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so Ruger will get off my back,Florida Ride report.

3K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  denny6006 
#1 · (Edited)
Most of you know I did a little week trip to Fla back in Oct. , man has it been this long ?

This was neither long planned nor well thought out the BIL's wife passed away after a long bout with throat cancer and I couldn't make it down for the funeral so I went down the following week. Just to hang with him and catch up and just let him be himself without a whole crowd of people around, after all I half raised him ,he stayed with me from the time he was old enough to drive until he got married.

The trip was supposed to start Monday at 5 AM from here and head south. Well, the man in charge of such stuff as the weather decided that about 3 AM we needed a good down pour until late that afternoon, leaving a day later looked like the smart plan. So I checked out the weather Radar model for the next AM. I will interject here, that when it says model that's just a swag be cause it was showing more of the same until midnight Monday and then clearing off. Up at 4 AM next morning and loaded my bags on the bike with all my normal gear. I threw on the crash bar chaps since I was expecting the road to be wet and those things keep the wind and road spry off your lower legs. It was damp and about 56 degrees so I put on the under armor sweats and a pair of goretex over pants and the trusty old leather Bomber Jacket on mounted my phone on the bars after I had mapped my route to Asheville NC. put my helmet on and got the bluetooth synced up with the Phone. I was about to back out of the shed and turn on the tunes but wait , do I hear something? Why yes I do, pulled of the lid and listened , I hear rain on the metal roof as Ruger would say "Blast".

By this time I was convinced it was a stray shower that would let up shortly. Wrong! It got heavier and heavier. I have a personal rule, I don't leave home in the rain, in the dark. I may have to come home under those conditions (more on this later) but I don't leave here in said conditions. So I trudged back in the house and sat there pouting still in full gear with front door open listening to it rain, got too warm with my clothes on so I stripped back down partially and decide to brew up another pot of coffee

I turned on the tube and drank coffee and watched the local early morning news with a particular interest in the weather forecast. I don't know why , by this time I had decided that weather prognosticators will lie to you at least as often as a farrier( Google it if you don't know what a farrier is , if you do know what one is you understand). Said pot of Costa Rican Rainforest blend Shuffle Bean coffee was gone and I sense the rain is letting up. I brewed another one and filled my Thermos to go. It didn't quite hold it all so drank what was left too, did another check through the house to make sure everything was tuned off and locked up, I guess your wondering why I am saying so much about my coffee consumption this particular morning, There is a reason, it had a lot of bearing on the first leg of this journey.

Hey, the rain has stopped and the liars on WYMT say it's gone for the day, geared back up, locked up rolled out of the shed and fired the beast up.. I am off!! But it is 8:30 by now and daylight is burning. The roads are still wet with some ponding on the road surface. I take it easy out of the twisty 4 miles of road I live on and hit the 4 lane towards Pikeville KY , didn't make it 20 miles and between being so jacked up on Caffeine and tar snakes on one particular road, I was so nervous that my insides felt like they were vibrating and my eyeballs were floating so I stopped and drained at least 4 gallons of fluids from my body. While I was stopped,went ahead and topped off hoping to make it to VA for the next fuel stop. well that worked out but I had to stop in Pikeville any way for some more drainage, I know drinking that much coffee before a trip is a rookie mistake. Any way the trip so far had been uneventful and I had guessed right on the amount of clothing as I was dry and warm even with the amount of road spray from the large trucks and the tar snakes making the bike feel squirrely. Rode down US 23 and made a fuel stop in Norton VA and then in Johnson City TN hit some more light rain briefly and rode on into NC On four lane I 81, I think? I was cruising along snug as a bug but I forgot about those mountains heading into Asheville . it got a bit chilly getting on into Asheville where I stopped for a snack and some more gas ,coffee and a cigar. While sitting on a picnic table in the fair city. I had a conversation with an older dude and found out that the city was at one time built around the sanitarium business ,where all the folks with TB and the money sent their loved one to live in the pure mountain air. According to my new friend The Biltmore Estate was to come later

That's enough for now and I'll try to pick up where I left off soon , if any one is interested, Later.
 
