Scooter Diaries

During this intermission break I want everyone to go get a nice bag of popcorn and your favorite beverage. Nashville was a good break hung out with some great friends and got to do a few things. Drank a fat tire beer for the first time in years, went to see a great band (the burning hotels), went to centennial park, went to karaoke. Yes it was a fun time and a good break.

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I am sitting oh so comfortably on a couch in a quiet Nashville home and loving every second of it. So this chapter starts with me waking up in a freezing ice box of a tent at 6am. I roll over and eat the rest of my left over pizza from the night before do a few complaints to my self about how cold it is out side and then quickly put my clothing on.  The night before I remembered that the bathroom had a few funny things about it and I needed to so badly get a photo of it… I think the photo that im going to show at the end of this post will tell the story better then me.

If you have ever been so lucky to be able to drive over the bridge that goes into Louisville from Indiana you will know how much of a beautiful sight it is and how scary it can be… now imagine doing it on a scooter (fun and scary yup).  The drive to Nashville was not all that bad, 180ish miles. The scenic back roads, the country mountain sides, the relaxed pace that everyone had about them made me love Kentucky.  I met some nice people along the way, ran into a nice guy at a gas station who passed me about a mile back.  He started talking to me asking me if it was a comfortable ride “absolutely not”  I told him. He told me of a gel pack that I should try to get for my seat. So today im going to call around Nashville and see if anyone has a gel pack.
While about 100 miles or so left to go I got hit in the face by what felt like a scorching hot poker but I am sure it was only a wasp.  Damn thing hurt it got me right where my helmet strap wraps around my face so when it got stuck there it started stinging the hell out of me. So after a minute I was finally able to find a drive way to pull over and look at my face it had just started to swell up and it was actually bleeding (and yes  I took a photo but the swelling got bigger after the photo when I was driving again.)

So I reach this gas station just inside of Tennessee, this is when I met a nice lady working behind the counter I share whit her my stories of what I have so far and tell her what I am doing. Then I tell her about my face and why I was holding the cold water bottle over my cheek.  Being so nice ( what I have come to know as just plane southern nice) she tells me of a remedy I can do by putting wet tobacco over the sting and then she finds that she has a  medicated swab for insect stings.  We made some more polite conversation and then like the other guy at the other gas station I am wished a safe trip and told to be careful. This is why I love the south, truly caring people.

After my sore but was just about ready to give out I finely reach Eric and Brittney Daltons house, Friends of mine from about 9 years back. They are letting me rest here for a couple of days in probably what was one of the most comfortable beds ever. Last night they took me out to a place called Beyond the Edge. I can only begin  to tell you how happy this made me. First of all I was starved,  second there beer selection was amazing and yes yes yes they had beer from the New Belgium brewery and no I did not have a flat tire I had the 1554...yummy. But most important I was happy because I got to spend this time with friends I have not seen for years.

I don’t know what the next few days are going to bring but I will be in this city till at least the end of memorial day.

Grace and Peace,
Christopher 


                                                   Yeah someone is giving me mixed signals.
 

it was a cold, cold night.

just some proof that they love their horses.



       It was beautiful but....... scary

So I have made it All the way to Louisville KY and it may be just because the world series of horse races just happened or it could be that this city just loves hoses but there are bushes carved out to look like a horse  the front desk of this camp ground had a whole wall of past winners framed up, like they were autographed celebrity photos at a cheesy Chinese restaurant.  So yeah there is not much else I can say about this city other than THEY MAKE BASEBALL BATS! I do want to make it out to the Louisville Slugger Museum but I fear leaving my scooter with all of its gear in some random parking lot. So sadly I have to pass on this adventure (next time). 

While making my way out of Indiana I got to see some beautiful stretches of back roads as the altitude got higher. I took some photos of rock (because that’s what tourists do, take photos of everything) some stretches of roads had me climbing up some steep hills (not quite the Appalachians but I am getting close)… So these hills that I had to ride up slowed my bike down (there is only so much a 50cc can do) and I thought I would be the slowest vehicle on the road at that point but nope I got stuck behind some big tractors (see photo).

