The Keys, I’ve always wanted to go there. You know ,
the whole , “take my picture at the southern most point” thing. But let me back
up. This was a trip conceived by my friend Steve Oliver . Hats off to him doing
all the research for lodging and most of the routing .
We talked about and hashed out this trip for weeks prior through text, social media and over dinner. My wife , Kay had originally planned to go. She was substitute teaching but then she filled the gap for a teacher that went out on maternity leave so it became a full time gig and that commitment knocked her out of going :(.
Leading up to this trip, I needed to do some prep to my bike. I had a fresh back tire and brake pads and thought I would need a front tire and pads so I ordered accordingly from Jeff's Cycles. The budget was getting tighter the closer our departure of April 28th got. I was beginning to feel guilty that I was going on this trip when our funds were dwindling. I always work all I can anyway averaging 60hr work weeks. My anniversary date was coming up at work and I had 2 vacation days unused. This had never happened in my 23 years at this job. I had always burned through my vacation and was starving for an off day by the time my vacations renewed. I was so proud. I always envied those guys that had days they HAD to use or lose. Now I was that guy :). But I struggled to get a handle on my finances so I made a tough decision (and then pouted about it for a little while) I went to work on my vacation days ( I vowed for years that I would never do this). I could work and have 22 hours or I could take the days and have only 16 straight time hours. I also worked a few hours Sunday before church (double time). I had taken advantage of every opportunity, I no longer felt guilty but I used all my free time and energy working now I had to carve out time to prep the bike. I had to change out a blown headlight , something that is akin to brain surgery on the Vision! Almost disassembled enough here to change a headlight bulb. You laugh but that's what it feels like to me LOL!
I had to change the oil. I thought I would have the new front tire put on but in favor of my budget and after inspection of my tire with over 20,000 miles on it, I decided to take a chance and put the Key West miles on the current front tire and change it when I got back. It was a gamble that would pay off. I got all that done to my bike and finally finished packing about 11pm the night before we depart.
Tuesday April 28th, with a full tank of gas, I went to meet my friends at Jack's. There would be 8 bikes and 10 people on this trip. Me, David Chambers (aka Lucky), Captain Steve Oliver, Jonathon and Hope Sells, Randall Gray, Josh Hairston, Kevin and Wendy Tillery, and Kevin's dad Tommy Tillery. There were going to be a lot of firsts on this trip. It would be everyone's first time to the Keys, Jonathon's first time to Florida ever, Randall and Josh's first time to ever ride a bike to Florida, longest motorcycle road trip for most everyone but me I think.
We talked about and hashed out this trip for weeks prior through text, social media and over dinner. My wife , Kay had originally planned to go. She was substitute teaching but then she filled the gap for a teacher that went out on maternity leave so it became a full time gig and that commitment knocked her out of going :(.
Leading up to this trip, I needed to do some prep to my bike. I had a fresh back tire and brake pads and thought I would need a front tire and pads so I ordered accordingly from Jeff's Cycles. The budget was getting tighter the closer our departure of April 28th got. I was beginning to feel guilty that I was going on this trip when our funds were dwindling. I always work all I can anyway averaging 60hr work weeks. My anniversary date was coming up at work and I had 2 vacation days unused. This had never happened in my 23 years at this job. I had always burned through my vacation and was starving for an off day by the time my vacations renewed. I was so proud. I always envied those guys that had days they HAD to use or lose. Now I was that guy :). But I struggled to get a handle on my finances so I made a tough decision (and then pouted about it for a little while) I went to work on my vacation days ( I vowed for years that I would never do this). I could work and have 22 hours or I could take the days and have only 16 straight time hours. I also worked a few hours Sunday before church (double time). I had taken advantage of every opportunity, I no longer felt guilty but I used all my free time and energy working now I had to carve out time to prep the bike. I had to change out a blown headlight , something that is akin to brain surgery on the Vision! Almost disassembled enough here to change a headlight bulb. You laugh but that's what it feels like to me LOL!
I had to change the oil. I thought I would have the new front tire put on but in favor of my budget and after inspection of my tire with over 20,000 miles on it, I decided to take a chance and put the Key West miles on the current front tire and change it when I got back. It was a gamble that would pay off. I got all that done to my bike and finally finished packing about 11pm the night before we depart.
Tuesday April 28th, with a full tank of gas, I went to meet my friends at Jack's. There would be 8 bikes and 10 people on this trip. Me, David Chambers (aka Lucky), Captain Steve Oliver, Jonathon and Hope Sells, Randall Gray, Josh Hairston, Kevin and Wendy Tillery, and Kevin's dad Tommy Tillery. There were going to be a lot of firsts on this trip. It would be everyone's first time to the Keys, Jonathon's first time to Florida ever, Randall and Josh's first time to ever ride a bike to Florida, longest motorcycle road trip for most everyone but me I think.
