Trip Stats:
Total Days: 127
Total Miles Traveled: ~3480 miles
Breakdowns (*Mechanical*): 6
Gallons of Gas Purchased: ~36 gallons
Longest stretch with no showers: 7 days
After 3,500 miles of travel and a 7 day stretch without showering, Austin marks the last destination on this moped trip. The 6 day trip from Atlanta, 10+ hrs each day, was enough of the moped for me. I've had way too many close calls and it feels like I'm pushing my luck. Thank you so much to everyone that I met along the way and all the friends and family that I stayed with. I'm still gonna follow the rest of my route but via Amtrak.
Atlanta, GA to Payne Lake Recreation Area, AL
Hurricane Helene passed through Atlanta early Friday morning, a day before my planned departure from Atlanta. I left Atlanta early Saturday morning around 6:30 AM for my first of six days that it would take to make it to Austin. The first day was ~250 miles, my longest day yet. I made very good time arriving at the national forest around 5:15 PM. The travel was smooth besides getting chased by ~3 dogs, hitting a few gravel/dirt roads and having a really sore butt.
Payne Lake Recreation Area, AL to Marathon Lake Campground, MS
I woke up around 5 AM once again to hit the road just at sunrise. Day 2 was only ~180 miles of travel and it went pretty smoothly. I got chased by even more dogs and still had a sore butt. I got to the campsite pretty early and had decided that the moped could use a little love. The rear tire was super bald compared to the front so I decided to switch the tires. While taking the wheels off, I checked the chain which had stretched even more and had lots of play perpendicular to the chain movement direction. The top chain in the picture was the original chain (came with the bike) that I deemed too worn to use and now my replacement chain (bottom) was in way worse condition. Also the front sprocket was loose (it has a washer that should prevent loosening) so I tightened that up.
I took off both wheels pretty easily and swapped them, however when I went to inflate both tires neither would hold air. Turns out I pinched not one but both inner tubes while removing the tires. And I was stuck at a campground in the middle of a national forest with only one spare inner tube. It was pretty late and dark outside but I was able to order a tire patch kit from walmart for the next day.
Marathon Lake Campground, MS to D'lo Waterpark, MS
I met Mickey the next morning who was camping out and he was kind enough to drive me to and from the walmart to pick up the kit. I was able to patch up both inner tubes and got on the road by 11. Not more than 5 miles down the road, I decided to check my front tire's pressure. It was down quite a bit. I stopped on the side of the road and used the green tire slime hoping that it would plug the hole, unfortunately the hole was too big and the tire wouldn't hold air. While on the side of the road, some of the locals stopped by to help out. I met Steve who lived down the road and I limped the moped over to his house. We tried repatching the tire but the patch kit was not that good. Somehow a motorcycle store in Jackson (~1 hr away) had the right inner tube size, so we drove out there and I bought 3 of them just to be safe. I'm glad that I bought 3 because somehow I pinched another inner tube trying to put it on. I was able to get the second inner tube on without pinching it. By this time, it was almost 5 pm and there was no way I'd make it 180 miles to my next stop. I found a campsite ~50 miles away and camped there for the night. This meant that day 4 would be another 250 mile day.
D'lo Waterpark, MS to Valentine Lake, LA
Once again I woke up at 5 am to get on the road. The tires were both holding air in the morning which was a good sign. The day was going pretty well until I hit a 4 lane highway that had no shoulder that was the only road going across the mississippi. I had a few close calls but the worst was two logging trucks driving parallel, one trying to pass the other. They didn't pass each other and couldn't slow down so I ended up riding on the white line while 2 logging trucks passed me, all three of us in parallel. After crossing the mississippi I got on some nice backroads for a while before my maps started mapping me through the Louisiana Plantation. All the roads on the plantation were dirt/gravel so I could go no more than 10 mph without losing traction and crashing. I made it to the end of the plantation and my maps kept telling me to go straight. The road turned from gravel to grass, I could see tire tracks that cut through the grass so I decided to keep going. I was already an hour into the plantation and going back might cost me the rest of the day. I kept going for another 30 minutes and then hit a gate in the road (and the road disappeared after the gate). My maps showed a hiking trail to the left that looked like it connected to a real road so I decided to take it. The trail was extremely overgrown and had water on both sides of it but it did take me to a real gravel road. I was able to follow the gravel road to a low speed highway which I took the rest of the way to my next camping spot.
Valentine Lake, LA to Cagle Recreation Area, TX
The next day I woke up early and got on the road, leaving Louisiana and heading into Texas. I was on a 55 mph low speed highway in Louisiana, but as soon as I crossed the border it turned into a 70. Unfortunately 70 would be the speed limit on most of the Texas backroads, maybe a 65. The entire day of driving was extremely nerve racking. It's hard for people to see me on my little moped especially when they're going 70, and a 2 lane means that passing/swerving to avoid is dependent on whether there's oncoming traffic or not. I eventually found a nice low speed paved road and I thought I'd be fine for the rest of the day. That quickly changed when it turned into a gravel/dirt + sand road for 10+ miles. Sand is the worst, it feels like you're driving on snow (which I have done on the moped). I could only go 5 maybe 10 mph on this road and I would get stuck and have to push on super sandy sections. After what felt like 2 hours I made it to pavement again. I was about 60 miles away from my next camping spot when my rear tire decided to go flat again. I was able to use the green slime again and fix the flat but the last 60 miles were still scary, I didn't want to have an explosive tire blowout on a 70 mph road. I made it to my next campsite before dark.
Cagle Recreation Area, TX to Austin, TX
In the morning I checked to make sure both tires were holding air, luckily they were. I did some remapping the night before and made sure that I wouldn't be riding on any unpaved roads. My planning paid off and I didn't hit a single unpaved road on my last stretch to Austin. I made the decision that it was safer to drive on the 4 lane high speed highways in Texas since they had a nice wide shoulder, whereas the "low speed" highways were the same speed, 2 lane and had no shoulder. Surprisingly I did not get pulled over. About 20 miles from Austin, the bike made a weird noise. I stopped and looked down to see the chain almost touching my kickstand. I had to stop and re-tension the chain to account for all the elongation. I made it to Austin, my new final destination. The flat tires were kind of the last straw of the trip, I didn't want to get crushed by a semi from a stupid flat tire on a 2 lane highway. Also 6 days of straight travel and 1000 miles of total distance really changes your perspective. My ass will always be haunted by the Tomos seat. And after being chased by 20+ yard dogs on backroads, I never want to drive something that slow since most of the dogs ran as fast or faster than the moped.
Austin, TX
My first stop in Austin was staying with cousins from my Dad's side, Mark, Jamie and their son Skylar. We went to some Austin restaurants, Torchy's Tacos, Rudys, the County Line and Skylar took me to the Austin Bouldering project to do some climbing.
Over the weekend I stayed with my cousin Jenny and her husband Brady. We got super last minute tickets to ACL and spent Saturday at the festival. We met up with my other cousin Annie who also was at ACL. Their friend Matt was also with us for the festival. On Sunday we went to Bangers on Rainey street and that night we went to the Oasis for a great view and dinner.
My last couple days were spent with Marc and Jami. I had to disassemble the moped and pack it into two boxes to ship home. I also met up with Tony and his friends who are part of a local Austin moped club called Shanks MPC. They had a cool shop in a warehouse with tons of mopeds.
I also met my Dad's half brother Seth who lives in Austin and works for YETI.
