Five of us rode our motorcyles and scooters up to Cordele, Ga. From May 14 to 17, 2010. We had a great time up in Georgia. Stayed at the "Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park" campground. They have a Veteran's Museum and several military aircraft, artillery and vehicles on display. Very nice family-oriented park, marina, golf course, restaurant, and swimming beach (Blackshear Lake, off of the Flint River), right close to Cordele, Ga. <FONT size=3>The tent spots were somewhat separate from the RV's but not totally segregated. But, the Host of our loop was right across the entry road from us, if we needed anything - nice Cajun feller. We rode to Andersonville Saturday - a very gripping and depressing site - a lot of misery went on there. They had a huge cemetary, museum, the well,manicured grounds have the displays of the old prison camp with some mock-ups of stockade sections and the meager shelters the prisoners made. They include a movie to explain what went on. It was only in operation about 14 months, but some thirty thousand Northern troops died there. A similar POW camp in Elmira, NY holding Southern prisoners was smaller, but had the same appalling deathrate. We had dinner late Saturday at a Mennonite-run restaurant serving cafeteria-style in Montezuma, Ga. on the way back. We also visited Plains, Ga. to see the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library (the old elementary school). That town flat lives & breathes The Carter Family! We even saw brother Billy Carter’s old gas station and the Carter Family graveyard. Saw farms.... LOTS of farms! Well, it IS Georgia after all. ;-) Our two scooter guys did a daytrip over to Columbus, Ga to visit the Army Infantry Museum and the Civil War Naval Museum. Wish I coulda gone, but I was too tired from the all-day Saturday run. Our KLR650s ran fine, no problems. One of the two Scooters did have a problem with his automatic clutch - but we had the owner of the "All ABout Scooters" business (in Tallahassee, Fla.) with us, and if it had broke down he was ready to have an employee bring a trailer to get it back home. But the scooter made it back okay. We got rained on Sunday night and Monday morning. But the actual ride back was fairly dry. I was dog-tired, so had a long nap when I got back. Got a bunch of pics loaded onto my Photobucket site (see addy below). Andersonville Georgia roadtrip_May 2010 pictures by Seawolf1090 - Photobucket
Looks like a cool trip. When you said scooters I didn't think you meant real scooters until I looked at the pics. My buddies that own harleys call any motorcycle other than a harley a scooter. I really didn't think those were legal for highways. Got other buddies into DS bikes one has a KLR the other has a XR, they keep trying to get me to sell my mx bike to get a DS. I'd love to get a used KTM DS but can't afford it with the economy in the crapper right now.
The bigger scooters are indeed highway capable. The 650cc scooters top out at 110MPH! My KLR tops out at 95, if I have a good tailwind! The scooters on this trip were a 250cc and a 500cc. They have been used for these multistate trips before. They have a largish under-seat stowage compartment, and the 250cc model here had very nice largeish sidebags. A couple companies are slated to be bringing out 1000cc models - the "SuperScooters"! Now, we KLR guys do have a pet name for Harleys..... the "Hardly Ableson"..... Seriously though, I do think about getting a nice Harley one day - that tall KLR is getting harder to swing a leg over.......
110 mph, wow I had no idea I had a crf450x that wasn't near that fast. All I see around here are the ones that barely go 45. All the billy bobs and bruthas drive them when they lose their license because they got another DWI. IIRC in Ga you don't have to license them if they are 50cc or under but you're not supposed to get them on any highway with a 55 or higher posted speed limit.
Same here - those little 49cc putt-putts are deathtraps on an open highway! I see them on Campus at FSU a lot. If you are into true bare-knuckles "off-roading" and single-track, keep your MX bike. The KLR650 is a top-heavy BEAST on tight trails, and an absolute pig in sand!
Wish I'd known of it! Would be cool to walk thru - but of course, our space was limited on the bikes! I hope to get back up there later in the van - I will check it out - thanks!