I got to Jack's , really shocked Captain Steve was the last one there. He's usually chastising the Tillery's for being the last ones :) Anyway, I met Josh, nice young man, Fort Payne Police officer. I knew the rest of the crew. We prayed by our bikes , led by my longtime friend Dave and then saddled up.
I was responsible for the first day , destination Daytona Beach. I mapped out a course that would bring us to I-75 south of the ATL. It was cool that morning, high 40's starting out. We saw some deer near Cave Springs. I had decided on a couple of bypass roads that I had never taken before. I was nervous about them because I didn't get a chance to proof ride them before hand. They worked out great. We cut out several red lights and high traffic city driving.
We got on the freeway everything going great. We got off for gas and it was lunch time so, to save time (we were a little behind schedule but bike trips shouldn't be about schedules. You take bike trips to escape schedules) We ate at a nearby Wendy's . Anytime you can eat and gas at the same stop , you save time. I got this salad that was as good a salad as I had ever had. BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad. Who knew!?
Anyway, we saddled up, I had planned to get off I-75 at Tifton. Tifton,GA is about halfway to Daytona Beach. I knew the freeway made some people nervous so I mapped a road to Waycross,GA, then to Jacksonville,FL. It had warmed up prior to this section of the trip, then the farther south we went, it cooled back down to 66F, really the opposite of what you think the temp would do going south. As far as the route, this turned out to be a good way. We stopped just north of Jacksonville at a gas station. Wendy asked "how far are we going before we eat." This tickled me and I tickled Kevin when I said "just as far as we can." LOL! Wendy said "that doesn't help me Jim Tom." LOL! I had a restaurant I wanted to show them but we were still a couple of hours or so away so I suggested we snack at that point. While we were snacking , 2 women came up and were talking to Hope and some of the others. the women had their back to me so I couldn't make out what they were saying but I knew they were asking for money and something about a shelter. Our crew gave and I didn't have any cash! Dave was going to pay me cash for his part of the rooms so I used some of that to give the ladies. I caught them at the gas pump and gave them some money. I asked them if they knew the Lord. The older woman lit up. I could tell she knew Jesus. I asked if I could pray with them and they were glad to. We joined hands and prayed. They were very grateful. I never know people's true intentions when they ask for money but regardless of what they do with it. God blesses the giver. There is a saying I love, "no one ever went broke from giving." God calls for a cheerful giver and He takes care of those who give. I have never missed any money I ever gave with the right heart. This encounter was what I look for on trips, God given opportunities to show Jesus love to strangers. Praise God , there would be more chance meetings.
So, we saddled up and headed down the road a piece. We had to take
I-295 to I-95S then get off on hwy 100 in Florida which would take us to A1A. From there, I took them through The Loop at Tomokah State Park. It is a beautiful road with lots of Green tunnel effect (where the foliage and trees meet at the top and make you feel like you are riding through a rainforest green tunnel.)http://www.ormondscenicloopandtrail.com/Map-with_header_and_text_v5.pdf
Beautiful tropical scenery and spanish moss line this entire detour. I was so happy to show that to everyone before we lost all daylight! Later , over supper, some said it was the most beautiful road they had ever been on. It really is great. Kay and I ride it every time we come to Daytona Beach and every time is like the first time.
We were too late to make the oceanside restaurant I wanted to take them to)http://www.hiddentreasureonponceinlet.com/
We ended up at IHOP (which I love). Steve said there was a storm blowing in. Our motel was just down the street so I didn't think much about it besides, I knew we had to get these women something to eat before they turned on us hahaha! The rain began to come down steady. We thought we might out last it over an extra cup of coffee or 3 but we had to just go out in it. I put my rain gear on but The Sells were unpleasently surprised to find out there top cargo bag was not water-proof. They had to stay up a little longer after check in and dry their stuff. Called Kay and went to bed.
Got up the next morning and it was beautiful out. I had breakfast outside.
I was responsible for the first day , destination Daytona Beach. I mapped out a course that would bring us to I-75 south of the ATL. It was cool that morning, high 40's starting out. We saw some deer near Cave Springs. I had decided on a couple of bypass roads that I had never taken before. I was nervous about them because I didn't get a chance to proof ride them before hand. They worked out great. We cut out several red lights and high traffic city driving.
We got on the freeway everything going great. We got off for gas and it was lunch time so, to save time (we were a little behind schedule but bike trips shouldn't be about schedules. You take bike trips to escape schedules) We ate at a nearby Wendy's . Anytime you can eat and gas at the same stop , you save time. I got this salad that was as good a salad as I had ever had. BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad. Who knew!?