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#2 ·
Most of you know I did a little week trip to Fla back in Oct. , man has it been this long ?
yes. it's been THAT long! ;)

with that being said......it's about time! ;)

well, you know what they say "better late, than never".

now I feel like "Chuckles" and I can't wait for the next installment. woo hoo! you go Denny! :rockon:
 
#9 ·
Most of you know I did a little week trip to Fla back in Oct. , man has it been this long ?


That's enough for now and I'll try to pick up where I left off soon , if any one is interested, Later.
2009? ;) That's just how I would have ended it Denny. :rockon:
 
#10 ·
Part Deux, lol

To Ruger, Yes I realized it had been a while but I finally got bored enough to start on this.

Deviate, I wish I had known how close I ended up to where you are.

Birdhunter I would like to think I am tough but the beast is the newest ride on the farm and I might add the most economical.

Chuckles, I know you are always impatient for a good story,lol, and as you know we can both sing Keith Whitleys old song "I'm no Stranger to the Rain"

Where was I , Asheville NC this a question I would ask several times that day (where am I ?) This was around noon and I had put KY, Va,TN and a good part of Nc Behind me and was feeling pretty good about myself and my progress with a few minor setbacks at the start. time to saddle up and ride some more, Southwest I was headed on into SC I went. Keeping mind all this riding had been on slabs, if you want to count US 23 thru VA as slabbing it but it is one of the crookedest pieces of 4 lane road in the country and unlimited access so there are driveways and other roads intersecting it all along the way to the point it and I 81 merge. By this time I was getting pretty bored with all that and turned west onto another Interstate that took me over to Georgia ,27 , I believe, ted had told me of a good two lane of about 100 miles that ran south off this Interstate just inside the Georgia line that ran south to Macon, no Atlanta for me, thank you.

I thought to myself why not just two lane it all the way to Valdosta, so I stopped and reset my navigation to go from my to Valdosta, in hind sight I wish I had a real map to look at. The nav took me places I have never seen and heard of not a big deal but just how many pines ,pecan and peach trees does a man need to see?? I know a some of you have heard the expression "I have been all over hell and half of Georgia" Well I know the true meaning of that now !! Any who I did enjoy the Georgia country side fore about three hours before I began to get concerned about my whereabouts another hour or two layer and it was close to getting dark.

I found myself in a small college town which had to be the scooter capitol of the south. I saw a steak and shake and decided to stop and eat, deer jerky and snack crackers had ran out some where back in rural GA. So, fed and fueled up I started figuring which way I needed to go to hit Valdosta from where I was at, Holy cow it was another 100 miles from where I was, so I re routed and off through the Country I go It was fully dark by now and I'm running around the Georgia country side on the lookout for deer and other nocturnal critters including drunk ********.

After about 40 minutes of riding I rolled in to a sleepy looking town and gave up and asked the age old question . Where am I, other than somewhere in Georgia and bought me a monster energy, it was between 8 and 9 pm, and I was wearing down a little. The girl at the counter looked at me kinda odd and I said, no, I guess a better question is where am I in relation to I 75 ? This was a lot simpler question and this chick tells me about 15 miles that way. I decided to top off the tank while I was there and she comes out and check out the beast and noticed the tags and asked "you from KY" me "yep" and commented on my bike and asked where I was headed and I told her FL, She said that's a pretty good trip from here. which kind of puzzled me. I thanked her and headed out and realized she didn't have an accent and neither did I in that neck of the woods. Hillbilly perk, we all speak fluent hicktown English.

