Tampa to Atlanta

I woke up in an actual bed and I must say it felt pretty good.  This was the first time since I started traveling that I've done that.  Going from couch to couch is not really good on my body.  5 years ago I was living on couches and now I'm complaining about it.  Some things certainly do change I guess.  The aches are starting to build up and it's only the start of the 4th morning.  I worked out hard for 3 months prepping for this trip but I think I skipped the smaller muscles in my neck and back that seem to be doing all the work.  Thankfully I brought a giant bottle of Ibuprofen with me.  That should help me out until my body adapts to my 80mph barstool.   My neck seems to be the most sore.   The wind bobbles my helmet around pretty well at full speed and it's taken it's toll on my neck muscles.  I'm sure I could slow down to reduce the wind but we all know that's not going to happen.    I refuse to ride without a helmet so that's also not an option.  I'll just have to suffer until my body adapts.

So, back to where I started.  I woke up to at my brother's new place in North Tampa to the sounds of the two 2 year old twins yapping about this an that.  At one point one of them screamed "uncle danny is here" when they saw my bags or something???  I guess they forgot I had showed up the day before.  Who knows what these kids think about.  One minute they're crying the next they're happy as can be.  Being a parent is probably a lot like dating crazy chicks.  I've got plenty of experience there so maybe I'll be the best Father anyone has ever heard of.  

They came running into the guest room to jump on the bed while I was typing the last blog entry for "you people".  I'm easily distracted so I started coming up with clever ways to make them shooo for another 15 mins while I put words and sentences together.  The only thing that came to mind was telling them to go ask their daddy for pancakes for breakfast.  It worked,  now my brother had 2 toddlers running around demanding pancakes before he went to work and I was able to finish the blog just in time for hot pancakes.  

After breakfast, which the kids barely touched because they don't really like pancakes,  hahaha, everyone had places to be.  I was in for a long 460 mile ride to my sisters place in NW Atlanta, my brother had to be at work and my sister in law had to take the kids for a check up.  I slowly got around to packing the bike back up and washing some laundry.  I don't have much clothes with me so this laundry chore is going to wear on my nerves.  Talk about my least favorite of the household chores.  I've seriously debated on getting a mail order bride sent to the house just so I wouldn't ever have to do laundry again in my life.  Or at least until she takes her half of my cash and moves on to the next idiot.

I hopped on the bike with a full belly and a few cups of coffee in me at about 10 am.  Late start but I didn't care.  I had a very, very long date with I-75 to Atlanta.  I debated for a while on taking back roads but the weather forecast didn't look good.  I knew I was going to get wet today so I figured why not haul into Atlanta as quickly as possible and get it over with.  Florida's scenic roads aren't that boring but they certainly aren't worth an extra four hours to get to Atlanta.  Besides that,  I was trying to get to my sisters place in time for dinner.  My niece Jessica is having a birthday this weekend and I needed to put in some quality uncle time with her and my nephew Tyler.

The ride was pretty uninteresting except for watching a tire rip to shreds right in front of me.  A tractor trailer hauling a doublewide down the highway must have had a flat because one minute we're all doing 70 and the next I'm driving thru a blizzard of tire shreds, vinyl siding and house insulation.    There was a lot of rain.  There seems to be a daily rain theme.

I got into Atlanta at 5.  Traffic sucks.  Traffic really sucks on a giant motorcycle that weighs a ton wearing a waterproof riding jacket because it's raining and its also 94 degrees out.  By the time I got to my sisters I was beat tired and wanted to lay down.  Nope.  Little Jessica wanted to play and cry at the same time and Tyler wanted to just hang out.  He's 7 or 8 now so he's pretty fun to talk to.  He's curious about the coolest things.  After a little bit of time at the house we all went out to dinner and I stuffed my face.  I don't know if it's because I'm a fat kid or if it's the road but lately I cant seem to find enough food.  Hopefully I'm not preggo..  I dont know if I can handle that right now.

Alright,  I need sleep.  Tomorrow is a big day.  THE DRAGON   Hit like, comment or share... you guys should know the drill by now.