Anyway, we saddled up, I had planned to get off I-75 at Tifton. Tifton,GA is about halfway to Daytona Beach. I knew the freeway made some people nervous so I mapped a road to Waycross,GA, then to Jacksonville,FL. It had warmed up prior to this section of the trip, then the farther south we went, it cooled back down to 66F, really the opposite of what you think the temp would do going south. As far as the route, this turned out to be a good way. We stopped just north of Jacksonville at a gas station. Wendy asked "how far are we going before we eat." This tickled me and I tickled Kevin when I said "just as far as we can." LOL! Wendy said "that doesn't help me Jim Tom." LOL! I had a restaurant I wanted to show them but we were still a couple of hours or so away so I suggested we snack at that point. While we were snacking , 2 women came up and were talking to Hope and some of the others. the women had their back to me so I couldn't make out what they were saying but I knew they were asking for money and something about a shelter. Our crew gave and I didn't have any cash! Dave was going to pay me cash for his part of the rooms so I used some of that to give the ladies. I caught them at the gas pump and gave them some money. I asked them if they knew the Lord. The older woman lit up. I could tell she knew Jesus. I asked if I could pray with them and they were glad to. We joined hands and prayed. They were very grateful. I never know people's true intentions when they ask for money but regardless of what they do with it. God blesses the giver. There is a saying I love, "no one ever went broke from giving." God calls for a cheerful giver and He takes care of those who give. I have never missed any money I ever gave with the right heart. This encounter was what I look for on trips, God given opportunities to show Jesus love to strangers. Praise God , there would be more chance meetings.
So, we saddled up and headed down the road a piece. We had to take
I-295 to I-95S then get off on hwy 100 in Florida which would take us to A1A. From there, I took them through The Loop at Tomokah State Park. It is a beautiful road with lots of Green tunnel effect (where the foliage and trees meet at the top and make you feel like you are riding through a rainforest green tunnel.)http://www.ormondscenicloopandtrail.com/Map-with_header_and_text_v5.pdf
Beautiful tropical scenery and spanish moss line this entire detour. I was so happy to show that to everyone before we lost all daylight! Later , over supper, some said it was the most beautiful road they had ever been on. It really is great. Kay and I ride it every time we come to Daytona Beach and every time is like the first time.
We were too late to make the oceanside restaurant I wanted to take them to)http://www.hiddentreasureonponceinlet.com/
We ended up at IHOP (which I love). Steve said there was a storm blowing in. Our motel was just down the street so I didn't think much about it besides, I knew we had to get these women something to eat before they turned on us hahaha! The rain began to come down steady. We thought we might out last it over an extra cup of coffee or 3 but we had to just go out in it. I put my rain gear on but The Sells were unpleasently surprised to find out there top cargo bag was not water-proof. They had to stay up a little longer after check in and dry their stuff. Called Kay and went to bed.
Got up the next morning and it was beautiful out. I had breakfast outside.
Got in the water after breakfast. It wasn't that bad once you got in. David got in too. I ran up the beach for about a mile. Running barefoot, you run on your toes. That really put a burn on my calves! It was a good feeling though.
We left our Daytona Beach motel and I took a few pics while riding beside my friends.
We left our Daytona Beach motel and I took a few pics while riding beside my friends.
David was my roomy most of this trip. We had only been on the road a few minutes when I saw his saddlebag sliding and spinning on it's side across the road in front of a garbage truck! We all pulled over. This happened on a bridge.
I took that opportunity to get a pic of Tommy with a great backdrop!
Dave got his bag back on a little worse for wear. He said "the one time I don't double check the bag is secure..."
His mom had talked to him the night before about seeing his aunt Vickie in Boca Raton. She had stage 4 terminal cancer. He was going to peel off and after a brief visit with his aunt , rejoin the group at our motel in Homestead. Something told me to go with him. I didn't feel good about him going off by himself and I really wanted to visit with her too and pray with her.
First , we have lunch at this place that looks really expensive, Amici's in
Indian Harbour,FL. http://www.yelp.com/biz/amicis-beachside-bistro-indian-harbour-beach
We walked in looked around and thought this place was going to break the bank, that wasn't the case. I got an eggplant parmesan dish that was great and just north of $12 (including the tip). Steve was a little disappointed. He was on a quest (still unsuccessful at this point) to find the ever illusive shrimp po-boy sandwich. You would think in a state surrounded on 3 out of 4 sides by ocean that we could pick a restaurant with a shrimp po-boy on the menu.
So we left and at a certain point, Dave and I peel off. No sooner had we done this and David's trunk broke off and rolled forward resting on his back. He is able to pull over without it hitting the road surface which is a miracle in itself. He kept thanking me for going with him. I told him "don't thank me, God meant for me to go with you", that God knew he would need someone to carry the trunk once it broke. If God hadn't work it out that way, Dave would have been unable to continue and unable to reach a group member until we stopped and checked our phones hours away. Now, how the trunk broke is another story LOL! Apparently, Dave had done a wheelie, (I had witnessed him do a wheelie one other time with somewhat tragic results) . We believe that when the bike came back down to earth from the wheelie, the force that rocked the loaded (with 30 pounds of groceries, seriously, we could all eat out of Dave's grocery stash for days in the event of a Tsunami or other natural disaster) top bag forward in a whiplash motion was more stress than the plastic mounting bracket could withstand. It shimmied for miles but eventually broke free.
