2019 IBA JAX Pizza Party Adventure - Day 7, March 18, 2019

We had big plans for today so it was easy to jump up out of bed at 6 am.  We were headed for Key West, woohoo!!  Yippee Skippy!  I've never been there and was quite excited about the trip.  We wore street clothes under our gear and packed our sandals so we could walk around without sweltering.

It was about a 130 miles from our hotel to Key West and there was only one road to get there, US1.  The temperature was close to 70 with a bit of a cloud cover.  Perfect riding weather!  Oh joy, I got to see the sunrise over the Keys, what a treat!  Then it was just pretty much slog along at the posted speed limit which sometimes was 55 but mostly 45.  So it took a while to get there.  No problem, we figured we would arrive in Key West just about lunch time and that's what happened.

Our first agenda item was a photo of the Southernmost Point in the US Marker.  We were sooooo bold.  I just rode my bike up there and parked illegally while Eric snapped my pic!  Shame on us, lol.

 From there we rode down the street past Duval and found a place to park the bikes and get into our walking clothes.  We scored on a great place to park, paid the $9 and tagged our bikes so we wouldn't get towed.  You can only imagine the strange looks we got as we peeled off our gear, hahahaha.

Just a block up the street we found this photo opportunity that I just couldn't pass up.  Hahaha, yes, we're having fun :-)

Love the architecture!  We had previously looked at staying on Key West but you know what?  I can spend $400-$500 on a lot of other things than a room for the night.  So, we just took pics of some of the fancy pants hotels ;-)

 Pink and purple bicycles, what's not to love?  We saw tons of peeps riding rental bikes and scooters and golf carts as well as the little tour train and open air buses.

 There were chickens everywhere.  Really, everywhere.  Here is a hen with her chicks, cute!

 We walked out to a pier to check out the water views.  Lots of pelicans and other birds.

 Beach front cafe where you could rent a lounge chair and umbrella for the hour or for the day.

Seagulls on the wall.  Rather artistic don't you think?

 Okay, shame on me but I put my sticker on a post.  Hey, all the posts on the pier were covered in stickers so I didn't really feel bad about putting mine there.

We spied a big sailboat way out on the water!  Cool!

Across from the pier was this lovely hotel.  Bet it's a nice place to stay ;-)

 Then of course we had to take pics of the over sized Adirondack chair because we like good silly stuff :-)

We had to do some tourist trinket shopping.  We didn't buy here but we did end up with the requisite stickers to put on the bikes and a magnet for our garage freezer.

We walked back to the Southernmost Point in the Continental USA, stood in line, and finally got our opportunity for pictures.  Good fun!

 There was a long line of peeps waiting at the Marker to take a picture.  Fortunately, it went fairly quick and peeps were considerate, helping each other take photos and such.

Took this pic of Eric at the Marker location.  A statue of Bishop Albert Kee.  Until his death in 2003, Bishop Albert Kee welcomed visitors to Key West's Southernmost Point Marker, acting as a smiling ambassador for the island while selling fluted, pink-lined conch shells beside the iconic landmark.  

Here is one of the trains that take people around the area.  If we ever go back to Key West, we will take one of the tours.

Chickens everywhere.  Here is one cocky rooster right outside the restaurant we stopped at for lunch.

We had lunch at the Ocean Grill on Duval Street.  Lunch was Lobster Roll and Fries.  Can you say YUMMY!!!!  Okay, it looks small.  That's because we shared one saving room for Key Lime Pie later ;-)

Outside the restaurant were some parrots perched in a tree.  Couldn't resist the photo op.

 After lunch, we hit a cheap tourist junk shop and got our stickers and magnet.  Then back to the bikes where we geared up and headed out.  By now it was about 80 degrees and I was so happy to get on the highway after riding block by block to get out of the historic district.  Whew!  Hot!

The air felt good as we picked up speed.  So, of course, it was a reverse slog up US1 back to our hotel.  Fairly uneventful, we were happy to get to our room and get out of those clothes!  Have to tell you, we were on high alert for all the fucktards and their shenanigans.  Fucktardians pulling in front of us, cutting us off, no signals, stupid stuff.  Yup, high alert!  No mimosas or cocktails for us at lunch.  ($7.95 never ending Mimosas were hard to pass up!!)  However, we had lovely cocktails waiting for us in our room.  All is good.

We had a wonderful, fun, giggly, touristy day.  I'm so glad we took the time and made the effort to go to Key West.  I now have my requisite photo, stickers and magnet.  Bonus, we had a delightful lobster roll and even some Key Lime Pie on a stick ;-)  It was a great day.