I rode the fifteen miles "That way" and found it to be closer to 12. The only problem was when I was looking to get on 75 south, I noticed I was only 10 miles south of Macon. I actually lost time trying to cut cross country but hey, I was riding and it was warm and I had shed a bunch of clothes back in Asheville and had just put my jacket back on at the last fuel stop and still had all the vents open. I was on 75 headed for FL, Life good , I ran into road milling and offset lanes and had to keep my head in the game and my eyes were getting tired . The BIL calls and says where are you? I told mim abit south of Macon and north of Valdosta, ..He tells me I have at least 5 more hrs of riding to get to his place . Which led me to the decision to find a room for the night and finish up on the next day. I stopped at a little burg called Vienna GA and haggled with an Indian dude for a single room and got one for thirty bucks, not the classiest joint but the room was clean and had a hot shower and a bed , I pulled my bike up on the sidewalk and parked it in front of my room unloaded all my stuff and locked everything down for the night. I'll continue from the next morning.. till the next installment , Good night.
 
#12 ·
To Ruger, Yes I realized it had been a while but I finally got bored enough to start on this.
you don't get bored very easy, do ya?! lol


if you want to count US 23 thru VA as slabbing it but it is one of the crookedest pieces of 4 lane road in the country and unlimited access so there are driveways and other roads intersecting it all along the way to the point it and I 81 merge.
thanks. I'll have to remember that.

in hind sight I wish I had a real map to look at.
as hard as it is to believe.......paper maps have saved my ace more that once. always carry backups!

somewhere in Georgia and bought me a monster energy
NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!.......... not MONSTER! that stuff is EVIL! LOL


Hillbilly perk, we all speak fluent hicktown English.
I'm still trying to learn that. lol

till the next installment , Good night.
I'll be right here waiting.....
 
#13 ·
Denny is hicktown Yankee close?lol.and I don't like GPS.the last time I used it it said" in 100 feet turn left off cliff into lake"
 
#14 ·
(Chuckles, I know you are always impatient for a good story,lol, and as you know we can both sing Keith Whitleys old song "I'm no Stranger to the Rain".)

Good stuff here Denny. And yes, forget TV. Let me read a good riding story!

Yes sir! That song fit the ride we did with Old Dog last year in the mountains. Spencer missed all that bike wash stuff. BUT,,, "Highway To Hell" fit the trip home that Sunday. We rode through some rains coming home I wouldn't drove a car through.
 
#16 ·
Should have called me Denny. I can run out to Valdosta in just over two hours.
 
#17 ·
Can you send me your number Via PM, I have changed phones and lost most of my contact numbers. I was thinking about you the other day
 
#18 ·
Okay, I had stopped at the roach motel for the night at the end of the last installment IIRC.

Here we go. I was up at about 5:30 and took shower number two at this little motel and turned on the tube to check the local weather. Dense Fog advisory for the area. I opened the door and checked it out, Whoa! From where I was which was about 200 yards from I 75 I could hear traffic and not even see the lights of the interchange from where I was standing, thick dense fog. The weather guy got this one right,for sure! I decided to wait a while and see if the fog was going to burn off before leaving. There was a convenience store next door to the motel so I grabbed my thermos and headed over there, after drinking the small pot of coffee at the motel,

It was just next door so I hoofed it over to see what they had. I found out they had fresh breakfast sandwiches coffee they would sell by the thermos full if I wanted and the price was reasonable and also Monster energy Ultra Zero!! I grabbed a biscuit of some sort filled the thermos and picked up and energy drink and walked back to my room. You wouldn't think you would get damp just walking a short way but it was that foggy. I went indoors and watched the tube while I ate and left the front door open, it was warm already even with the fog. I wanted to keep an eye on the interstate lights to see if the fog was leaving. Hah! I sat there after I ate and watched the daylight come, notice I didn't say sunrise, I couldn't really see that. I had had enough of sitting and doing nothing . I had packed my bags earlier so i grabbed my cleaning rags and some Windex ,I usually keep a small bottle with me.and went out and tied to clean part of KY,VA,TN, NC, SC and GA off my ride which turned out to be quite a job. The beast was looking a lot better when I finished any way, so I loaded it all back on the bike and it was almost eight o'clock and still foggy. Had another cup of joe and said to my self I've been here long enough. I had taken the vinyl chaps off the crash bar earlier the previous day and didn't think I would need them. Which I would come to find , was a rookie move. DOH !! Time to saddle up and ride, put on a light Jacket and rolled out.