Dave's now, trunkless Concours and my new passenger that Tommy would later name "Wilson" after the Tom Hanks co-star soccer ball LOL!!! :)
His mom had talked to him the night before about seeing his aunt Vickie in Boca Raton. She had stage 4 terminal cancer. He was going to peel off and after a brief visit with his aunt , rejoin the group at our motel in Homestead. Something told me to go with him. I didn't feel good about him going off by himself and I really wanted to visit with her too and pray with her.
First , we have lunch at this place that looks really expensive, Amici's in
Indian Harbour,FL. http://www.yelp.com/biz/amicis-beachside-bistro-indian-harbour-beach
We walked in looked around and thought this place was going to break the bank, that wasn't the case. I got an eggplant parmesan dish that was great and just north of $12 (including the tip). Steve was a little disappointed. He was on a quest (still unsuccessful at this point) to find the ever illusive shrimp po-boy sandwich. You would think in a state surrounded on 3 out of 4 sides by ocean that we could pick a restaurant with a shrimp po-boy on the menu.
So we left and at a certain point, Dave and I peel off. No sooner had we done this and David's trunk broke off and rolled forward resting on his back. He is able to pull over without it hitting the road surface which is a miracle in itself. He kept thanking me for going with him. I told him "don't thank me, God meant for me to go with you", that God knew he would need someone to carry the trunk once it broke. If God hadn't work it out that way, Dave would have been unable to continue and unable to reach a group member until we stopped and checked our phones hours away. Now, how the trunk broke is another story LOL! Apparently, Dave had done a wheelie, (I had witnessed him do a wheelie one other time with somewhat tragic results) . We believe that when the bike came back down to earth from the wheelie, the force that rocked the loaded (with 30 pounds of groceries, seriously, we could all eat out of Dave's grocery stash for days in the event of a Tsunami or other natural disaster) top bag forward in a whiplash motion was more stress than the plastic mounting bracket could withstand. It shimmied for miles but eventually broke free.
Dave's now, trunkless Concours and my new passenger that Tommy would later name "Wilson" after the Tom Hanks co-star soccer ball LOL!!! :)
We rode through a brief (though blinding) rain storm on the way to Vickie's, I wondered if the others were able to avoid it.
She lives in a nice gated community. Dave introduced me and after I explained why I had two first names , we talked a little while and Dave asked her if we could eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich (from his stash) at her place. She wouldn't hear of it. She took us to a restaurant on the beach, Flannigan's. Dave insisted on buying my meal for going with him and helping him. I went straight to the sandwich menu, grilled tilapia sandwich with a side of rice, delicious!
Vickie was nothing like I expected. I even told her I thought she would be old lol. It was like talking to someone in their 20's with the energy of a someone in their 20's too! The time I spent with her was such a blessing. She kept me laughing. I thought "there is no way I could keep up with her." She didn't seem sick and that made me very happy. We got back to her place and before we said our goodbyes , I asked if we could pray with her. She welcomed it. Another opportunity! We held hands and prayed, she was so grateful and it blessed us all. I am going to keep up with her and keep praying for her.
As we head for Homestead, we take the turnpike and have to go through some manned toll gates and some photo enforced toll gates where you don't stop. Something about them taking a picture of my tag and mailing me a bill didn't sit well with me. Almost an invasion of privacy to me, oh well, what can you do? Now the manned gates, I liked, another opportunity to interact. I had fun with the black lady taking the toll fee. She said , "you paying for him too?" pointing to Dave behind me . I said "yeah, but he doesn't know it." She had a great laugh . I paid and said "God bless you." She said "God bless you too."
One thing I love about traveling besides the things we see are the people. Meeting people, leaving them with a smile, or giving them a little hope like Vickie or the ladies that asked for money.
We finally arrived at our "Homestead away from home" for the night. I was pretty excited to see Key West the next day.
It's April 30th , we have our continental breakfast and pose before departure.
She lives in a nice gated community. Dave introduced me and after I explained why I had two first names , we talked a little while and Dave asked her if we could eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich (from his stash) at her place. She wouldn't hear of it. She took us to a restaurant on the beach, Flannigan's. Dave insisted on buying my meal for going with him and helping him. I went straight to the sandwich menu, grilled tilapia sandwich with a side of rice, delicious!
Vickie was nothing like I expected. I even told her I thought she would be old lol. It was like talking to someone in their 20's with the energy of a someone in their 20's too! The time I spent with her was such a blessing. She kept me laughing. I thought "there is no way I could keep up with her." She didn't seem sick and that made me very happy. We got back to her place and before we said our goodbyes , I asked if we could pray with her. She welcomed it. Another opportunity! We held hands and prayed, she was so grateful and it blessed us all. I am going to keep up with her and keep praying for her.
