides.  But all of that was at a social distance and masked when appropriate.  GACK!  I'm so sick and tired of lockdown!

We both got vaccinated, thankfully with no side effects other than a sore arm and many states are now lifting Covid mandates.  So, we decided to get social and attend the annual RTE (Ride to Eat) at Ezell's Fish Camp in Alabama hosted by Greg Roberts.  But, I'm already getting ahead of myself!

Our dear friends, Bob and Sylvie Torter were touring America and had the Natchez Trace on their radar.  We heck, darn!  The Trace runs through our back yard!  We arranged to meet for dinner on Thursday night.  Yippee!  Our first social gathering since way back when!  It was wonderful to get and give giant hugs!!  Oh, of the things I've been missing, hugging and touching are high on the list.  We drove the car to the hotel where Bob and Sylvie were staying and then brought them to our little cottage to show off the scooters, lol.  Then off to dinner.

A lovely meal with lovely people.  It was so wonderful to get caught up with everything and just hang out.  Nice to know we'll be seeing them again along with a host of other peeps in July.

Friday morning we packed up our little Honda ADV150 scooters for an overnight ride.  We were headed to Ezell's Fish Camp in Lavaca, Alabama.  Although only about 211 miles from home we decided to leave on Friday, spend the night in Demopolis, AL and then have a leisurely scoot of about 40 miles to meet up for lunch at Ezell's.  Much better (for me, lol) than getting up at 5 am on Saturday!

Eric mapped out a fantastic route on small, rural roads.  Fortunately for us the weather was perfect!  Sunny, clear blue skies and moderate temperatures.  We poked along the countryside.  Sometimes on two lane highways, sometimes on two lane rural roads and sometimes on crusty old tarmac!  We only made one wrong turn and found the road closed.

Dang, this is the kind of road I love to cruise on the scooter!

Back on track we followed more quiet, fun and scenic roads.

Then it was time for lunch.  We stopped at Barrigas Grill in Reform, Alabama to eat.  This link is a blog and far better than the Barrigas Grill website that has no info other then the hours they are open.  So for a review go https://www.twofatguysdolunch.com/barrigas-grill.

Lunch was delightful with prompt service and quickly served hot plates of delicious food.

Then back on the scooters heading toward Demopolis, AL.  We took a little break at this Church.

I forgot to mention that we got a custom Corbin seat for my scooter.  So this trip was the first ride over 50 or so miles.  It is certainly better than the stock seat but every now and then I still need a booty break, lol 😆.

I also got Shad side cases that I absolutely love even though it gives me some big hips 😜.  I think I'll be liking the extra space when we do the Scooter Cannonball Run in a few months!  Eric also fitted me with a hydration system, sorry no pics, but I sure appreciated it!  Isn't my little scootie looking sweet?  Hahahaha, this is definitely a laugh out loud machine😂 and I'm having a blast riding it!  We get lots of peeps asking about the scooters.

Okay, back to the story.  We arrived at the Day's Inn in Demopolis, AL, at the confluence of the Black Warrior River and the Tombigbee River. 

The town water tower is in the Day's Inn parking lot.

Since it was only a little after 3 pm we decided to take a tour of Gaineswood, an historic plantation house in Demopolis.  A quick 1 mile scoot and we were there!  Although stately and impressive the building is in dire need of repair and attention.  However, we still enjoyed the private tour.

The tree lined avenue to the mansion.  I can only imagine what it looked like in it's prime.

A few photos of the interior.

Our guide, Isaiah, is in the mirror! 

The mirror at the end of the entrance reflects the staircase making it look like two staircases.

All of the rooms have stained glass transom windows above the doors.  Each is unique.

The plaster moldings are spectacular and again, are unique to each downstairs room.  The chandelier was originally kerosene!

LOL, a mannequin in the bedroom.

A room upstairs was dedicated to spinning, weaving and sewing.

