NATCHEZ — They say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

This is definitely the case for 81-year-old Cotine McPhearson who can be found traveling the Ferriday-Vidalia highway on her Go-Go electric scooter with an American flag patriotically waving behind her.

“I call it my giddy-up and go,” McPhearson said. “I can take off when I want to. I have my basket on the front or I can hang something on the arm and shake a leg home,” she said.

Living off Westside Drive McPhearson has traveled as far west on U. S. 84 as Wal-Mart and as far east as the Dodge Store on her scooter. She has even driven her wheels through the 84 Quick Through drive-thru when the need arose.

And why the flag?

“An officer told me I needed to put something on the back so that people would notice me,” McPhearson said. “So I got me a flag for all those children fighting for our country.”

“My grandson worries about me at intersections and four-ways but I just wait then open it all the way up and go on across like the wind when the traffic stops,” McPhearson said.

“That’s why I make sure its fully charged before I leave home, don’t want it to die on me when I’m doing that,” she added.

“If you live according to God then you’re gonna get there,” said McPhearson, “and I know where I’m going.”