Tuesday, 31 May

I left Savannah this morning after having a small meet and greet with a homeless guy. He was really sweet he stopped outside the hotel when I was packing the bike and told me my bike was really nice. He asked how I could carry so much luggage, that he would struggle to carry even though he’s really strong. He then proceeded to show me how strong his arms were. He said he’s so strong because he’s a vet. He then said and with arms like these can I guess how old he is.

I didn’t want to guess as he looked about 70 but I was guessing by what he was saying that he probably wasn’t. He told me was 57 ”can you believe that”. Well I couldn’t but just said wow that’s impressive.

I’m pretty sure that he was homeless which is just very sad. He wished me a safe journey and all gods blessings and I rode out of Savannah.

I did ballpark about 450 km today about 400 on the interstate and then about the last 50 year off the interstate. The interstates are really great roads; huge, easy, good quality and hardly any traffic. So really easy to cruise along and no one sticks to the speed limit. Plus there are no speed cameras so I just cruise along at 75 to 80 miles/hour (113 to 120 km/h) I never really been a fan of the bigger Harleys style cruiser bikes as that is not my style, but I really do see the appeal on these big motorways. They must be really fun and would get you to places quickly.

When not riding off the interstate I found a mixture of some sweet towns like Newman and some very squirrelly looking one, very run down. Also a huge variety of houses from run down dumps to lovely looking family hones, to huge mansions. I especially love the South fork style mansion set well back on massive farms.

On Wednesday, 01 June. I carried on spending some time exploring roads off the interstate and also hopping on the interstate to just put some miles behind me. As usual when riding I spend a lot time thinking in my helmet and this trip is no different.

My thoughts on the USA so far: Not political as I don’t live in the US so have no interest in discussing US politics. Although I don’t want to say anything negative but I’ll start with a negative of which there is really only one thing… the food, the portions are ridiculous I know this from every trip I’ve made here but it still slaps me in the face and kind of gets to me as I end up wasting so much food. It’s also not the healthiest food by far. No vegetables and I love my vegetables. I’m not vegetarian but eat a lot of vegetarian food and have radically reduced the amount of meat I eat, but I do love my vegies.  Some of the food is really cheap not just in price but in quality. I went to the waffle House for example, and you know you have to tip 20% here, with tip  it cost me six dollars for waffle and it was awful so I won’t make a mistake again. When I arrived in Savannah I wanted to have a really good meal so I found a great restaurant and had one of the best meals I’ve ever had in this country. Scallops on couscous with broccoli and was the right portion and it was just absolutely fantastically cooked and cost me 36 bucks so with a tip we talking 50 bucks for a meal in America that is exorbitant and it’s yeah well it’s a… Swiss prices so that’s crazy. But I’d say on average for a ‘’good’’ meal I’m paying 15-30 bucks

 The other thing that’s really expensive as accommodation when I came to the state before, in 2016, I was paying on average $35-$55 and I think before the most I paid was $75. These are for the hotel just off the interstate for comparison.  Now I’m paying between $100 and $150, my average is $129. It’s just too ludicrous how expensive things are. Gas is a lot more expensive at $4.50 a gallon but still a lot cheaper than Switzerland which I think will work out to about $8 or $9 a gallon. But back to the food that’s again the negative thing is the quality and the sizes and trying to find healthy food. The hotel breakfasts are yeah hmm lots of cereal one of them had oat porridge which was cool that was good. They all have bananas and which is great. Every hotel so far has also served scones which are called biscuits here. So that I like to have coffee and scones and a banana. I had tried the yoghurt once (and I know you can get good yoghurt here as I had some at Matt and Mayas place) But in the hotel it was like strawberry jelly mixed with milk powder…. Hmm maybe that is how they made it yuck. I had a boiled egg in one hotel that the yoke was so pale it was almost white. It was a proper fresh boiled egg I de-shelled myself but completely tasteless. Every hotel also serves the food with paper plates and plastic cutlery. There is plastic everything everywhere, and almost zero recycling. I’m not sure where the environmental movements are I see on the news but they sure are not driving around this country.

There are pockets of places where I have seen a lot of garbage on the interstates, but mostly the countryside is very clean. I often see people walking along the roads cleaning up, and there are notices indicating who sponsors the roads, so I guess they keep them clean. Not sure why that is needed I mean just throw your trash in a bin people.

Right to the other side of what I noticed here. People are friendly, really friendly, and polite. It’s not just the homeless guy who chatted to me but I’ve met soooooo many nice friendly people just in gas stations. It’s cool 😊

There is also soooooo much space here. I just love riding along and seeing these huge wide open spaces, it really does the heart good and puts me in a great mood every day. It’s a beautiful place and green as anything. I have seen some stunning birds and deer. I saw a few racoons at Ants place and many many squirrels everywhere. I just love it.

Riding to Memphis I crossed from Georgia to Alabama and eve a tiny bit of Mississippi before entering Tennessee. I think I’m going to get to see a lot of the US and the North, mid, South , East and West are very very different.

Just outside Memphis in the suburb of Bartlett I did some more house exploring.