I slept in - no sense in setting out early if there was still rain in the area, so I didn't leave Memphis until 9am - and the skies were still threatening and cloudy. A glance at the radar on my smartphone told me the rain was ahead of me, but there were little patches of wet stuff hanging on here and there.
I had no desire to find myself in a patch.
US 82 across the top of Mississippi and Alabama is four lane, but its more like an overgrown two lane. There wasn't much traffic and (typical of back east) the speed limit is only 65 mph. I still had lots of small towns to ride through. Much of it is near the Tennessee River, so I even dropped off to look at some of the power plants built and run by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the depression era government agency that brought electricity to the area.
Seeing kudzu draped everywhere, I thought a word of explanation might be in order for my western and
northern friends. Westerners - think tumbleweed. Kudzu is a non-native plant brought into the US to control erosion because it grows very fast. It does that all right - but it also has no natural enemy, so kudzu grows unchecked and chokes off trees and other native plants. Its a noxious weed, just like tumbleweed, which is really Russian Thistle and was brought into the US by accident.
I stop for fuel about every 150 miles (or so). People are always curious about my unusual machine, and most of the questions are "How fast does it go?" and "What kind of mileage does it get?" The answer to the first question is "I don't know." Supposedly, its top speed is about 92 mph, but I have no desire to go that fast. I had it into the mid-80s once, while passing, and it was rock stable and still accelerating. As to the second question, milegage varies according to the wind, but I am usually around 60 miles per gallon of regular gas.
Then the scoot got into its fourth new state - but this is the first time I have been able to record the
event with a photo. On to my sister's house where I'll spend two days, then on to Columbus Thursday morning.
Life is good. God has blessed me richly.