2019 IBA JAX Pizza Party Adventure Day 10 - March 21, 2019

Today was to be another travel day and WOWZA what a great travel day it was!!  Contrary to yesterday, today's ride was smooth sailing the entire way.  No stop and go traffic, very few lights and lots and lots of beautiful, smooth four and two lane highways.  The weather was perfect.  We started around 62 degrees and the highest was 72 or so.  Mostly the temps hung around the upper sixties and 70 degrees.  Lovely riding weather and not a cloud in the sky.  Oh, so beautiful!!!

We left Crystal River, FL and continued on Highway 98.  Our friend Sylvie Torter suggested a ride along Highway 98 through Apalachicola would be a good thing so that's what we did!  No regrets :-)

We noticed the median and shoulders of the highway had magnificent wildflowers blooming.  Boatloads of them!  Beautiful beyond belief.  Oh my, they took your breath away.  This was a fantastic ride!  Yes, do this!!!

Eric attempted to capture the beauty of the wildflowers on the fly but you can't really see the beauty.

So, imagine this for miles and miles and miles like a thick carpet!  Oh boy, what a ride!

We took a quick rest stop somewhere along the way ;-).  Typical bump in the road gas station.  I liked the old dead station in the background with the Spanish Moss hanging off the giant tree.

We continued along Highway 98 in a very happy mood.  Bikes were running like the fine tuned machines they are, gear was doing it's job, we were comfortable, the road was smooth and life was good!

We stopped in Panacea, FL for lunch.  Hmmm,  just up the road before lunch, we stopped at a gas station to figure out where we were and what we were going to do and where we were going.  Eric asked for a good place to have lunch and was given two choices, Posey's or the Coastal.  I chose the Coastal based on nothing but the name.  Mistake......hahahahahha

 I don't mind a dump cafe but I do mind a waitress that doesn't pay attention.  The food would have been good had it been delivered hot or even warm.  It wasn't busy since it was past 1 pm but apparently the waitress couldn't give a damn.  I won't go into details, (45 mins from order to food), but lunch was less than stellar.  Don't go here ;-)

No problem, at least we got some food and carried on along Highway 98.  No photos but we did ride through Mexico Beach and Panama City both of which were devastated by Hurricane Michael this past October.  Oh my, it was horrible.  My heart goes out to all those peeps.  We saw some hurricane damage before we got to Mexico Beach but it was nothing compared to what happened in Mexico Beach.  So many homes and business just gone.  Just gone....  So many severely damaged.  We did see some re-building but you could tell that a lot will not be rebuilt.  Sad :-(

We were hoping to get a room in Panama City but no way.  Every single hotel and motel was damaged and either under reconstruction or just boarded up.  More sadness.  So, we rode on and eventually ended up in DeFuniak Springs, FL just on the border of Alabama. We have a nice room and we gained an hour (hooray) because of the time zone change.

Although we didn't do any sightseeing or attractions today, we had a marvelous ride!!!  Just the way I like it, little traffic, smooth roads, great scenery and a big grin all day log!

Tomorrow we may do some touristy stuff.  Guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out, lol.

Cheers,
Cletha

2019 IBA JAX Pizza Party Adventure - Day 9 - March 30, 2019

Today was to be a transition day.  No tourists activities planned today.  We were heading north along the gulf coast.  We really wanted to avoid the interstate as much as possible.  We left North Ft. Myers about 9 am and guess what?  Yes, it was raining again, hahahahaha.  Nah, really is was just a heavy mist that left a lot of water everywhere ;-)  No worries, it didn't last long.  What did last long was the miles and miles of stop and go traffic as we navigated Highway 41 west and north.

Oh my heck!  The traffic was non-stop.  Oh no, actually it stopped, a LOT!  We certainly got lots and lots of slow riding skills practice.  My clutch hand is very, very strong, don't mess with me, lol.  Fortunately the temperature was moderate in the upper 60's, low 70's so we didn't bake in our gear at all the slow riding and stops.

How slow was it?  Well, we stopped for a break and to take off a layer of clothes 80 miles from our departure.  That was THREE HOURS to go 80 miles.  Yup, it was that slow ;-)

The fun stuff was riding through the marina at Sarasota right by Bay Front Park and Marina.  That was soooo nice.  I like Sarasota.  I didn't mind our downtown ride through for that part of the day.  Maybe sometime we'll feel flush enough to spend a few days there in one of the waterfront resorts.

Still in traffic and stop and go.  Lights every block that were never synchronized.  Yes, lots of slow riding practice.  I was hoping we would make it to Perry, FL today but that was not going to happen.  Good thing we're retired, hahaha.

