Scoot2TX Ride - Day 4

Baton Rouge, LA to Houston, TX

While "Easy Riders" Billy the Kid and Wyatt never made it out of Louisiana, those of us taking part in the KYMCO Scoot2TX ride did manage to escape, traveling away from the marshland and mangrove swamps near Baton Rouge to the open landscape of east Texas and our overnight in Houston.

We were joined today by a 10th member, KYMCO customer Gregory Dykes of Mobile, AL. Dykes met us at the hotel in Baton Rouge last night after traveling 210 miles aboard his 2009 Xciting 500Ri.

"I couldn't get any of my scooter friends to come along for the ride to the Amerivespa rally," Dykes said, "and so my dealer, Hall's Motorsports, told me about KYMCO's Scoot2TX ride."

Dykes bought his first scooter, an '85 Yamaha Riva, in June 2009. Four months later, in October, he bought the KYMCO. "The first scoot satisfied my needs for around town, but then I found about the White Sands Mayhem scooter rally in Pensacola, FL. To attend that, I knew I needed something that would get up and go and be dependable, and so I knew I needed something bigger and newer."

His thoughts after seven months of KYMCO ownership?

"My experience with the KYMCO network and product has been exemplary," Dykes said. "I knew by my research what KYMCO was doing and how long they had been business. Their extensive line of scooters, and the fact that they offered a two-year warranty on their product to me spoke volumes about their commitment to their product."

Dykes had a dirtbike as a kid, then moved on to a 750cc streetbike in his 30s. So why a scooter now? "I just always liked the idea of a scooter," he said. "I had a little car that got 26 miles to the gallon. But, when it died, I needed something besides my truck to get me from point A to point B. Low and behold, I then discovered that scooting could get me from Mobile to New Orleans to Birmingham to Ocala to North Carolina, and to all points in between."

Tomorrow we meet up with KYMCO USA President Eric Bondy and head toward Austin, adding another couple hundred miles to the trip.

See pictures from our fourth day on the trip on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/KYMCO.Scooters?v=photos&ref=ts#!/album.php?aid=173469&id=74250042688

And watch our progress LIVE: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0ljKjFrjDZjIbCBy24hLH6Fba89HErDTN