Today was one of those rides that you don't want it to end; but, at the same time, you can't wait to get home to start writing about.
When I got home the other night, I realized that I was about 250 miles from rolling 50,000 miles on my odometer. My bike is 2 and a half years old and while that may sound like a lot of miles to some, it's not in the crowd I run with. My 'peers' seem to be able to do that in a year and I am also aware of 1 guy who regularly rides 100,000 per year and gets a new motorcycle every year. It has something to do with work. I've also heard what I think is folklore - people that have ridden over 1M miles in less than 3 years. I digress. I wanted to cross the 50,000 mile mark this weekend and I couldn't think of a better way to do it than to take a run up to a restaurant I was introduced to in Cross City. I knew that they had a fantastic Po' Boy sandwich and a blues singer that came in once in a while.
I always want to travel new roads, so I decided I'd ride 50 East to 19 North and then in Marion county, get off on some back roads to the restaurant. I'd ridden the 50E part many times and some of 19, but the county roads in Marion would be new. The route would also be largely through Ocala National Forest.
As Florida scenery goes, it was nice; but, nothing great. I've seen a lot of Florida now and most of the landscape falls into 4 general categories - The Keys - a landscape all to themselves. Nobody has more ocean. Populated areas - all southern Florida from Orlando south along both coasts. Horse Farm land - lots of it north of Orlando to the northern border and over grown vegetation growing in sand. That would be nearly everything in the middle of the state from the everglades to the northern border except for over populated cities and horse farms. Ocala national forest is that. It lacks the magnificent views of the Appalachians. It is very flat. The perspective changes when buildings appear. That said, I'll take overgrown forest over cityscapes any day. I arrived at The Yearling Restaurant at about 2:15, only 30 miles short of my 50,000 mile goal. The place was packed; cars everywhere. Somehow, I managed to get a spot right outside the front door. By the time I left, there would be 3 Harley's partially sharing my spot and extending down the row.
When I opened the door, awesome blues music spilled out. There sat Willie Green strumming his guitar. Willie had many fans there and he knew it. I had to wait for a table; but, it was worth it. I was seated just to the side of Willie - a front row seat. What is particularly notable is his voice. It's fantastic. I love the blues and this was a very nice treat. Here's 10 seconds of Willie:
In keeping with the plan, I reviewed ordered a sweet tea from Jamie, my waitress. I also noticed that Willie didn't have anything to drink by him and asked her to get him whatever he wanted to drink. She said that he drinks water. He's a diabetic. I remarked to her about what a fantastic sound he has and then Jamie gave me the story. Willie lives in a nursing home fairly close by. They pick him up and take him to the restaurant, where he plays and plays and plays. They pay him something. He also has a tip jar and you can buy his CD's there. You can also buy T-shirts. Largely, he was covering recognizable songs by Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke and BB King. Sometimes, he would riff on something I had never heard before. He plays guitar and mouth harp at the same time. I bought his first CD and am listening to his music as I write.
More pics:
After a while, Jamie came back for my order. Actually, it was quite a while. I had a sweet tea in front of me and I wasn't complaining. Had I been at a chain restaurant, I would have lost my patience. [Sidebar: I am requesting a complete refund on my education. I was advised by a 6th grade teacher friend that patients and patience are two different words. I only knew of the first one. This is the second time in less than a month that I found out something I should have known a long time ago. Maybe I'll only get a partial refund. After all, I can make change and do other nifty things with my education..perhaps some in the upcoming generation can't do.] Back to ordering. I ordered the Shrimp and Alligator Po' Boy. On the menu it's one or the other; but, you can get both. I wanted both. I ordered that with cheese grits (something I'd never had before) and a cup of New England clam chowder.
I'm going to get my southern on today!
So, I'm finishing up and two ladies walk in. They had clearly been here before and came to see Willie and after we started talking, I found out they also come in for the 'Sour Orange Pie.' What???? Sour orange pie? I didn't know such a thing exists. They said that one time they got here and only 1 piece was left, so they had to split it. Now, they order it first and then order their meal. They said I had to try it. So I did. Jamie asked me if I wanted that with chocolate syrup on it and whip cream. How should I know? I never had Sour Orange Pie before. I considered it for a moment and I couldn't think of a meal that would be simply ruined with chocolate syrup and whip cream, so I said yes. I should have taken a picture and I did not; sorry. It was very tasty and now it would seem that my meal at The Yearling could be cemented in place. Then again, there are other tasty things on the menu. A return trip is in order for sure.
Back on the bike...like an hour or so later, I decided to do a compass run back - just follow the compass. I know I need to go south and west. Florida is easy to navigate. Since I live on the West coast, I am going to run into one of the major highways that will get me to Spring Hill ... 19, 41, 75, 301, 33/19 ...those would be US highways and 75 is an Interstate. All the major east/west highways are numbered between 40 and 70 for most of the state. I prefer county roads though. Those are all 3 digit numbers and it's anyone's guess where one goes, other than odd numbers run north and south and even numbers run east and west. That said, I follow the compass on county roads.
Let me tell you about road engineers. Federal road engineers - Interstate architects are very uptight people. They don't like more than 10 degrees of turn. They like wide lanes and unified direction of travel. They like consistent, predictable entry and exit points. The signage is impeccable. All Interstates either take you directly through a major city at some point or around it, like a beltway. If these people weren't engineering interstates, they would be doing some other job that required tedious attention to regulation and standards. These people are no fun and would not be expected to show up to a Saturday night dance..under any circumstances. Should something happen that they accidentally tripped and fell into the room and couldn't get out, they would be stuck fast to the wall paper. Boring people. State roadway engineers are slightly more fun. They are happy to design a road with traffic moving in both directions, passing zones, and an occasional sweeping turn; but, are also very moody and will slam a blinking light or traffic sign right in the middle of things. They will run their road right through a town, keeping the market space for 25, 35, 45 and 55 mph speed limit signs alive and well. These engineers, with much trepidation, would be dragged to the Saturday night dance and when they danced, they would barely move their feet, be stiff as a board. We'd all be glad they are there because we can dance better; his/her significant other...not so much. Then there are county road engineers. These guys architect roads while smoking weed. I can clearly hear the conversation. 'Dude, let's put a giant sweeping turn right here, and then another giant sweeper going the opposite way right after it. We'll put a 45 mph speed limit sign on it to make the bureaucrats happy; but, every motorcycle rider will love us. They'll come from miles around and go around these curves with their helmets on fire.' These are the guys that will come to the Saturday night dance. They will have fun. Their significant other will have fun and everyone near them will have fun. I like county road engineers. I imagine Tommy Chong. None of this applies to road engineers from Montana. I'm convinced all of them are smoking crack. I've been on two lane windy roads in Montana posted at 75mph. These guys go to the dance and rig the equipment to play the music double speed. Everyone becomes confused.
So, back to the county roads. I was on many and as a result, forgot to pull over when I hit 50,000 miles for the obligatory here's my 50,000 mile picture. When I remembered, I was only slightly past it. So, here's my 50,004 mile picture. At the time, I was listening to 'Don't fear the reaper' and thinking 'I need more cow bell.' As for the rear pressure indicator, my rear tire was not flat. The bolt that holds the tire pressure sensor broke and it won't be replaced until I need to mount and balance new tires...hopefully in more than 10,000 miles. 2400 miles is the number of miles since I was at Scot's house doing the last maintenance and yes, I was in Dynamic mode grabbing lots of throttle through the twisties designed by someone that reminds me of Tommy Chong.
I found this great bio of Willie Green. It's worth a read. Here's are the maps. It's all about making new lines on the map.
I think this looks like an apple.
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