We took a little break in Memphis, FL.

We weren't quite sure if we were on the right road because our map was a regional map and didn't show the detail we wanted.  Eric went in the store to buy a map of Florida but they didn't have any.  But guess what?  He actually asked directions!!!  Yes, he did.  Fortunately, we were only 1/2 mile from our turn so all was good.

Our goal at that time was to get on Highway 19 which would take us all the way north to I-10.  Oopps!  Highway 19 is also I- 275 for a short distance which was a toll road and we didn't have our pass.  Fortunately the toll was only $1.50 per bike and we were pleased that our total toll expense in Florida should only be $3.00 ;-)

Bonus, I-275 took us over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  Ooohhhhh, what a treat! Fantastic, gorgeous, super duper, over the top awesome bridge.  Grinning ear to ear, I loved this part of the ride and the speed picked up to a reasonable 65 mph which was way better than our 30 mph average of the past three hours.

Eric took this first picture from his bike as we were riding across the bridge.

 These photos below are stock photos from Wikipedia.  Such a masterpiece.  I love riding over bridges and the bigger and more spectacular the better.  That makes me happy :-)

Yesterday, Eric's Sena died (our communication system).  It had been heading downhill for quite a while and we think the rain yesterday just totally killed it.  It wouldn't work even after we dried it out.  So, for all of today and most of yesterday we didn't have any comm.  We managed to stick together and didn't crash into each other or anything but it sucked not being able to communicate.

I can't tell you how many times I said something to Eric and then yelled it and then realized he couldn't hear me, hahaha.  Frustrating!  So, in Pinellas Park, FL, Eric spied a Cycle Gear and pulled in.  Like a dutiful wife, I followed ;-) (SNORT!)

Of course they had all the latest Bluetooth comm stuff and we settled on a new pair of Sena 20S Evo units. We briefly considered the latest JBL speaker Cardo offering at a nice price, but didn't want to spend time leaning a new system.  The store dude, Dillon, installed the units for us in both our helmets.  The install was taking FOREVER so we walked down the strip mall to a Honey Baked Ham Company store and had a delicious lunch.  I had a 1/2 chef salad that was loaded with ham, turkey, bacon, spinach, cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes (I left the tomatoes off but Eric had them on his 1/2 Chef salad).  Honey mustard dressing.  Yummy.   I really needed GREEN food today and that was just perfect.  Eric had a half ham sammy on a croissant and a 1/2 chef salad.  Lunch was awesome.

After lunch, our helmets were almost ready.  I'm kind of a perfectionist and noticed my Schuberth helmet liner was not sitting properly inside the helmet.  I pointed this out to Dillon and also suggested to Eric that he try his on before we left.  Dillon saw the error of his ways and spent another 10 minutes getting my helmet right.  Great!  We left with new Sena units fitting well in the helmets and best of all, working comm!

We spent some time in the parking lot pairing everything.  I was insistent that my music work.  I wasn't leaving until I had tunes in my helmet!  Yay!  It all worked.  Eric and I could again talk to each other and I could listen to my music.  Although it was an expense we weren't expecting at this time, it was worth every penny.  Besides, it was something we were ultimately going to do anyway ;-)

So, back on Highway 19.  More stop and go and more slow riding skills practice.  Eventually we landed at the Best Western in Crystal River, FL, a rather toity resort hotel.  Fortunately, I am a Gold Elite Best Western member and that coupled with our AAA membership got us a decent rate on a nice room.  A bit more than we would normally spend for a room but after the slow, slow, slow slog today, we deserved a bit of a treat ;-)

Although we didn't do any tourist stuff today, it was still all good.  This is what memories are made of.  I'll never forget the long, slow, slog that got us maybe 200 miles in 8 hours.  I think that's a new record for us.  Hahaha, and we're Iron Butt riders, hahahahaha.  That makes it even more hilarious!!!

Guess tomorrow will be more of a transition day as we move north and toward home.  We don't really have any other tourist activities planned but maybe something will pop up!  You never know!

Thank you so much for following along.  We're having fun and that's what it's all about.  Oh, I want to make a Hokey Pokey pun here, hahahaha.

Check in tomorrow and see what's new!  I keep forgetting, you can follow our SPOT tracker and see where we are and where we've been.  Hope this link works.  Cletha's Spot.

