The original plan was for me to leave in the morning; but, doing hours and thirty minutes of riding and getting there at 8:30 meant kickstand up at 5 am sharp and a 4:30 wake up call. I get up early enough as it is, I don't need to do that. It's not like I'm trying to make a 7am boat launch or do an IBA run. When it dawned on me that this was the situation I was in, I threw some close, my computer and chargers in my hard case, forgot my toiletries and headed out. When I got to Lakeland Florida, it was time to stop for dinner. Cracker Barrel is one of my favorite restaurants when I'm riding. Their service is always good, the food consistently good and usually, I don't have to wait very long. Tonight, I had to wait and while I did, I pulled out my ROAD ATLAS to check out the remainder of the trip. I knew I would have to turn south soon. I just didn't know when. As it works out, I need to go south now. I've riddnt into South Central Florida before, and it's sparsely populated and I can't remember seeing any nice clean hotels, so I was thinking maybe I should just stay here tonight. I've got an hour of riding under my belt, so I don't have to get up early tomorrow. Right about then, I saw the embroidering on the jacket of the guy sitting in front of me. It said 2,000,000 safe miles. Yes, 2 Million. So I asked him if he knew anything about the trip to Okeechobee and chances for hotels along the way. In a perfect southern drawl, he said "You need to stay riiiighhht here." A friend of his, apparently another truck driver happened by and the guy I was talking to asked him. He also said I wasn't going anywhere tonight if I had any intentions of sleeping in a hotel before I got there. So, there you have it. I decided I'd be staying here. It also so happened that there was a Sleep Inn right next door and they had rooms. So, here I am, writing this post from room 202. Oh, I didn't mention. I'd been using my phone pretty hard today and the battery was at 10%, which meant that if I got out into the sticks, broke down, etc. I wouldn't be calling anyone for help...another good reason to be here.
[Lakeland to Naples]
39 degrees was the temp at 6am when I went kickstand up. I had to be in Okeechobee by 8:30 to meet Jeff, my real estate agent. I had enough sense to take my heated gear with me, so temperature wasn't really a problem, except for the continual fogging of my windscreen and face shield on my helmet. It was just cold enough in the wind to want the shield down; but, every time I put it down, it would fog right up. Leaving it cracked one notch was just enough to allow an annoying amount of cold air in. That was the best I was going to get, so that's the way I road. It's better to have a cold face than not be able to see at all. It was dark at 6am. The sun was going to snooze for another half hour, maybe more. The route took me down 98 to 60 to 441. It's a nice ride and the guys from last night were spot on. There wasn't a hotel, motel or inn anywhere in sight. The Trans Canadian Highway has more places to stay...by a long shot. There wasn't much in the way of restaurants or gas stations either.
As planned, the sun started peaking up over the horizon and I happened to be in a place where there weren't many trees or obstructions, so I rode into the sun rise for the whole show. First, the fog coming off the wet areas became visible, then the horizon started to turn purple, then a layer of orange, that faded to peach, then to purple again and then light blue. It was pretty spectacular. At some point, a cloud got in front of the sun and you could see the outline of the cloud in front of the rising sun. It was very cool. Temperatures weren't much higher than 41; but, I knew that it would be getting warmer by the minute now that the sun was on the rise.
Right about the time the sun was all the way up, I passed a sign that said "Panther crossing." Panther crossing???!!! So many questions come to mind when seeing a sign like this...Are they kidding me? How big are these panthers? How fast, hungry and angry are these panthers? Have there been motorcyclists torn out of their seats by panthers? What is the proper procedure if you encounter a panther at highway speeds? Do you slow down, let it approach you and then gun it? Do you twist some throttle and try to go behind it? Do your drive at it and let it decide which way it wants to go? Seriously, what do you do? I know for sure the guidance on what to do if chased by a dog is complete BS. I guess you just make your decision and go with it. I imagine hesitation could get you killed. What if the panther knows you're confused, or was taking lessons from a squirrel on how to make a motorcycle skid off the roadway....panther causes accident and then goes and starts eating the wounded motorcycle rider. What a very smart; but, lazy panther. Anyway...
I arrived in Okeechobee about half an hour early. I had no idea but, Okeechobee actually has some infrastructure. The first thing I saw...and I didn't have time to look around...was a Golden Corral. I'd never been to one of these places; but, the idea is...all you can eat for like $11. They have a serious breakfast spread. It's almost like a brunch spread. All I wanted was an omlet and some toast. Since I was paying for it, I got a small cup of corn beef hash and a small cup of grits too. That plus the omlet plus a cup of tee made for a good breakfast. I was tempted to eat more; but, there was this guy with his name on the back of a school bus drivers hoodie that weighed 400 pounds if he weighed an ounce. I was there less than 15 minutes and in that time, I saw him get up and get 3 plates of food. When you think about it, where else would someone this big eat, particularly on a bus drivers salary? This ended any ideas I had about tying on the feed bag. It was almost enough to make me break down and have yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Fortunately for me, I saw this guy BEFORE I spotted a huge container of BACON. Had I not, I might have just taken that and eaten that for breakfast. Maybe this was an intervention from God. Again, I digress...