I was getting back on I 75 south ,no big deal, another boring interstate highway, right? Wrong!! Add fog and going from a nice relaxing morning to jumping on that stretch of road, at that time of the morning, with big trucks hammered down and people running 80 mph to get to work on time and you have no choice but find some one to get behind and just ride like they are driving rather than take a chance on being hit from the back in that fog. About the time I was getting to Valdosta it was starting to clear off some, just south of there I decided to stop and fuel up and change shoes and socks. My feet were soaked. I did just that and felt like an idiot for not snapping those chaps back on the crash bar but it is what it is. My jeans were wet from the knees down in the front but figured they would dry out soon enough since the fog was lifting fast by now.

I was right about ten minutes later I was in FL and it was hot! I decided to stop at the welcome to FL Welcome center and do some wardrobe adjustment, lose some more coffee and smoke a cheap cigar. Hey, It's how I roll. Don't be dissing the value of a cheap cigar and a cold energy drink, all the comforts of home :rockon: any way, back to removing the jacket, opening every vent on the helmet , doing a walk around on the bike looking for any thing loose or broken or otherwise potentially becoming a problem.

By this time I was down to my Jeans, a bright orange "Can You See Me Now" shirt from the world famous HH Motorcycle Ranch in RockBridge OH. BTW mine is the family friendly version of Ruger's R rated one, LOL. Why was I even wearing a shirt from OH anyway? Trying to build the Buckeye Bunch's Reputation up, I guess :)

Back on the road. I by now have came to the conclusion that the 75 in I 75 is the minimum speed you can ride on that particular road without making everyone on the road mad at you, so when in Rome... It was 85 to 90 mph in traffic just to keep up until we got to Ocala and everybody slowed down to about 80. Just south of Ocala I got a surprise. I had been seeing Palm tees of every shape and size and a few other Grasses and Plants you don't see much north of there and all of a sudden I was going through one of the strangest looking places I had ever seen. As far as I could see in either direction there was nothing more that what looked like bushes that were about head high. I saw a sign that it was so and so Wildlife Management or refuge area. I later found out it had been a big lake at one time and from what I could gather from some of my BIL's drunk buddies, a long time ago one of Florida's sinkholes opened up and drained it. That was what I was told anyway. It just looked so much different than all the surrounding land it took me by surprise and it was a pretty big area.

About this time I noticed my bike was sucking fuel like a jet airplane at those speeds. I thought, well crap I thought I would make it in on that last tank. So I stopped again for fuel and a Cold Diet Dew and after fueling up I had to roll over in to the shade to drink my Dew. It was H O T- hot and I noticed my arms were getting a little red, I hadn't felt that for a month or better so I sat in the shade drank my drink and smoked another cheap one.

This would be my last stop before exiting the Interstate and finding the small town of Bushnell and Tommy's house. He called it about right I was on the road better than 5 hours ,closer to six actually but with all the stops and general wasting time on my part, he was still close on the time. Good thing I stopped for the night or I would have never found his place. I had arrived finally and Fl would never be the same in my mind after seeing the non touristy side of the state.

That's enough for now, more to come.:beerchug:
 
#20 · (Edited)
By this time I was down to my Jeans, a bright orange "Can You See Me Now" shirt from the world famous HH Motorcycle Ranch in RockBridge OH. BTW mine is the family friendly version of Ruger's R rated one, LOL. Why was I even wearing a shirt from OH anyway? Trying to build the Buckeye Bunch's Reputation up, I guess :)


That's enough for now, more to come.:beerchug:
just so you know, my bright orange, "R" rated shirt has been retired. I am now sporting a light blue shirt with "The Legendary Hocking Hills Motorcycle Ranch" - "Saddle up & Ride!" - "Rockbrige, Ohio." logo on it.:rockon:

keep it coming Denny, this is good stuff.:motorcycl
 
#19 ·
sounds like a normal day in the deep south. especially if you've got somewhere to be.

Thanks it's been a good read so far.
 
#21 ·
All I know is I wish I was somewhere ,Sunny and 75 degrees even if it is back on I 75, Winter sucks :(
 
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