Chapter 6

I awoke early after my night with Misty and Benny. I took one look outside my window at the sunlight, but couldn't get myself motivated to get back on the road. Maybe I wanted a replay of the night before, or maybe I was just worn out from it. Either way, I rolled over and went back to sleep. It was almost noon, when I finally managed to close the door of the motel room behind me.

With it, I also closed the door on Misty and Benny. I had no idea whether I would be welcome in their world for a second night or not. What I did know was that I could easily get lost in that world. That being the case, I had to get away. Getting away for me was unlocking the chain that held the Tomos to the sign post in the parking lot.

Since the trailer had been inside my room, I rolled it to the bike and hooked it up. With everything in place I left without even saying goodbye to my two lovers from the night before. Since I had no idea how I would look them in the eye and find my voice, I would be far too embarrassed, it seemed to be the ideal plan.

I rode the Sprint to a Mcdonald's restaurant. I bought the lowest fat meal I could think of, then sat on one of their picnic table to consume it. After I finished the meal I noticed that like most times I stopped the Captain America Moped, it got a lot of attention. Teenagers and even smaller kids loved the bike. The trailer told them all that I was on a road trip, so I was an instant hit.

"So where you headed?" the older man asked. He was tall and straight with gray hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He reminded me of a retired soldier of some variety.

"California, no particular place there. I'm going to be going," I explained not expecting him to understand. I was very surprised when he answered.

"You will most likely find yourself before you get there. It's a small bike, if don't eat too many meals in places like this, you should be really thin by the time you reach California." He smiled as he spoke.

"Well, I'm going to do the best I can. I have been dawdling this morning, so I really have to get on the road," I informed him.

"You be careful out there, and good luck," he said.

Other than his age, there was nothing about him to remind me of my father, yet he did. To bad I couldn't stay and explore those feelings. I had miles to go before I next slept.

The ride from Alabama to Gulfport Mississippi was beautiful. The weather was warm with a small souther breeze created by the bike moving my ass through the afternoon heat. Whenever I stopped, I was quickly soaked with sweat, but I didn't mind at all. It was a magical ride for me. Even the occasional bug that slapped me in the face was forgivable.

I arrived at the commercial campground outside Gulfport after I stopped for dinner. I had been in a great mood until I found that there were no undeveloped spaces in the campground. I knew that was always a risk with camping. The campground did have a few spaces with only electrical hookups, so I took one of those for the night. Rather than the $30 to $50 motel rental fee, the space rental was only $12. It would help me keep to my budget for sure.

I plugged in the power strip first thing and began charging my smart phone. and the extra batteries. The second battery charger had been a sacrifice in space and money, but it had proved to be a good investment. The battery in the phone could be switched out, when it got low. Since I used that phone for so many things, the extra power was a really good idea.

I was exhausted, even so I managed to go take a look at the Gulf of Mexico. I do love all large bodies of water. They draw me to them, like steel to a magnet. I left the beach just in time to get back to the campground before dead dark. I rolled out my bedroll then fell on it. I spent some time removing rocks from under the tarp. I swore then that I would do something about that before next I rolled the thing out.

I slept like the dead, but only after I got all the small pebbles from under the bedroll. The sun was barely clear of the small trees surrounding the campground when I sat myself up on the bedroll. It is the same with every man or woman I know, first thing in the morning we have pee. I took time to find my tooth brush and small tube of paste before I went to the bathhouse.

When I returned I used a bottle of water from the nigh before to make my coffee. I had no idea what was in the local water supply in the towns I traveled through, so I alway drank bottled water. I managed to get the tiny tea kettle going enough to boil the coffee grounds for a couple of minutes. Once they were done, I strained them through the bit of no longer white tee shirt. The coffee it made was still delicious. I wished that I had picked up a bagel the night before. It would have been stale but still it would have been better than the empty feeling in my stomach. I was mildly uncomfortable while I packed up my sleeping items before I rode off to breakfast.

I was happy to note, while sitting in the restaurant, that I seemed to have recovered completely from my exhaustion of the day before. I was more than ready to hit the road. Of course I was traveling much too slowly for the coastal highway. The couple of miles I had gone along it on my way to breakfast had convinced me of that. More than once I had cars pass me while trying to stay in the same lane. It was way too dangerous for a moped. Not only that there was a minimum posted speed limit, which I could not routinely meet. There were some bridges with humps that slowed me well below that speed.

I rode the whole day on back roads but in beautiful weather and along dinner plate flat roads, I made it through Mississippi and into Louisiana before I thought of stopping. I made well over a hundred miles that day. I got all the way to a small town outside Baton Rouge.

I found a campground with a very large convenience store across the street. I went shopping more to kill a little time after dinner than anything else. I found a plastic brush thing that was close to a foot high with plastic bristles six to eight inches wide at the bottom. It was supposed to be a clothes brush. I could remember one like it made of corn straw my mom called a whisk broom. It should work well clearing trash from under my bedroll.