Charleston, South Carolina

Call me crazy, but I have this firm belief that motorcycles should be on a trailer for only two reasons: mechanical issues and the absence of a license tag. If you want to ride somewhere, ride to get there. This goes for scooters too. When I told people I was planning to ride a Kymco Grandvista 250cc scooter to Charleston, SC, they looked at me funny. When I told them we were going two-up, they called me crazy.

The Call of Adventure

Rick Chappell and the guys at Honda of Winston-Salem, our local Kymco scooter dealer, don't quite know what to make of it when I tell them I'm planning on riding to Charleston. Everyone agrees that a scooter is the perfect ride for Charleston; they just don't agree with me that it'll do fine as a ride to Charleston. Which makes me wonder what's happened to our good old American sense of adventure. Undeterred, I fire up the mighty 250cc Kymco power plant and head home to show Kathy our ride for the weekend.

"It's cute," she says, "but will it make it all the way to Charleston?" Man, what a bunch of doubting Thomases. I quickly tell her to grab her helmet and join me on a quick ride to stress test this bad boy. A zip through the country and a short jaunt on the highway assures her, and me, that we'll have no problems on the road. Curiosities satisfied we headed inside to pack for our trip.