I met Jeff. He's a very affable, Kentucky bred, ex law enforcement kinda guy. We got along right from the start. The first thing he said was that there was a Christmas parade in town and the whole town is going to be a giant mess in just about half an hour. He suggested we take my bike over to his house, about 3 miles away, and park it there. He said it would be safe and we'd ride around in his pickup truck. We did that. Blah, blah blah. We saw a bunch of crappy houses. Blah, blah, blah. Back to the bike. Jeff and I shook hands and I was back on my bike. Now, it was a pleasant 71 degrees.
I followed 441 around the east side of the lake. It's a big lake; not great like big; but, big nonetheless. For some reason, I couldn't find rt. 27 to take me to rt. 75; but, that's OK. I stayed on 441 all the way to Davies Fl., right outside Ft. Lauderdale. It was 81 degrees on the East coast. Traffic was horrible. There were way too many traffic lights and lots of cages darting in and out of traffic. 441 leads to 595, which becomes 75 - the Alligator Highway. The Alligator Highway is so named because it cuts through the Everglades and probably does host a couple million of em. The interesting thing is that about 30 yards off the pavement there is a fence that is 8-10 feet high and topped with 3 strands of barbed wire. For those of you that don't know anything about barbed wire topped fences, they are always angled toward what you want to keep out; prisons - angled in, private residence, angled out. These were angled away from the highway. This begs the question...what is on the other side of that fence that requires barbed wire topping on a fence because it can scale an ordinary 8-10 chain link fence? I can't imagine an alligator scaling any kind of fence...digging under, maybe. As for snakes, if they are small enough, they could fit through; but, I can't imagine the barbed wire topping stopping a snake that really wants to get over. I imagine a properly sized boa constrictor could get over a fence that size.
On the other side of the Alligator highway is Naples. I wanted to look around, and the sun was going to go down soon enough, so I found a hotel and checked in. The guy at the desk was nice enough. He thanked me for being a loyal Best Western customer and gave me a suite with a King sized bed for a regular room price. There's also a balcony with chairs on it. Very nice!
Hopefully, I'll get more sleep than I did last night. The idiots in the room above me were loud until about 1:30 in the morning. Some people are just inconsiderate. For some reason, I couldn't sleep either. I remember waking up every hour on the half hour. The only time I don't remember seeing was 4:30.
...
Sleep was good. It's possible there was even some drool involved.
Since today was going to be a light day of riding, I decided to get some breakfast, call Dad for his birthday and wait until temps reached 60 something. There's no need to put on an extra layer of heated clothing when it's just not needed. The plan was to ride out to the bay and stay as close to the bay as possible.
Leaving the hotel, I went West until I hit 41N. That took me to 865 and onto Ft. Meyers Beach. This was a huge bummer. Real Estate is so built up that it's nearly impossible to see the bay from the road. All you see is big hotels and palm trees. What a disappointment. Oh well.
Coming out of Fort Meyers, I wanted lunch and was in the mood for fish, so I stopped at the Fish Monger restaurant. I walked in and was greeted by half a dozen seniors that were sitting at the bar with football jerseys on. The first question they asked was who I was rooting for and I said I didn't care. They said I could root for the Packers or the Steelers. Whatever. Then I waited, while other seniors showed up and were served first. I was getting pretty torqued that I was being ignored. Apparently, these were regulars. Finally, the bartender came over - yes, I was sitting in the bar - and I was able to ask for a menu. That and my iced tea took awhile to get to me; but, it finally made it to my table. I ordered the Mahi Mahi, sandwhich,blackened. The sandwhich had real fish on it and was pretty good. If only the service were better, I'd recommend the place That said, I wouldn't recommend not going, just be prepared for a wait. Onward I went.
The trip got a little better as I made my way up to Sanibel Island. $2 gets a motorcycle across the bridge vs. $6 for a car. It's a very cool bridge that crosses the bay. It's worth the $2 to cross. The island is pretty neat and it was interesting watching people fish, with pelicans standing right next to them waiting for them to reel something in. Lazy birds! They know how to fish. They should be out getting their own meals. Next think you know they'll have Internet and call for Pizza.
Once off the island, I thought I should start getting home if I wanted to be home before dark and before the temps started to fall, so I made my way to I-75. I've learned my lesson that there is nothing to be gained by traveling state and county roads along the Florida coast...either side. It's nothing by people, traffic and more traffic lights than can be imagined.
I managed to get home just after the temps descended back into the 60's.
Here's the whole route...
How long will it take me to completely fill in Florida? I know...resolution matters...
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