1464572476 2016/05/29 - Fernandina Beach (almost) and back

Originally, the plan was to ride with the Tampa Bay BMW group.  They have a Sunday ride.  I didn't leave until late and the ride is supposed to leave at 10:30.  I knew I'd be late and they would probably be gone.  I went anyway; thinking that they might leave late.  As luck would have it, I got there at 10 till 11 and they were still there.  They were just sitting and chatting.  They weren't planning on doing a real ride today.  Almost everyone was going to do something else.  The temp was already over 90.  2 people were going to ride through the Florida National Cemetery for Memorial day and asked if I wanted to join.  Of course I did.

There were 3 of us for the ride.   Frank leading, his wife and me batting last.  Frank had a new Yamaha 400CC bike with a kick start and he was breaking it in.  He said he wouldn't be doing more than 45; but, we were at 60 several times.

The Florida National Cemetery is a very big place.  I rode through today with a couple friends.  I really had no idea just how big it is.  There are rows after rows of grave stones in fields after fields.  It goes on for a long time.  I understand that there were several fields that we didn't even ride past.  At first, I thought all these people died in battle; but, I was told that any military person from Florida can be buried there.

After doing a little research, 624,999 service people have died in combat since and including WW1. That does not include all the wars that preceded that. The number since and including the American Revolutionary War would be 1,319,943, including Afghanistan and Iraq. There are probably a few more to add to this total for Syria and probably even more for casualties that occurred during black ops. That is the number of American troops I hope you are thinking about this weekend ... like before you order your Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Non-Fat, Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks and before you start debating the merits of who can use which bathroom at Target or anywhere else. These things we would not be part of our lives without the people that made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

The Florida National Cemetery, as of now, has 129,000 interments.   I didn't see them all and that is only 20% of the total from WW2.  It's sobering how many people have given their lives.

...

After the cemetery, we parted ways.   My friends were planning on getting on their boat and relaxing on the water.  I was planning to put some miles on the bike, although, I didn't have a destination.  The first order of operations was lunch though, so I decided to go back to The Yearling and get a Shrimp and Alligator Po' Boy.  Willie Green was there, singing the Blues again.  I talked to him a little bit after I was done eating.  He's having some heart troubles.  He's still happy to be singing the Blues though.  I wished him well, having created a plan to ride up to Fernandina Beach in the far NE corner of Florida.

I chose Fernandina beach because I like the northern tier of Florida better than much of the rest of it and I'd never been there.  I also knew there was a river crossing ferry up that way, so I thought I'd try to find that.

I forgot to take off my fanny pack after lunch, so I stopped right off Rt. 301.  Right there, there's an old fire truck.  I took a picture of it with my bike.  There's always a reason to take a picture of the bike with a firetruck...old or new.

I didn't make it all the way to Fernandina beach.  Traffic started getting pretty dense and I had no desire to stand on the pavement at traffic lights in 97 degree temps.  That was the OAT as displayed by the temp gauge on my motorcycle.  It was probably a bit hotter for me since I'm riding on top of the engine that is getting air at that temperature.  Anyway, there was no way I was going any further on A1A, so I scrapped the idea of riding the coast south and opted for less traffic and more of the northern tier of Florida for the return.  I was trying to select roads that I didn't think I'd been on before.  It's getting pretty hard to do that now.  While I was riding, I decided to that I wanted to find out if I'd ridden in all the counties in Florida.  I have the data to figure that out, so I think I will do that.

On Rt. 90W, coming into Macclenny, a turkey vulture left it's perch and started flying on a course that would cause me to hit it.  It came off the left side of the road, crossed traffic and was headed right into my path.  It was trying to climb and turn away from me.  I was going pretty fast at the time and had to grab the brake lever to avoid hitting it.  It was close.  The updraft created by my windscreen lifted it high enough that it barely cleared my helmet.  I don't think it would have been all that bad if we had collided; but, I can't believe that I've had 2 close calls with large birds in as many months.

I chose 129 S. to avoid intercepting rt. 19 and having to ride that all the way home.  129S is a nice road and took me all the way down to Chiefland Fl., about 2 hours from my house.  I stopped at a shrimp place in Ingress for dinner.  I needed to cool down, even though I was only an hour away from home.  I shot this video of their fish tank.  They have 2 plecos in their 40 gallon tank.  1 is 10" and the other is 12".  Too much pleco for that tank!

Here's the map of the route.