Cheers,
Cletha

2019 IBA JAX Pizza Party Adventure - Day 8 March 19, 2019

BooHoo!  It was raining when we got up.  I mean a real frog strangler downpour.  Yuck!  I don't really mind riding in the rain but it really sucks to start in the rain.  Especially a hard, pelting, soaking rain.  Hey, at least it wasn't cold :-)  We got pretty wet getting our bikes packed up and decided to wait a bit and see if it lightened up.  After about a half hour the rain did ease up and instead of pouring it was only lightly raining.  We took that opportunity to leave.  Our destination was
Coopertown, (Population 8!),  where we would tour the Everglades in an airboat!

Our light rain didn't last and again it was pouring.  Oh well....after about 30 miles of mostly unpleasant stop and go traffic we arrived at Coopertown.  There was a group of German tourists on Harleys there as well and a group of ladies and a family of three.

We met Lisa who works there and she generously agreed to hold our helmets in the back office.  Thank you Lisa!  Like me, she is a DFF and rider too. ;-)

We checked out the alligators in pens and the snakes and turtles!

Then it was time to board the airboat.

Yes, it was raining.  We had a nice group of people on our boat and our guide was awesome!

Having never been to the Everglades before we didn't have any expectations.  Even in the rain it was spectacular.  Lots of birds and all kinds of weird flora.  Our guide took us out the channel and then gave us a good ride with some big swoops and turns, hahahahaha, fun!  It was a bit strange to be riding over grasses!

Then he took us down another channel and turned the boat to low idle as he searched for alligators in the wild.   Score!!!  There she is!!!  Oooohhhhhh.  So very cool.  A bit later we saw a very small gator.

More Everglades awesomeness!

We were lucky in that the rain slowed down considerably for the most part of the tour but unfortunately as we headed back to the dock it really began to pour again.  Everyone was soaked!

Tidbit of the day, alligators don't like rain.  Because their skin is their sensor network for detecting movement in the water, (i.e prey), the rain on their skin is a sensory overload.  For this reason they stay mostly submerged when it rains, holding their breath for up to 45 minutes in some cases and slowing their heart rates way down.  This made for great pictures of snouts and eyes, LOL.

At the dock we had the opportunity to hold a 2 year old alligator.  Yikes!  Yes, I did!  I was so surprised to find the gator was soft and warm not cold and slimy.  Hahahaha, a first and last for me thank you :-)

Even though it was wet, wet, wet, I truly enjoyed our Everglades tour and glad we took the time to make it happen.  Who knows if I'll ever get another opportunity to do that.

Still raining, we uncovered our bikes and mounted up.  Heading west our goal was Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast.  Fortunately it was only about 150 miles.  We were on Highway 41, the Tamiami Trail, the two lane highway that connects Tampa and Miami.  Alligator Alley is I-75 a bit north of the road we took.

It was fabulous (even in the pouring rain)!  We rode through the Everglades and then the Big Cypress National Preserve followed by Ten Thousand Islands National Preserve.  Beautiful scenery and very little traffic.  Side note - we had several groups of motorcyclists pass us going east.  They did NOT look happy, hahahaha.  Even though it was wet, we were relatively comfortable and our bikes performed flawlessly.  Good stuff - hey this is what makes it an adventure!

We stopped for gas and a late lunch in Naples.  It was at lunch that we discovered we were WET.  Our gear failed :-(  Not miserably, but enough to be uncomfortable.  Crap, Eric got wet feet and I ended up with one wet foot.  Other bits and pieces were wet as well.  I guess with that volume of water pounding us at 50-60 miles per hour, we were bound to get damp.  We also found water in our panniers, a first!  Cripes it was WET!!!

Oh well, back on the bikes, we headed to our hotel, the Red Roof Inn in N. Ft. Myers.  What a pleasant surprise to find a lovely room with an even lovelier view of the Caloosahatchee River!  Score!!

We dragged our wet gear and bags to the room and immediately disrobed and put on warm fuzzy cozy sweats (me) and dry shorts and shirt (Eric).  We scattered our wet stuff around the room, cranked the heat and took all of our wet stuff to the guest laundry to dry.

LOL, every lamp was covered with something that needed to dry out.  The heater was stacked with helmet, gloves, hats and bags.  Eric shoved rags into his boots to help soak up some of the water.  The hotel staff was helpful and gave us some rags to dry things off.

Once sorted, it was time for cocktails and discussion on where to go for dinner.  Not too far for sure because guess what?  Yep, it's raining again :-)  I have no idea what the weather is forecast for tomorrow.  Guess it doesn't really matter because regardless we will be heading north.  Where?  I dunno.  We'll figure that out later.  For now, it's cocktails and relax.

Hope you enjoyed our day as much as we did.  Stay tuned to see what we do tomorrow!

Cheers,
Cletha