As we head for Homestead, we take the turnpike and have to go through some manned toll gates and some photo enforced toll gates where you don't stop. Something about them taking a picture of my tag and mailing me a bill didn't sit well with me. Almost an invasion of privacy to me, oh well, what can you do? Now the manned gates, I liked, another opportunity to interact. I had fun with the black lady taking the toll fee. She said , "you paying for him too?" pointing to Dave behind me . I said "yeah, but he doesn't know it." She had a great laugh . I paid and said "God bless you." She said "God bless you too."
One thing I love about traveling besides the things we see are the people. Meeting people, leaving them with a smile, or giving them a little hope like Vickie or the ladies that asked for money.
We finally arrived at our "Homestead away from home" for the night. I was pretty excited to see Key West the next day.
It's April 30th , we have our continental breakfast and pose before departure.
We rode toward the Keys. The ocean was very pretty. I'm fascinated with architecture so I love cool bridges.
After a while, I actually get bored looking at the ocean and just want to get to Key West. I thought there were two things I must do while here. 1.Get my picture made at the southern most point and
2. eat some authentic Keylime Pie.
In reality, there was only one thing I must do and it's eat something that rhymes with sky :) We spotted a place that advertised homemade keylime pie and decided to save space in our tummies at lunch and catch it on the way out. We rode around Key West. There was a line to have their picture made and it's expensive to park so we decided we didn't want to do it that badly, next we find something for lunch. Found a great little sub shop. My lunch was about $6! and it was a footlong (i think by accident). Again, no shrimp po-boy for Captain Steve and it's a sandwich shop, stacked deck here SteveO. It's just not meant to be.
Key West can be summed up as There are some great old homes, it's a little dirty, true free range poultry everywhere and at least one lawn-care service powered by an antique corvette. I wish I'd have gotten a picture of that one, you can't make this stuff up.
2. eat some authentic Keylime Pie.
In reality, there was only one thing I must do and it's eat something that rhymes with sky :) We spotted a place that advertised homemade keylime pie and decided to save space in our tummies at lunch and catch it on the way out. We rode around Key West. There was a line to have their picture made and it's expensive to park so we decided we didn't want to do it that badly, next we find something for lunch. Found a great little sub shop. My lunch was about $6! and it was a footlong (i think by accident). Again, no shrimp po-boy for Captain Steve and it's a sandwich shop, stacked deck here SteveO. It's just not meant to be.
Key West can be summed up as There are some great old homes, it's a little dirty, true free range poultry everywhere and at least one lawn-care service powered by an antique corvette. I wish I'd have gotten a picture of that one, you can't make this stuff up.
On the way out we did find that pie shop :) They also whip up a mean cappuccino. I got one with a single shot of espresso , Captain Steve got one with a double shot! I think he cold have ridden non-stop to Panama City after that :)
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Then we headed back to the room. Some of us went to explore the Everglades. There wasn't much to it. Maybe there would have been more had we went deeper in but, what we saw looked a lot like Alabama to me , just wetter. We did find the one curve in all of Florida and were so excited to actually get to lean the bikes . I remember seeing SteveO do a celebratory fist pump in the air and I wondered why then I made the curve and knew why :) Tomorrow, Chiefland, Florida.
May 1, 2015 we head for Chiefland. This would be our least favorite traveling day through traffic from hell. I will say Naples, FL is a beautiful city with ugly traffic. Naples was so nice, it was almost worth it, almost. We were trying to visit an HD dealer so my Harley Davidson riding counterparts could buy a t-shirt. I had enough pain and suffering in the heat and traffic, I thought i might have earned a Harley t-shirt too. Alas, we didn't find the HD dealership. We did find some neat things on this leg though. It wasn't all bad. We traversed a suspension bridge in Tamp Bay. My favorite bridge of the whole trip. The Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a bridge spanning Tampa Bay, Florida, with a cable-stayed main span, and a total length of 21,877 feet (4.1 miles). The new bridge cost $244 million to build, and was opened to traffic on April 20, 1987. It replaced an older bridge constructed in 1954, which was partly destroyed in a collision in 1980. Thank you wikipedia. Tommy said he rode his motorcycle over this bridge with his eyes closed haha. It gave him a little anxiety to say the least. I loved it. Big bridge photo courtesy of Wendy Tillery. Great shot! |
at one point , we pulled off for a bathroom break and this facility had alligators, very cool!