State of the art sewing machine!  No foot treadle, just hand crank, lol.

On the grounds, only two of many outbuildings remain standing.  This was the pantry building.

A nice gazebo on the lawn.

Quite the impressive home even with all the peeling wall paper, crumbling plaster, and worn out paint.  We made the arduous trek back to the motel and settled in for the evening.

Just a word of caution - DO NOT STAY AT THE DAY'S INN in Demopolis, AL.  It is a shit hole!  When dinner time came around we decided to just walk next door to the Burger King.  But guess what?  The doors were locked, drive through only!  Crap.  We walked up to the window and they directed us back to the previous window to place our order.  So we backed up to the first window and waited for someone to take our order.  Finally....we were then able to go to the pick up window, pay for our food and return to the motel.  At least they let us walk through!  Of course dinner was blah.  Hahahaha, what did you expect from Burger King?

No worries, we had our cocktails, enjoyed some boob tube and hit the sack.  The next morning we took our time gearing up and finally mounted the scooters and pointed them in the direction of Ezell's.  Again Eric routed us on some super fun and scenic rural lanes.  About 40 minutes later we pulled into Ezell's Fish Camp and found a number of riders already there although it was only shortly after 10 am and lunch was scheduled for 11:30.

Photo courtesy of Joanna Southwood

The first person I encountered was David Gillespie!  A long time Facebook friend, it was delightful to put a face with the name in real life 😉

People starting to show up.

Bob Hall, (center) 2001 Iron Butt Rally winner, rode the greatest distance coming from New Mexico!  Kith Burkingstock (right) recently retired and is enjoying motoring around the country.

Nice metal bug sculpture out front.

Joanna Southwood joined the party.  Well, so did her hubby, Thomas, lol.

Our host Greg Roberts (right) and Thomas Southwood (left).

Just - So. Much. Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A group photo just prior to going inside to order lunch.

Photo courtesy of Joanna Southwood

Just inside the door, you are welcomed by this trio of forest rats mounted on the wall.

And this oddity - a taxidermist's fantasy, hahaha!

Our group took over half the seating area 😃  I counted 25 attendees!  A great turnout since last year (Covid) the event wasn't held and the year before had only three peeps.  I think everyone is ready to get back to normal, go places, meet friends, be social.

We made new friends!  RDub and Susie Stancliff from Pensacola, Florida were fun to visit with.  They got me to try fried dill pickles (ick) and catfish (yummy).

Tim Ide made the trek from Mobile, AL.  We've known Tim for quite a long time but haven't seen him in years, so this was extra good stuff!

Onion rings (yummy) and fried dill pickles (ick). LOL, even though I now live in the deep South I just can't really embrace all the Southern food offerings 😬  However, the coleslaw was awesome, a sweet pickle slaw that I really enjoyed and I typically don't care much for coleslaw.  I had grilled shrimp with fries.  The fries were so so but the shrimp were delish 😋

This was our view during lunch, the Tombigbee River, running high and dirty!

Photo courtesy of Joanna Southwood

And then, it was over and done.  Well fed, lots of visiting, meeting new peeps, great weather, motorcycles and scooters.  It was a glorious day!  Now, time to mount our trusty steeds and head toward home.

Once again, Eric created a fantastic route home.  We rarely saw any traffic and the weather was perfect.  Our scoots just scooted along with no issues. 

Such a beautiful, scenic ride home.

A booty break stop 😏

Eric was smart and just rode off the pavement, onto the grass and into the shade 😃

Our last 70 or so miles were spent on the Natchez Trace - you know it's my favorite 😉

And then we were home just barely into cocktail hour.  What a perfect little rendezvous.  We logged in close to 425 miles and we scootered along at a pleasant pace on rural roads with beautiful scenery.  I'm really liking this slow adventuring 😄

What's next?  I dunno but it's sure to be fun 😉  Thank you so very much for following along!

Cheers,

Cletha & Eric