Great cause.... You be safe....

Best to ya man!!
I'd love to buy a set of your trailer plans, hinthint.

So jelly. Good luck and safe riding.

dig it man! i am in NC but no where close to selma sadly. Travel Safely!

Having lived off 95 in Savannah for a few years, I think avoiding-it albeit north, is smart!
Continued thoughts and prayers

Good Luck, man! I only wish I could've done something like this before settling down with a wife, kids, and house!
Have fun and keep alert for those 4 legged creatures and 4 wheeled obstacles!

Maybe you should pick up some MRE's. At least you'll get a little better nutrition out of them.

MRE's weigh too much. Go to Walmart and GET some Mountain House freeze dried Lasagne for the same price and less sodium. If you want to save coin, snack dont devour. If you eat a small handful 20 times a day, while chugging water, you will lose weight and keep your metabolism where it needs to be. And while feeling full most of the time. Fresh or dried fruits, grains, nuts, chocolates, jerky, granola bars, can of tuna, raw veggies, and so on. Hell, if that sounds waaaay too healthy, you can always go to a Safeway and grab a sausage roll and a block of cheese with some Ritz crackers. Light snacks is the name of the game brother.

Also check in at the major super markets and ask the guy in the produce section if you can have the stuff they are tossing away. You would be AMAZED at the great quality food they are throwing away just because of the dates, or a small bruise on a pear, or stuff turning an unappetizing color for the consumer. Might turn out to be a saver for you at some point. Lord knows I am going to use that when I do my road trip in the Fall. Even if its just a handful of carrots and 2 apples, that is free food to be thankful for. Same goes for mini marts with the heat lamp food. Ask the clerk What's The Special. Scary at times, life saving at others.

Rock on

Does the man have a camelbac? And selling the plans I think that is a brilliant idea, with a portion of the sales going to his ratthole.

Be careful coming thru Washington with your Ruckus plate on your trailer and nothing on your Ruckus. The staters here will have a hard on when they see that go by. Seriously. Gotta have a plate for each item here regardless of size bro. Who knows, you might GET a really rare break because of your Charitable cause. Maybe the pig will even cough up some cash for you. Ride safe.

how awesome!!! defanitly following you on your adventure!! good luck and stay safe. Let us washington boys know if we can do anything for ya. they need a bad ass emoticon (insert here)

just tell em your state doesn't require the LP for the scoot. tadaaa. haha

i just saw this thread today, haven't been on the board as much as normal. But this is great. Saw you will be coming back into PA in the North East. If you are coming through the Scranton/Wilks-Barre area give me a PM. Got to ask the lady friend if she is cool with someone crashing here (if it is later in the evening and you need a place to crash ((Seeing as we are about 5 hours by car from Pittsburgh, you may want to relax a bit before you make the last leg home)). But she let K stay with us for 2 days when he did his journey in 2009, so I may be able to swing her into it. At the very least, we can cook out and feed you some grub. Let me know if you are in my area, and most of all BE SAFE!

LOCK AND LOAD!

I've had no Internet access or phone service for the past 2 days...was waaaay out in the sticks...so this is a big update.

Man...where to start?

I knocked out 220 miles yesterday! I was on the road the entire day! I made it into North Carolina sometime in the afternoon.



I stopped by a Honda Motorcycle shop and bought a 3.00 x 8 inner tube for the Ruck trailer...just in case...lol. When the guys found out what I was doing, they threw me a free t-shirt!



By evening I was beat. It started to rain and night was coming quickly. I could not find a campground ANYWHERE. I considered sleeping just off the road in the woods but it was raining hard and dark by that point. DAMN...going to have to get another hotel.
I was in such a remote area that I couldn't even find a motel!
I came up on a convenience store and stopped to ask if there were any campgrounds or motels in the area. The attendant was really nice. He made a bunch of phone calls from the office to find me a campground or motel. His name was Tug. What a cool name...and when you see his pic below, you'll know why they call him Tug. He is one big guy.



Tug knew of just ONE motel in the area. It was only a half mile down the road. He made a call and they had a vacancy. I jumped on my Ruck and headed over.
I arrive and immediately have a bad feeling. The outside was really run down and there were several broken down cars in the parking lot...well, it wasn't so much a parking lot as a big area of sand and grass.

I went into the office...again, not so much an office as some really old lady's LIVING ROOM.
She grabbed the key to room "1" and said "Let me check it first". She unlocked the door and opened it...I heard her mumble "Oh, my". under her breath and close the door. She said "let me get a key to room "4".
I'm thinking "What's up with the "Oh, my"? ....she then proceeds to check room "4". Apparently, room 4 passed and she handed me the key. She then immediately got in her car and DROVE AWAY. I thought that was weird because she was the only person at the hotel. I was the only person there. I walked in the room and almost puked. "What the hell is that smell"?!?!
It was cat urine and mold. What a pleasant combination...lol And where the hell did that lady go? I want my $40 back.
I had a feeling she was going to make herself scarce ...so I though, ok try to make the best of it. Maybe look around and check out the rest of the room. Let me give you the grand tour:



Ok, so outside of the deplorably tacky decor, it looks sort of ok, right?



Notice the "pest control" sitting on the desk. The "refrigerator" was a styrofoam cooler covered in cat scratch marks.



moldy ceiling



Dead cockroaches

So I call my sister laughing my ass off...then she started laughing her ass off..."Kimmy, this is hilarious...it's like a really bad movie". "I think I'm stuck here for the night".
So I try to do the Wan "I accept that" thing and I can't. I started thinking - "Maybe I can just set up my tent in the parking lot". After a half hour or so, I realized that I was really was stuck there for the night. So I resign myself and accept it. I got one of my tarps and put it across the bed then set my sleeping bag on the tarp. I covered my face with the sleeping bag so I would not have to smell the cat pee and mold.



So I get up at 5:30AM and I am back on the road. I reached Myrtle Beach around 11am. I was speaking at a candle light vigil service at the Horry County Rape Crisis Center around 6pm. I got a well-deserved shower then set up my tent. I walked down to the camp laundromat and washed a load of clothes. I started talking to a lady named Linda. I told her what I was doing and she was shocked. She said "What can I do"? "Do you need anything"? I said "some hot food would be great". She gave me $20 and sent me over to the camp restaurant. I had a hot ham and cheese sandwich...and it tasted awesome. Wow, do you appreciate real, hot food when you are living off of canned Vienna sausages and Ramen noodles...lol.
So I headed over to the vigil and met up with my counselor, (Tina, you ROCK).
I met a girl named Julia there and she spoke at the vigil. She is an absolutely amazing young woman. I asked her permission to talk about her in my blogging. She agreed. Julia was molested by her step brother from age 8 to her late teens. When she told her parents, they called her a liar and never did anything about it. Instead of letting that destroy her, she sought counseling and did things to help other people. She did missionary work in Honduras. She said the kids there were terribly terribly poor but they were happy kids. She said that if those little kids could be happy, then she certainly could be too. She also worked with terminally ill children who knew they were dying...but many of them were happy to be with their family and live out there limited days. She said again that if they could be happy, then she could too.
Julia, you inspire me because our stories are identical...and if you can be happy then I can be happy too!



My counselor Tina



I am sitting at a Steak and Shake writing this...it's after mid-night and I'm really tired...so more tomorrow!!
T