We took our time getting back on the bikes so Dave takes that opportunity to put some eye drops in or something. He lays his glasses on my backseat. When it got time to saddle up all 3 of us (Dave, Me , and Wilson) totally forgot about his glasses. We got about a mile or 2 down the road and Dave pulls the group over. That's when I learn that he never put his glasses back on. So he goes back to look for them and the Tillerys go back to help. The rest of the group waits at a side road. A few minutes later, we hear the Tillerys coming on the Harlasaki as Tim calls it LOL! You can't hear Dave's bike, you have to look at the RPM gauge to see if it's actually running. Kevin puts his brakes on to turn and rejoin the group, Dave is behind him and distracted! He locks up the back tire, sliding , blue smoke rising, squealing (the tire, not Dave ha) and all I can think is I'm about to witness 3 of my friends in a motorcycle accident! Dave does avoid hitting them, barely! Oh my gosh, I got worked up again just writing that! God is good !
Poor Dave has had a rough go. He lost feeling in his throttle hand basically the entire trip. His seat was creating a lot of discomfort as the miles racked up , he lost his side bag AND top bag, he lost (and found) his glasses and nearly had an accident. Hence the name "Lucky" . BUT through it all , Dave and I discussed God's goodness and how He protected everyone, he found his nearly new prescription glasses with no scratched lenses! He recovered both bags, only one has some road rash, all little stuff.
Poor Dave has had a rough go. He lost feeling in his throttle hand basically the entire trip. His seat was creating a lot of discomfort as the miles racked up , he lost his side bag AND top bag, he lost (and found) his glasses and nearly had an accident. Hence the name "Lucky" . BUT through it all , Dave and I discussed God's goodness and how He protected everyone, he found his nearly new prescription glasses with no scratched lenses! He recovered both bags, only one has some road rash, all little stuff.
Later , we stopped for gas and a Polaris Slingshot pullled up. Kay wants one of these 3 wheeled batmobiles (it has one wheel in the back). They are so cool! Jonathon sat in it. Check out his expression haha. They coaxed the guy into doing a burnout when he left. I think that display sold at least two more units :) One to me and one to Hope.
We found our motel (the 2nd time around) and we found a great BBQ place! BBQ BILL'S. After supper, we headed back to our room down the street. Dave was leaving early that morning for home.
Dave did leave early, like 2:30 A.M. early! I know he missed his family and he wanted to get home in time to participate in his church work day. He did make it home safe. Wilson stayed behind with me.
We got up for continental breakfast and I assumed it would be in the office. Upon entering the office they had nothing but tiny muffins , coffee, and orange juice. Not good! I reached for a handful of muffins and the desk clerk then informed me there was a separate breakfast room. She said the ladies at night had not been doing a good job of inform people this vital breakfast information. Whew! So, we are all in the breakfast room except Steve when I get a text from him. The text reads something like this:
Steve: "we may have to go somewhere for breakfast, all they have is muffins!"
(I am laughing my head off and let everyone else in on it. )
Me: "stick to the plan SteveO." (While I'm looking at my plate of eggs , toast and jelly, yogurt, and fruit.)
Steve: "Man!" (I let him hang here for a minute or 2.)
Me: "There is another breakfast room behind the pool."
Steve: "Oh snap" (we are all laughing ).
So, we head out and this would be a great riding day. We took 98 along the coast to Panama City. Beautiful 2 lane running beside the gulf in many places. I think this leg and the ride home were my favorite riding days, Home to Daytona was good too.
Dave did leave early, like 2:30 A.M. early! I know he missed his family and he wanted to get home in time to participate in his church work day. He did make it home safe. Wilson stayed behind with me.
We got up for continental breakfast and I assumed it would be in the office. Upon entering the office they had nothing but tiny muffins , coffee, and orange juice. Not good! I reached for a handful of muffins and the desk clerk then informed me there was a separate breakfast room. She said the ladies at night had not been doing a good job of inform people this vital breakfast information. Whew! So, we are all in the breakfast room except Steve when I get a text from him. The text reads something like this:
Steve: "we may have to go somewhere for breakfast, all they have is muffins!"
(I am laughing my head off and let everyone else in on it. )
Me: "stick to the plan SteveO." (While I'm looking at my plate of eggs , toast and jelly, yogurt, and fruit.)
Steve: "Man!" (I let him hang here for a minute or 2.)
Me: "There is another breakfast room behind the pool."
Steve: "Oh snap" (we are all laughing ).
So, we head out and this would be a great riding day. We took 98 along the coast to Panama City. Beautiful 2 lane running beside the gulf in many places. I think this leg and the ride home were my favorite riding days, Home to Daytona was good too.
We get into town and meet up with our friends Tim and Angela. Tim is our guide through Thunder Beach.
