21824
Big Red and me rolled out of the garage just after 7 under cool gray skies
but our spirits were bright and sunny. We followed a now familiar route out of
town over Tampa Bay on the Howard Franklin Bridge/I-275 and turned north to the
Veterans Expressway/Gold Coast Highway to US 19 when the Gold Coast ran out.
These are all four lane highways. Some scooter riders are nervous on
expressways but I find this route much safer and quicker than fighting stop and
go urban traffic for 60 miles.
|
spring has sprung |
|
my main gps |
Mid-morning the skies cleared and it was sunny all the way to Alabama. The
sunny skies and open highway lulled me into inattention. At 55 mph Big Red gets
about 60 mpg, but above 60 it can go down to about 45 mpg. Evidently I was in
the over 60 mpg range (the speed limit was 65) and I had in my mind that I would
refuel in Perry, FL. About 22 miles south of Perry, I looked down and the low fuel
light was on and I was down to one bar on the gauge. The Vespa fuel gauge is
notoriously inaccurate, but the low level light is pretty accurate. The problem
was I had no idea how long it had been on. In this rural area there is nothing
to do but ride on. I know at Wide Open Throttle Big Red will run out of gas
around 109 miles. At 113 a gas station came into sight just out of Perry. We put
2.27 gallons in a 2.4 gallon fuel tank.
|
low fuel and NO bars on the gas guage |
|
2.27 gallons into 2.4 tank |
When
I get up on the Big Bend area of Florida I am always looking for fresh oysters.
I look for special places to stop and thought I had found it in Graceville at
Wayne's Oyster Bar. I had called to ask if they served beer. They do not.What kind of "bar" is that. I
did not ask if they were open. They were not. I was disappointed but had Hunts
Steak an Oyster house in Dothan as a backup. It too was closed. Oh
well, the oysters are probably soaked in BP oil anyway.
We passed several several long range bicycle riders. We stopped to visit with these three. The tall guy had left San Diego in February and the other two had come from Phoenix. Their destination is St. Augustine on Friday.
Our first turtle save of the trip.
In Perry we had turned west on 98 and left all the four lane roads behind. We zigged our way on the back roads through Blountstown, Altha, Wakulla Springs, Marianna to Dothan just across the Alabama State line and called it a day.
|
this sign was at the local flea market. get divorced and unload her stuff at the same time. |