I also fixed yesterdays video if you want to scroll back that way.  Nothing amazing, just a bike ride thru the lower keys.

North! Finally

I'm not sure how we did it but somehow we all managed to get up at 630 am after only a few short hours of sleep.  I woke up on a couch yet again.  This one was about 4 feet long and my body was aching from yesterdays ride and sleeping in a folded taco position on the couch.   Adam and Jason were already moving.  I'm not sure what kind of Jedi mind tricks they used on me to so that they each could have a very large comfortable looking bed which I paid for but it certainly worked.  We got our stuff together and stumbled out into the daylight.  I pounded a couple of espresso shots at Starbucks and packed up the bike.  Adam and Jason got moving because they were in a rush to work, apparently playing hookie two full days in a row was bad and they each had meetings that morning.  I had a 8 ish hour ride ahead of me.

The ride leaving the keys was bitter sweet for me.  I wanted to stay and play for a few more nights with my friends but I also wanted to get this Northerly stuff to start happening.  The rains weren't letting up either but I didn't care.  I had an interesting layer of Bourbon, glitter and rainwater on me within the first few miles or riding.  All I knew for certain is that today is going to be a long and hot day.

The video will work from a PC

I decided at the spur of the moment to skip alligator alley.  Alligator alley (the lower route)  cuts right thru the Everglades to the west side of Florida.  Its scenic but I think it's almost a hundred miles of perfectly straight and boring road.  I took a new route that I've never been on but I highly recommend.  It cut diagonally to Tampa and skirted the giant Lake Okechobee

I took the route in yellow

Most of the day was spent hauling at between 60-80mph on mostly desolate state roads.  I had no idea that Florida was so involved with sugar cane.  I must have seen 300 sugar cane trucks and tractors doing whatever it is they do.  Sure I saw orange groves, you cant get very far in Florida without seeing an orange tree but the sugar fields went on for so far that I could actually see the curvature of the Earth. If the whole way North looked like this I don't think I would bring a camera.  I probably wouldn't go to be honest.

I rolled into my brothers house at 4 or 5.  His wife and twins came outside to great me just as I rolled into the driveway.  His kids are young so the sight of me on the bike rolling up their driveway gave them a shock.  They screamed "Uncle Danny" when I took off my helmet it was pretty cute how they went from scared to happy as hell to see me.

My Brother has been tracking me on an app called "find my friends". If you want to see where I am along this trip download it for free at the app store and just type in my email address.  danloebel@gmail.com  I'm pretty sure it'll work the whole trip as long as my phone is on.

So I spent the rest of the night playing with the twins.  A complete change from last nights shenanigans in the Keys in a completely different part of Florida.  I can get used to this.

Key West is a fun place.

I woke up at 7 ish to the sounds of Jason yelling at Boris the dog to get out inside or outside or God knows what.   His daughter Ava was getting ready for summer camp and was trying to figure out what to wear.  They were going back and forth about it like she was getting ready for a job interview, I dont know where she goes to summer camp but it sounds like they had an important day on the books.
I cant remember exactly what was going on.  It was way too early and I was half asleep on a small couch in their living room.  It takes me a few minutes and a cup of coffee to engage my brain most days.  I probably have the same IQ as shoelace until I get that cup of coffee.  The good news for the day is that my buddy Adam and Jason decided that they wanted to come with me down to the Keys.  Both of them have full time jobs and both of them had important things to do at work that day and the next.  The adventure I was on seemed to be more important to each of them then whatever needed to be done at the USCG Center of Expertise (Jason's job) or the largest jet fuel and gasoline tank farm (Adam's Job) in Florida.  I sure as hell wasn't going to argue with them as they were calling in excuses.   Jason actually went in to work and then decided that there was no place he'd rather be then feeding me booze the night before my trip starts sabotaging me from the get go.  He promptly left the office and came back to the house before I was able to get myself on the bike.

I got myself and the bike packed up and just as I'm pulling out of the driveway it starts raining.  Not cool at all.  Adam and Jason were sitting comfortably in a truck with a cooler full of goodies and enough candy snacks to choke a buffalo and I was completely soaked within the first 15 minutes of the 4hr ride to the keys.