Tomorrow we're going to the Everglades and taking an airboat tour.  Should be fun so you should check in tomorrow and see what happened.

Cheers,
Cletha

2019 IBA JAX Pizza Party Adventure - Days 5 & 6, March 16 & 17, 2019

Darn, the IBA JAX Pizza Party is over :-(  But, our adventure is not!  We actually got up fairly early even though we had a midnight or later bedtime last night.  Packed up the bikes, had our last brekkie at the JAX hotel, said our good bye's to all the Iron Butt peeps and headed out.

But, the Party was not completely over!  Iron Butt Rally veterans were all invited to a special Pizza Party at Stavros Pizza in Daytona Beach.  So, that's where we headed.  We had a fantastic ride down the A1A and Hiway One south.  It was Daytona Bike Week and we had lots of opportunity to see all kinds of different and unique motorcycles as we approached Daytona.  Some made me laugh and others made me question how one could even ride that contraption!  Sorry no pics because I was busy riding my bike and trying to stay out of trouble :-)

We arrived at Stavros and knew we were at the right place because of all the LD bikes parked in front.  Let me tell you, we were the oddballs here!  Most bikes were Harley's or Indians or custom built.  They looked nothing like LD bikes.  And, our attire totally made us stand out.  We were in full protective gear with helmets, gloves, boots, etc.  Yeah, we stood out, hahahahaha!

Anyway, we arrived at the proper place at almost the proper time.

Yup, Daytona Beach :-)

 Here it is, the "Original" Stavro's Pizza House.

Our group was already seated, food ordered and chatting away while waiting for lunch.

 We had a terrific lunch.  Some peeps ordered salads, calzones or other goodies.  We ordered pizza.  And, it was good.  It was really good  Their sauce is to die for good!  Yummy.

After lunch the party really was over and everyone went in different directions to wherever they were going.  Eric and I were in no hurry.  We were headed to Mims, FL only about 50 miles away to visit our dear friend & long time LD Rider Jim Boone and his lovely bride Patty.

Our ride to Mims was delightful.  We stayed off the interstate and continued down US1.  The weather was great and the ride was uneventful.  Not too long, we pulled into Jim and Patty's driveway and were greeted with hugs and smiles.  Nice :-)

We had an utterly delightful visit, went to dinner in Titusville at a brew pub that served outstanding food.  Jim and Patty gave us a quick tour and shared some town history with us.  Superb!  We enjoyed cocktails and of course lots of stories.  Big time fun!  Harry, their English Boxer, just added to the merriment.  I think Harry and I are now friends for life ;-)

Hooray, we got to bed before midnight!  Up the next morning and on the bikes around 9 am or so.  Perfect.  Thank you Jim and Patty, you are terrific hosts and hope you come visit us soon!

We were headed to Florida City and honestly, the easiest way to get there was via the Interstate (groan).  Oh well.  For the most part it was okay only having stupid stuff in the metropolitan areas.  I was so glad to get off the Interstate only to get on US 1 again and hit every, single, fricking, stop light at every two blocks for ten miles!!!!!  AND, it was getting HOT and SWEATY.  You know, that trickle of sweat the rolls down your back into your, hmmmmm, crack?  Yeah, that kind of sweat.  Crap I hate that!
 
Oh well, it was only 10 or so miles.  And then, our hotel for the next two days!  The Best Western, Gateway to the Keys in Florida City.  I couldn't get in the room quick enough, shed my gear and jump into the shower. Oh, yes!!!  Nice cool shower, hair wash, you know, all that personal hygiene stuff.  Felt soooooo good.  Like a million bucks!  Happy again :-)

Here's our home for the next two nights.

We did a load of laundry, ordered Chinese delivery and tucked in for the night.  Tomorrow we head for Key West!  Never been there so I'm quite looking forward to it.  So stay tuned, see if I had a good time or not.  See if I sweated another 10 pounds of fat off or not, lol.

So, as the sun set and we waited for food we saw this.  Birds on a Wire (remember that movie with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn?  One of my favs :-) ).  Anyway, it rained but we were all settled in the room and had a great sunset and cloud art and birdies!

Having a great adventure with my sweetie and thank you so much for following along!

Cheers,
Cletha

2019 IBA JAX Pizza Party Adventure - Day 4 March 15, 2019

Today is the big finale of the IBA JAX Party.  Riders who were out since yesterday at 6:55 am had been getting back to the host hotel in the wee hours of the morning.  Most were getting some sleep before they had to get scored on their Certificate Ride.  I was tasked with being a Scorer and Eric, after a light breakfast, was off to Ray King's Ride To Eat Lunch at Martins in Flagler Beach, about an hour and a half south of Jacksonville.

