Day 12
Scooter and me cut out of Courtland early. The Palms Inn Motel was clean, but they thought Sunny-D passed for orange juice so I did not take them up on the offer of coffee and prepackaged buns and would look for breakfast down the road. Yesterday had been a marathon and though I enjoyed it, I vowed not do that again. That should be a easy vow to keep because we were not going but 189 miles today. I knew today would be a good one because as we moved from the motel to the 7-11 for gas, Eric walked up. He was walking to work, "but I just bought a car, just ain't got the papers yet". We chatted, covered the "questions", I asked some directions and we were off.
VA 35 is a great rural ride. We came into Boykins Va and crossed the railroad tracks. This is a one block town, but I came to a screeching halt when I saw Boykins Bean and Ice Cream. I got off and looked both ways, to see what else was in town. There was nothing. Just the coffee house with wifi.
I walked in and questioned them about the coffee and internet and got a positive answer to both. I ordered a latte and a biscuit. Sort of a odd combination. I stayed for over an hour and visited with Debbie and Mike. He was retired from the Navy and had moved to the "small town" from the beach. The building had completely collapsed inside and they rebuilt it themselves from scratch. It had taken about 16 months and they had been open for 4 months and so far were doing well. There reconstruction has lead to more of the about 10 small stores to begin being rebuilt. www.boykinsva.com
I also met Steven Overman a marine. He had joined out of high school and had been in for 5 years, even re-enlisted in Iraq. Then his humvee hit an IAD. He was now out of the military on disability. He had recovered fairly well from most of his injuries except the neurological ones. He is rebuilding an old house as he can and spends lots of time with his wife and 2 kids. But, he has many medical appointments that keeps him driving back an forth to the VA. He was none committal when asked about his care.
Back on the road we crossed into North Carolina and passed through more rural areas with all the old abandoned houses and some restored ones. In Potecasi, I came upon an old house with a truck in the front yard and I made a u-turn to take a picture. A lady came over from next door and asked my interest in the house. I gave what must have been a satisfactory answer and introduced myself. Cornelius Summer was her name, I guess to be in her 80's, and she had grown up in that house. She moved in in 1950 with her parents and her brother, who later married and moved his family in. When her father died in the 60's she moved into the house next door. Her brother remained in the house until he passed away a while back and none of his kids had any interest in the place. She had never married and had lived in the same place all her life. Try as could, I could not get her to let me take a picture of her. "No...no I don't rightly think I would like my picture taken". We parted ways, me headed south, and she walking to the post office
As we rode on we came across more old buildings and houses we found interesting. Joyner Warehouse, Woodland, sold "peanuts concrete pipe fertilizer". Guess you sold whatever you could to make a living. Many old trucks were buried here but the casket truck did not get one. The old truck in front of the house was lasted inspected in 1991 and I cannot remember which little town it was in.
We passed several deer, vacation bible schools, flying airplanes and tattered flags.
In Lewiston NC I met Theresa Cherry at the gas station. She was collecting money to rebuild her church that was falling down across the street. In a poor rural area this has to be a great challenge, so I dropped a few dollars in the hat. In Oak City, Dennis came over to visit for awhile. We had a very nice chat about the scooter and things in general. In Conetoe, they had built a memorial to all veterans, though none from this community had died in service.
Often I comment on how clean the roads are in Europe. Trash had not even crossed my mind until leaving Lewiston on NC Bus11. The side of the road was the garabage dump. Not bags of stuff, just junk that probably had been thrown from vehicles. I decided to pay attention when I got on the other roads. I am glad to report that for the most part all the roads the rest of the day were clean of trash.
Scooter wanted to take a short cut down the railroad, but I thought better of the idea. We passed lots of fields of soybeans, corn, tobacco and grain. Scoot wanted to get up close to enjoy the smell of the plants and we almost got to close to the combine.
We rolled into Wilson, NC around lunch time and headed for Parkers Barbeque. The Parker brothers came back from WW II and started making and selling North Carolina eastern style BBQ. They did not invent it but they put it on the map. There was just one problem. It was closed for vacation. They close every year at this time I was told.
Somewhere along the way the forward kickstand failed. After Parkers, I stopped and the other had failed. This proposed a slight challenge as I could only get off the scooter if I propped it up against something. Since I was only 24 miles short of the destination, we decided to make a run on to my momma's house.
Yesterday we did 300 miles in 8.5 hours. Today we covered 189 miles in 7.5 hours. That is much closer to my desired travel speed.
Scoot well be staying with my parents for a few weeks. I am not to concerned about my 91 year old dad taking it for a spin, but I not so sure about my 88 year old mom. She was recently seen on the back of a Harley Davidson roaring around the neighborhood.
Due to time constraints, this is the end of the trip for now. I have to be back in North Carolina by car next week and from there go to Ridgefield Farm www.ridgefieldfarm.com for the James Dean Byrd Foundation www.jamesdeanbyrdfoundation.org first annual fund raiser. This has been a great trip and I once again have met many wonderful and interesting people along the way. Thank you for coming on the trip the with me and for all your encouraging and enlightening emails.