Soaked while they enjoy AC and beverages

We made good time thru the rains.  It was after the morning rush hour and after we got out south of Miami I was really able to twist the heck out of that right grip.  On the way down we stopped a few times for a stretch, food and drinks.    There was nothing to rush about so we decided to enjoy the ride down.

Mandatory first stop 

There may or have not been a someone doing desk pops on a motorcycle while crossing the 7 mile bridge... Just a rumor.

We got a room on Duval St.  I desperately needed a shower to rinse off all the rain, highway dirty water spray from the roads and just general body odor.  I was only on the bike for about 5hrs in total that day but I was sore and smelly.  I can only imagine how this is going to start to wear on me. When I finally got the road juices rinsed off then we starting doing what we do best.

At some point at the very beginning of the ride down into the Keys we actually had a conversation that we would act like grown ups and only have dinner and a few drinks so that we could get to bed at a decent hour.  We all had legitimate reasons to get up early and a need to be functional.  They were going to race back to work in time for some work blahblahblah.  I ofcourse needed to actually start heading in the Northerly direction.   Imagine that.  NORTH finally.

After about 4 cocktails and a skate down Duval St. and around town we were in full rampage mode.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

That scary looking chick in the background was much scarier looking in real life

There is this fantastic place with good appetizers* called the Red Garter.  Make sure you bring plenty of singles.

Photo and video montage of the shenanigans.   I wont give all the details about the night.  This is supposed to be about a bike ride after all.   At this point of the evening I think Adam was telling girls I was leaving for a trip up in the space shuttle tomorrow and they should all join us for drinks.

Is anyone actually reading this?

I think this is where it all started to get fuzzy

South??

It took me a while to leave the house yesterday.   It was hot as hell and I really wanted to get moving before I could come up with an excuse to stay home.  All of the gear didn't exactly fit on the bike so I had to leave some things behind.  Nothing
really important as far as i could tell but I also am very limited on clothes now.  In a few days I'm probably going to smell like the carpet in front of the airport bathrooms in Atlanta.  Maybe the Alaskan girls are into that sort of thing??  I'm looking forward to letting you guys know.

So I got rolling at about 1pm.   The bike is HEAVY and tough to wield around.  I cant help but wonder just how many times I'm going to tip over at an intersection or in a parking lot.  At speed there is no problem at all.  She feels just as balanced and easy to handle as if there was no cargo at all.  That being said, new rule... SPEED.

I had to make a last stop at the BMW dealership to get the lock on one of the cargo boxes fixed.  The key cylinder was installed backwards and although I could latch it, it wasn't locking.  While I was there I bumped into an older guy that asked me where I was heading.   I told him that I was headed to Alaska.  We chatted about my trip for a while.  He was really interested and wanted to know all about it.  After a few minutes he told me he was headed to Ft Pierce (about 3hrs south)    The look on his face was pretty priceless when I said I was going that way first and we should ride together.

I'm headed to Key west for a sticker.  Key West is the end of the road as far as going south is concerned so It wasn't really an option to skip KW.

After the BMW shop my new riding buddy and I hit the highway pretty aggressively.  It was hot as hell but traffic was light.  I set the cruise to 80mph and jacked up the tunes in my helmet.  I couldnt stop thinking to myself how weird this feels to actually be getting this voyage started.  It haunts me to think about how many days and hours I'll be on the throttle but I kept focused on today's destination and easily ignored the tendency to plan and worry about tomorrow.  There was some rain on the horizon in almost every direction but for the time being we were dry.  2hrs later we're in a torrential down pour.  The 95 degree heat and sweat fest turned into an 60mph shower and followed by an 80mph hot and humid blow dry.  This wet/dry cycle repeated itself for about 100 miles or so.  I cant say it bothered me much.  It's really hot under my helmet and the rain is a nice way to cool down quick.

4hrs later I made it to Ft. Lauderdale.  My first destination was my long time friend Jason's place.  We worked together in Hawaii for Norwegian Cruise Lines and have been good buddy's ever since.  He works for the USCG but spends all of his spare time flipping bikes.
  