Well tomorrow I hop to get into Nashville its going to be at least an 8 hr ride, today was a 6-7 hr ride so I should have little to no problem making that. Well I am beat and tired so I am going to eat some yum yums and hit the hay.

Grace and Peace,
Christopher   

we should all love the great Waffle House
yep some rocks
I am not the slowest on the road
one of the million rivers that I have driven over.

All my bags got packed and I rode off into the freezing morning air. It was a very cold 35 degrees out this morning when I set out at 7:30am. Saying goodbye to my family was hard, I want them to know that ill be safe and I will truly enjoy my self. I made it into a KOA campground at 8pm tonight (12&1/2hrs on my scooter)  I was going to set up a tent but thought better of it, Its going to be just as cold tonight as it was this morning.  So I did the logical thing and rented a cabin and yes its perfect for a boy as exhausted as my self.

Some of my numerous thoughts I had today were as follows.  “I am sure glad Indiana has a lot of horse and buggies still because the shoulder on the side of the road is a lot bigger.” “I would much rather dodge horse crap then potholes.” “ God dang my ass hurts.”  “Are we there yet?” 

Well the sun is setting and I am going to do this all over again tomorrow… ill try to take more photos tomorrow, Ill pack my camera where I can get it this time.

Grace and Peace,
Christopher

I have compiled a short list of songs that will be played on repeat multiple times on my trip.  These songs will keep me company and keep me going down the road. These are some of my favorite bands so you might here me screaming along to them as I go down the road.

Drive. by The Gaslight Anthem
Bring It Home. by Kaline
Carry On. by Common Rider
Society. by Eddie Vedder
Walking Is Still Honest. by Against Me!
Lay-Z-Boy 500. by The Falcon
Lock, Step, & Gone. by Rancid
Where I Belong. by Motion City Soundtrack
I Woke Up In A Car. by Something Corporate
Motorcycle Drive By. by Third Eye Blind
Gone For Good. by The Shins
How To Start A Fire. by Further Seems Forever
Walking Barefoot. by Ash
The Anchors Bows Have Broken. by Brand New
So Long, So Long. by Dashboard Confessional
Let That Be Enough. by Switchfoot
Wouldn’t It Be Nice. by Beach Boys

The list goes on and on, but I won’t bore you too much with all of this.  Big party at the 3Fuller house on Saturday, one of my last nights in town. We are having some good bands play like Kaline, Tall Ships, Cain Marko, Wormburner and deer cave. I will be missing my room mates Andy, Kyle and Chuck. I’ll also be missing my family quite a bit, my nephew will turn one year old while im gone.

As excited as I am getting about this trip part of my heart is sad for all the family and friends I will be leaving behind….countdown 7 days*******        

Michigan is cold, but the days are starting to get longer.  Summer is on its way, baseball has started and I am almost ready to figure out how I need to pack my scooter. I have started contacting people during the last two days using http://www.couchsurfing.com …It is looking like I’ll be headed to FL and I am going to go as far south as I can.  Every day is going to be an adventure and I know that their will be days when I just want to turn around and go home, I know I must keep going.

It is completely normal to surround your self in things that are comfortable. One goal that I have is to surround my self with as many unfamiliar thing as I possibly can while on the road.  Traveling by my self, couch surfing and being broke are some of the things that will be new to me and I will truly be out of my element on day one.  

I am excited to move forward and see what is outside of this city,  excited to travel the back roads of these states…

The other day I was taking apart my scooter, having a great time learning about how it all goes together. I feel bad for my bike it’s a beast locked in a cage, lucky for her this cage is a heated garage with two  Harleys to keep her company.  While finding the proper way to undress her without making her feel bad she pointed out a disheartening blemish to me.  A nail in her tire, although not flat still very sad to see.  The snow is falling and I probably wont be riding her for a while but I never thought I would be fixing a flat in the middle of winter.