4,000 miles

I passed 4,000 miles on my scooter on the way home from work yesterday. Here's the odometer and you can see I had my helmet on in the reflection and yes, I was pulled over by the side of the road! Don't be fooled by the speedometer going up to 70 miles per hour. My scooter can only go about 50 mph and it doesn't like running that fast for long. I only have to do it for the final 200 yards of my ride into work when I have to ride on a four-lane highway to get to the entrance to our office.

So, 4000 miles! I could have traveled the entire length of US Route 6 and been on my way back. The reason I mention Route 6 is because it starts on Cape Cod and runs all the way to California. Before 1964, it was a transcontinental route and ran all the way to the Pacific Ocean ending in Long Beach, CA. But then California renumbered its roads and US Route 6 was changed to end in Bishop, CA. It doesn't have the fame of US Route 66 - no songs, few mentions in books - certainly not the famous mention as "The Mother Road" in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath that US Route 66 got.

I know people are probably tired of my mentions of mileposts (so to speak) about my scooter. But then, not many people read this blog so I only have to please myself and a few others. But I will say this - I'll be marking when I pass 5,000 miles and then I'll hold off until I get to 10,000. How's that for optimism?

I've thought about what it would be like to travel the whole Route 6 on my scooter but even averaging 40 mph for the whole length, it would take me over 160 hours (20 days traveling 8 hours a day) to make the round trip. I don't think that's going to happen.