We get our rooms and Tim leads us to Hammerhead Fred's for lunch. I have a very good sandwich of course and finish off Jonathon's spicy fish :) Then we check out the vendors, first the Indian/Victory area. Victory is just offering demo rides, no commemorative pin or swag, kind of a let down. Indians I have seen. So we leave for the Harley Davidson dealership and vendor area. This whole time, Tommy is asking for a walmart so he can get some compression shorts to "keep his junk up." hahaha! So, we find a Dick's Sporting Goods. He buys some shorts to the tune of $40, ouch! We arrive at the HD and Vendor area and there is a photographer at the entrance. I memorized their website information and time of day to look my photo up after I get home. I did look it up and it's the only professional photo of me on my bike that I ever liked. I've had similar photos taken in Daytona, Sturgis and on the Dragon but this one was good and I think I will buy an 8 X 10 of it. Yes it's fuzzy and I cropped out the photography stamp, that's probably a copyright issue but I do plan on buying it.
We get in the expo and check out a lot of cool stuff. Then I get a text from SteveO that says "Jon is singing." I look at my phone and I am thinking "What?" So, I round the corner and sure enough there is a music rocking from this big revival style tent. I go in and there he is. Jonathon is on stage singing with the band! I'm thinking "how did this happen?!" It is so cool. Jon rocks it! He tries to step off after one song and the band won't let him! It's that good. So, he sings another one , Hopes favorite that he does. Grand Funk Railroad's Some kinda Wonderful. And he sings it to Hope, it was sweet. I video the whole thing. It would be one of my highlights on this trip .
He did such a good job! I think he wanted to pass out after that. We leave and head down the strip. It's getting close to supper time at this point. Tim has a place picked out but there is a long line so some of us split off and we pull off at this open air pizza place http://pizzapanamacitybeach.com/ (actually the ice cream sign pulled us off the road.) You could buy pizza by the slice so we did that. It was huge! It was more like a whole pizza , just in the triangle shape of a slice. Around $6 for supper, awesome! I'm high fiving myself in my head for doing so well on food expense this trip. Everyone gets ice cream but me , not for lack of trying. I got in line on 2 separate occasions for ice cream but they were too slow and there was a line for it. Tim texted Steve while we were there and told him that the restaurant we passed up (Tim stayed) has a shrimp PoBoy on the menu LOL!
Me, Steve, and Tommy were tired so we went back to the room. Watched the end of Avengers and called it a night (I was excited to get home and see Avengers 2) . We had 2 full beds. I didn't know who would snore the loudest , Tommy or Steve. I got in Steve's bed. It was a toss up , they both snored and I think Steve elbowed me in his sleep. We got up the next day and had breakfast. Steve wanted to ride down the road to see if any of the vendors were open giving last day deals on event t-shirts. I went with him. None of the vendor tents had opened yet. When we got back, I noticed that about 20 or more black bikers were outside prepping to leave too. The Lord gave me the idea to try and invite them to pray with us. You see every morning, the TV in the breakfast area was on the news of the Baltimore riots . I got so tired of watching it , it really stressed me out . I found myself thinking about and praying for our country all along this trip. As I am typing this , yesterday was National day of Prayer (may 7th). So we are outside prepping to leave too. Not all our gang is here yet. Then The Lord showed me my window of opportunity was closing. The black bikers were gathering in a circle to pray. I walked up and asked them if we could pray with them. They were very inviting. We mixed it up too. I was holding a white hand in one and a black hand in the other. This black man asked if we wanted him to lead, I said "go ahead". He prayed with power! I really think he was a preacher because this was not his first rodeo, he prayed like a preacher ! I got chills as he asked for safety and blessing for us all! It was so perfect, I felt a great peace. When he closed the prayer , we all hugged and I thanked him for his prayer and told him and his wife that I loved them and God bless them. There was no animosity there. No racial tension . We were simply brothers and sisters in Christ lifting our hearts up to the Father for safe travel and blessing and thanksgiving! In our world of chaos, we had a perfect black and white circle of peace. I would think about it the rest of the day!
Tim had us a great route going home. It was good to see real trees and the hills beginning to gently roll and it was great to turn again through farm and pasture land Alabama style. I realized at that moment that I missed Alabama and how beautiful she was. Photo courtesy of Wendy Tillery.
Me, Steve, and Tommy were tired so we went back to the room. Watched the end of Avengers and called it a night (I was excited to get home and see Avengers 2) . We had 2 full beds. I didn't know who would snore the loudest , Tommy or Steve. I got in Steve's bed. It was a toss up , they both snored and I think Steve elbowed me in his sleep. We got up the next day and had breakfast. Steve wanted to ride down the road to see if any of the vendors were open giving last day deals on event t-shirts. I went with him. None of the vendor tents had opened yet. When we got back, I noticed that about 20 or more black bikers were outside prepping to leave too. The Lord gave me the idea to try and invite them to pray with us. You see every morning, the TV in the breakfast area was on the news of the Baltimore riots . I got so tired of watching it , it really stressed me out . I found myself thinking about and praying for our country all along this trip. As I am typing this , yesterday was National day of Prayer (may 7th). So we are outside prepping to leave too. Not all our gang is here yet. Then The Lord showed me my window of opportunity was closing. The black bikers were gathering in a circle to pray. I walked up and asked them if we could pray with them. They were very inviting. We mixed it up too. I was holding a white hand in one and a black hand in the other. This black man asked if we wanted him to lead, I said "go ahead". He prayed with power! I really think he was a preacher because this was not his first rodeo, he prayed like a preacher ! I got chills as he asked for safety and blessing for us all! It was so perfect, I felt a great peace. When he closed the prayer , we all hugged and I thanked him for his prayer and told him and his wife that I loved them and God bless them. There was no animosity there. No racial tension . We were simply brothers and sisters in Christ lifting our hearts up to the Father for safe travel and blessing and thanksgiving! In our world of chaos, we had a perfect black and white circle of peace. I would think about it the rest of the day!
