May 30, 2009

Breakfast this morning was at Snellgroves. Originally, there were only three of us, but others began trickling in one-by-one. The last to arrive was Kyle. Being the youngest of our group, the waitress took special notice and presented him with a special meal, a Mickey Mouse pancake.

Afterwards, it was off to Eddie's house for bike maintenance in preparation for next week's trip. Boyd has decided to ride his Gold Wing to Sylva, NC and back, but wants his VMax in the mountains, so he loaded his VMax into Eddie's trailer for transport. Eddie and Robert will also be trailering their bikes to Sylva later in the week.

Eddie and Bill prepared a good pepper and sausage lunch which was served in Eddies newly renovated lanai. This air conditioned dream is a great improvement. In addition to the dining area, it includes comfortable seating and a state-of-the-art television. Good job, Eddie.

Bill, Boyd, Lloyd & I will be leaving Monday morning on our respective motorcycles. Robert & Eddie will follow on Thursday with the trailer. Should be a great trip. I will try to keep up with the blog as we go, when internet access is available.

Make sure to checkout this week's photos.

Gunny

May 23, 2009

We were happy to have Kent Andrel and Bill's wife, Mercy, join us for our Saturday breakfast this week. After breakfast, Eddie headed south for a short fishing trip while Kent & Bill decided to take advantage of the respite from the rain to get some yard work done. Bobby was still on call for work, so it was Boyd, Lloyd and I that headed out for a ride.

With an eye to the weather which would surely bring rain sooner or later, we decided to keep the ride local so we set off on a circuitous route through Hillsborough and Polk counties.

Breakfast held off the hunger pains so we decided to skip lunch and ride while the weather held. Our final stop was at Lloyd's for a liquid libation. As we left that location, I could hear thunder beginning to roll in the eastern skies. That convinced me that we had ridden enough for that day so Boyd and I headed for home. The rains started in earnest about 30 minutes after I got home. Timing is everything.

Sorry for the lack of pictures this week. I forgot to pack my camera.

Gunny

May 16, 2009 - Sunshine Skyway & Taste of Boston

I tried something different today. Instead of embedding photos in the blog, I have posted them to a web album. Click here to see the photos.


It was a beautiful central Florida morning as we gathered at the Whistle Stop in Plant City. After a group breakfast, the riders mounted up and headed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (see the route at the link above). Of course we took the back way through Lithia, Balm, Wimauma, and Parrish.

We soon arrived at the bridge and stopped at the south rest area for a break, a bottle of water, and a view of Tampa Bay. I was happy to see that the heavy rains of the past few days had brought the water back enough to completely cover the flats. After taking a few pictures, we re-mounted and headed north across the mouth of Tampa Bay on the Sunshine Skyway. J.T. was able to get a few good pictures as we crossed.

Arriving at the north end of the bridge, we decided to check out the parasurfers. This time, we rode the sand down to where the surfers were gathered. That allowed us to get some very nice photos.

The next leg of today's trip took us to Barney's motorcycle shop in St. Petersburg. It is always fun to look around their large selection of vehicles and accessories. Besides, I needed a new kickstand support since mine broke in the sand at the last stop. It didn't dump the bike, but I did not want to chance it again. Barney's had a new VMax on the sales floor and Boyd, who had ridden his Wing today, tried to get the salesman to say something foolish about the VMax, but the guy was pretty good and didn't provide Mr. Sarcasm with any ammunition. Check out the photo of the Blue Knights themed Goldwing on the link above. It belongs to a FL XVII member who was also visiting Barney's today.

The next portion of the trip took us across the Gandy Bridge to the Tampa peninsula then over to Ballast Point Park where we stopped for lunch at the Taste of Boston. For those who have not been there, the park is a nice, quiet and shady spot with a good fishing pier and really nice views of downtown Tampa across the Hillsborough Bay.

After lunch and a walk on the pier, we headed towards home via Bayshore Blvd. where we got some good views of the bay, some impressive real estate and a bikini or two. Traffic was very heavy around the Forum and around the grand opening of the new IKEA store at Adamo and 22nd. Thankfully, we all had liquid cooled engines and survived all the long stops. Forced by traffic and the Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies to forgo turning onto 22nd, we detoured to another entrance to I-4 where we could finally pick up enough speed to shut down the radiator fans.

Arriving back in Plant City, we stopped for desert at Parksdale's (alas, it is too late in the season for strawberry shortcake).

It was a great 130 mile ride. Come and join us next Saturday.

Ride with Pride

Gunny

May 9, 2009

Yielding to a request for a change of pace, we eschewed our usual breakfast eatery and headed for The Brickyard today.

We had no sooner been seated when Boyd rose to make a presentation. For the uninformed, a friendly competition for photographic supremacy has developed over the past few years between Ace (Bill) and Mr. Sarcasm (Boyd). Today, Boyd formally presented Bill with a specially designed T-shirt and cap designating Bill as the #1 Official Photographer for Navigator Image Productions.


Bill was highly pleased with the presentation.

And, in a manner consistent with being Bill, he acknowledged the gift by calling the entire restaurant to attend his acceptance of the title.

It was all very entertaining. I would, however, caution Ace to remember Boyd's well earned nickname when wearing his laurels.

After breakfast, Boyd, J.T., Debbie and I headed out for our ride. We started in a generally southwest direction which soon found us crossing the South Prong of the Alafia River (that's the creek that passes under Jameson Rd.). As we passed, I saw a wood stork out of the corner of my eye and we stopped for some photos.

There turned out to be a whole flock of them.

What was also apparent was the extremely low water level. The river here was just a series of shallow pools.

J.T. & Debbie waited patiently while photos were taken.


From there, we headed towards Agricola Mine Road.

As the morning progressed it became readily apparent that:
1) the day was going to be very hot;
2) the lovebugs were back in full force;
3) road kill was plentiful; and
4) the buzzards were enjoying the bounty.

Our windshields and fairings were soon a mass of lovebug remains and we had to slow repeatedly to avoid the flocks of buzzards consuming the road kill. Coming around a curve on Agricola Mine Road, a particularly large flock of buzzards rose from their meal directly into the path of my motorcycle. There was insufficient time for me to do anything but duck behing the windshield before I hit one in the center of the fairing. After stopping, I found buzzard feathers lodged in the center air intake, but, luckily, no damage to the bike. Boyd, being Boyd, made some remark about being glad he was riding behind the "cow catcher".

Continuing our ride, we headed over to Homeland, Lake Hendry, and Lake Buffum. Picking up N. Scenic Highway, we headed south to Avon Park where we stopped for lunch at the Wild Turkey Tavern.

After lunch, we headed towards Lakeland for a quick stop at Fun Bike Center before heading for home and a thorough bike wash.

Gunny