Starting at 10 am, riders were lining up in the hallway waiting their turn to be scored.  Most had happy faces so I'm going to assume they had a good time.  There were two different Saddle Sore 1000 rides and a couple of Bun Burner 1500 rides.  I was scoring the SS1000 riders.  The riders had to take a picture with their Rally Flag at various locations around Florida in order to qualify for the ride as well as ride the requisite number of miles.

Here are some pics of the scoring room.  First they enter the room, get assigned their appropriate score sheet and get sent to a scorer.  After they get scored, they get sent to another station where they picked up their swag and then finally to Mike Kneebone who captured their data in a spreadsheet to generate their certificates that will be awarded later this afternoon.

It worked like a well oiled machine.  No hiccups.  All riders were basically prepared with the proper pictures and receipts and those scoring, well, we've been to this rodeo a time or two!

Following scoring is free beer and then awards with a banquet later in the evening.  While waiting for Eric to return from his ride I took some time to catch up on blogging and spied this wonderful family taking a dip in the pool.  How fun is that?

Meanwhile, Eric was off the the lunch RTE at Martin's at Flagler Beach, a fish and seafood place (heavy on the fried stuff!).  He was kind enough to contribute these photos.  First we have pics of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & museum.

And then Martin's.  A number of peeps, maybe 25 or so, were able to make the RTE, easily negotiating around the road construction on A1A, ensuring everyone had a good time.

With scoring finished and Eric back at the host hotel, it was yet again time to be social.  We finally got to meet Gabe Carrera.  Gabe is an awesome LD/Iron Butt Rider that is not only an attorney advocating for motorcyclists but also puts on events!  Check out his website sometime.  http://www.attorneythatrides.com/ironman-ldr.html.

Soon enough is was FREE BEER TIME!!!!  Yes, you read that correctly, FREE BEER!  Riders gathered in the Comedy Zone room at the host hotel to hoist a few beers, tells lots of stories and have a good time while waiting for the awards and Iron Butt Certificate presentations.  Sorry the pics aren't all the great, but between the cheap camera and lousy photographer, well, you get what you get :-)

Mike Kneebone, Mr. Iron Butt, addressed the riders and turned over the certificate presentation to Howard Entman.  Lots of riders received certificates from 1K Saddlesore to BB 1500 and BBG 1500. Very impressive group of riders.

Since I don't drink beer, I spotted Paul Pelland, LongHaulPaul and chatted for a bit.  Little did we know but he was to be the guest speaker at the banquet, and what a speech he gave!  If you don't know about Paul (where in the heck have you been?) here is a link to his website, https://www.longhaulpaul.com/.  Paul has MS and has been riding to chase the cure for a number of years.  Way to go Paul!

Ah ha!  I spied my buddy, Bucky Dent in the lobby.  Bucky, Joel R. and I rode the Utah 1088 Rally together way back in 2010.  We all keep in touch and it was great to see both of them at this event!

Finally, banquet time.  Eric and I were honored to sit at a table reserved for IBA nobility and guests.  Here you see from left to right, Brian Roberts,  one of the IBR Tech Gurus, Lisa Landry, "the" IBR Rally Mistress, John Harrison, IBR Scribe and Paul Pelland, guest speaker.

The banquet room was packed.  Here are a few pics showing all the peeps chowing down.  The food by the way, was really delicious.

Awwwwww, me and Mike Kneebone!

Back again at our table, Paul Pelland, Ed Otto (standing and laughing), Heidi Still, a rider who has more than a million miles!, and my honey Eric.

After dinner, more awards were handed out and Paul Pelland delivered a fantastic speech that had us all laughing until our sides hurt.  What a great job!  Things wrapped up after that and we headed back to our room, mixed a final cocktail and took a walk around the parking lot.  We ran into Roger Nesbitt, one of the riders doing BBGs and got a chance to speak with him about his ride.  He had the difficult call of stopping his BBG and getting a finish receipt before getting to the final bonus location for the dedicated JAX BBG ride.  He realized he wasn't going to make it, but had over 1500 miles, so made the smart call to get a finish receipt instead of risking no cert at all.  Well done Roger!

Again, our 10:30 bedtime target got blown all to heck as we strolled the parking lot.  Just how much chatting and visiting can one do?  Apparently a LOT!  LOL, we finally hit the sack around midnight.  So much fun!

Hey, there is more fun to come so please stay with me!  Thanks for following and hope you are enjoying the adventure.

Cheers,
Cletha