If you've ever traveled in the Southeast during the summer, you have probably seen
Kudzu. It's a climbing woody vine that grows rapidly and covers everything in its path. According to Jane Linton who wrote
"Kudzu Covers Dixie Like The Dew", this vine is said to cover more than 7 million acres in the South and it grows at the rate of a foot (or more) per day! Old southern folklore tells of mothers keeping a close eye on their children while they sleep to keep them from being choked to death by the night creeper vine. It is also told, that an escaped prisoner fled into a kudzu patch and is still unaccounted for.
Yesterday, while Harley and I were out on the Glides cruising the country side as we usually do on Saturdays, I was noticing all the different shapes and forms I would see created by this creeping invader. It was kind of like watching clouds, and identifying familiar shapes. Almost everywhere you look, you see kudzu. My imagination was really working! When I told Harley, that the field we just past looked like an ocean full of whales, he asked if I'd been sniffing chemicals. LOL! I made a comment that I would like to take some pics of the kudzu to share with my blogger pals and I think that confirmed it. He's been married to me long enough to know, sometimes it's just better to humor me, than try to figure me out!
We left our house that morning with temps in the mid 90's and a slightly overcast sky. It seemed like we were in the sun more than the clouds though, and we had to stop often to drink something. After almost 200 miles of toodling around the country side, checking out the kudzu on this southern summer day, we got pretty hot and sweaty. As we made our way back toward Montgomery, the sky presented a pretty dark thunderstorm in the area we were headed in. Harley is good at reading the sky and taking us on a route to skirt around the storms as much as possible. This day was no different. With about 60 miles left to go, we were chasing it home. We could smell the rain... that fresh wet smell, even though we were not in the storm. I love the smell of rain, I just don't care to ride in it. We started noticing that the road was still wet from the rain that had just passed through, but not enough to make your jeans wet, and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Suddenly, the clothes that had been sticking to us because of the heat, created a welcome cooling effect as the cooler air hit us while we rode. Ahhh! That feels good. We could still smell the rain but not a drop was hitting us. We made it all the way home and the storm was gone by the time we got here.
All in all, I'd say we had a great ride. We cleared some cob webs, rejuvenated our souls, and I got to spend the day with my three favorite Harleys. I suppose if we had gotten into a terrible storm, we could always find shelter in the kudzu...if we dare!
Ride safe! Lady R
Here in the south, cotton used to be king... until there was Kudzu! This fast growing vine was introduced here by Japan in 1876 and is very prominent all over the southeast United States. It grows so rapidly and covers anything in it's path, it's even earned the nickname "foot-a-night vine". Throughout the history of this wild vine, there have even been tales told of children being covered up by the vine in their sleep, so you don't want to leave your windows open!
While riding along the beautiful highways of Alabama, you'll see amazing displays of Kudzu as it grows wildly over everything in it's path. It's unusually pretty to see how the lush green growth can soften the appearance of a hard wooded tree line, or make an open field appear as though it's covered in a soft green blanket of vines.