Tim had us a great route going home. It was good to see real trees and the hills beginning to gently roll and it was great to turn again through farm and pasture land Alabama style. I realized at that moment that I missed Alabama and how beautiful she was. Photo courtesy of Wendy Tillery.
We stopped for lunch at Hardee's. The picture on their menu looked so good, I got the chicken El Diablo. It was good but increasingly HOT the more I ate of it. The rest of the trip went well. We took 79 to 167 to 231 to Ashville and hit the interstate there until Collinsville. Captain Steve "let her eat" here and we fell in with him. When we got off the interstate. We kind of said our good byes and split off for our homes and waiting families. I got home and put Wilson on the cargo rack. Kay got on back and we rode it to Dave. He wasn't home so I left it in his truck seat and sent him a text.
Something that happened on this trip that I forgot to mention. I'm always singing, humming. I always have a song on my heart. Well, on 3 separate occasions, I was riding down the road singing a song when something told me to turn urn on my radio. My bike was equipped with XM satellite radio by the previous owner and I usually keep it on The Message. I love contemporary Christian music. Anyway, each time I turned my radio on, I heard the song I was singing (different songs). Once it was playing at the time I hit the radio power button and 2 times , it was the next song to play! Thank you Lord for the little things!
Key West was neat. People interpret my description of Key West that I didn't like it. I did like aspect of every place we went. There was something beautiful to see in every place. But Key West , though it is the title of this blog, is not what made this trip. What made this trip was the people I was with. Thank you to everyone that went for making this a highlight and creating memories with me. I hope I have captured some great memories for you in this blog. I love you all!
Some highlights about this trip in no particular order.
my odometer tripped over the mile marks 104,000 and 105,000 while on this trip.
I had an overall average of 45 MPG.
I did this whole trip for a total cost of $502!
Praying with the beggars.
Taking my friends through the Loop in Daytona Beach.
My time with Dave's aunt Vickie and praying with her.
Jonathon Sells concert
Tommy Tillery (funny thing is, I was worried about him prior to the trip but turns out he was a highlight. Tommy told me stories about everything and made me laugh but I especially like the ones he told about my dad. Tommy is just a joy to be around)
Praying with the black bikers
My time on and off the bike with the Lord
My time on and off the bike with everyone on this trip!
Only a couple of things that would have made this trip better:
1. That Kay could have been with me.
2. That SteveO could have found his shrimp PoBoy sandwich :)
Something that happened on this trip that I forgot to mention. I'm always singing, humming. I always have a song on my heart. Well, on 3 separate occasions, I was riding down the road singing a song when something told me to turn urn on my radio. My bike was equipped with XM satellite radio by the previous owner and I usually keep it on The Message. I love contemporary Christian music. Anyway, each time I turned my radio on, I heard the song I was singing (different songs). Once it was playing at the time I hit the radio power button and 2 times , it was the next song to play! Thank you Lord for the little things!
Key West was neat. People interpret my description of Key West that I didn't like it. I did like aspect of every place we went. There was something beautiful to see in every place. But Key West , though it is the title of this blog, is not what made this trip. What made this trip was the people I was with. Thank you to everyone that went for making this a highlight and creating memories with me. I hope I have captured some great memories for you in this blog. I love you all!
Some highlights about this trip in no particular order.
my odometer tripped over the mile marks 104,000 and 105,000 while on this trip.
I had an overall average of 45 MPG.
I did this whole trip for a total cost of $502!
Praying with the beggars.
Taking my friends through the Loop in Daytona Beach.
My time with Dave's aunt Vickie and praying with her.
Jonathon Sells concert
Tommy Tillery (funny thing is, I was worried about him prior to the trip but turns out he was a highlight. Tommy told me stories about everything and made me laugh but I especially like the ones he told about my dad. Tommy is just a joy to be around)
Praying with the black bikers
My time on and off the bike with the Lord
My time on and off the bike with everyone on this trip!
Only a couple of things that would have made this trip better:
1. That Kay could have been with me.
2. That SteveO could have found his shrimp PoBoy sandwich :)