Jason in his stable

Jason has a sleeve tattoo and his daughter Ava was no exception.  I've never seen more temporary tattoos on a such a small arm.  Within 5 minutes of walking in the door I was getting tatted up.

After dinner I went down to the shop to drink some beers and hang out with old friends.   My friends in Lauderdale have a huge 4 bay garage/clubhouse/workshop right up the road.  Mostly it's for drinking beers and listening to tunes but every once in a while they get their acts together and crank out some amazing skateboards.  They started a little company called Inspiration Longboards that sells the nicest rides around.   The guys wanted to send me off with some stickers and a free longboard.  Within minutes my bike was decorated with their logos.   The boards they make are really well made and great to ride so I didn't mind whoring out the bike with stickers in exchange for a board.   There's actual hills where I'm going so that'll be a new experience.  Riding these things in Florida takes a little too much effort for me.    So the rest of the night was spent boozing and bullshitting just like we normally do at the shop.   Shop nights generally dont end until the beers are all gone. 

Picture montage and I'm out...  late start.. gotta eat some miles today...   Thanks for reading.  Hope you like it so far.

Tomorrow

It's Sunday night, 1159pm ish.  I am half packed and half asleep.

I got off the rig Friday and hit the ground running fast.  I was really exited to get home after 35days on my steel island in the Gulf of Mexico and I immediately had a few bar tabs to prove it.  It was a long and exhausting 5 weeks with too little sleep and way too much work but that's the norm out there.  But that really isn't what this tale is supposed to be about so I'll get back to it.

Saturday morning I woke up at 10 am after about 2 hrs of sleep.  Friday nights have their way of working themselves into Saturdays sometimes and this Friday proved to be no exception.  I awoke to my alarm with an unbelievably intense hangover, but a smile from early morning escapades and thoughts of pending adventure none the less.   My bike needed to get dropped off at 8 am at the BMW dealership for a final inspection and full fluid change, I was of course 4+ hrs late.  The trip is starting out just as I anticipated, hungover and not according to schedule.  A couple Aspirin and about a half a gallon of water later the GS was where it needed to be.   My mechanic Huel knows what I'm up to.  His attention to detail is exactly what the Dr. ordered.  If anything is in the wrong place he'll find it and make it right before I get going.  His attention to detail will hopefully make up for my lack of know-how.

The bike was getting worked on and I wanted to take a nap, I also wanted to have some fun with my friends while I was in town.  The urge to turn around midway thru this trip due to missing some of them might prove to be a force to be reckoned with so I decided to maximize my time and push thru the hangover...   A little hair of the dog later I was back on two wheels.   Ormond Loop ride with Desiree on her Yamaha R6S was first on the to do list.   She told me not to write about her understeer into the sand so I won't...

Sunday was pack day.  I wont bore you with all the details of what I'm bringing and why I've chosen to bring it.   The pile of camping and riding gear you see in the picture below is supposed to fit in 2 saddle bags and the top box.  Im also taking a waterproof (ish) duffel bag with some clothes and riding jacket.  Finally a tank bag full of camera gear and all sorts of stupid electronics that I'm too stubborn to leave behind.  The bike is going to be a heavy lady but that's no excuse to not dance with her.  I'm sure she's going to want lead most of the time but after a few bouts I'm sure we'll find our rhythm.   The Tail of the Dragon in TN will be our first test.

I'm not sure what time I'll set out tomorrow from Daytona.  I'm headed to Key West by way of Ft. Lauderdale.   I'm looking forward to getting this started.  It should be an interesting day of 95 degree heat and our famous Florida thunderstorms mixed with some I-95 traffic.  

I've been guessing and second guessing my abilities to do this but I wont quit before I get started.   Once I start I doubt I'll want to stop.   My Grandfather (see 2nd post) called me on Saturday.  He wished me luck and reminded me how much fun it'll be once i get in the rhythm of the trip, to just wake up and go for a bike ride every day without a care in the world.   He also scolded me for not taking him with me.  I had to promise to take him with me next time...  

Tomorrow it is...    Hope you guys are enjoying this..  Its about to get started.