Don's miles today: 242.6 Don's Total Miles: 242.6
Sherry's miles today: 461.9 Sherry's total miles: 461.9
We went to bed last night KNOWING that today would be our first day of riding for this excursion. In my conversations with Sherry over the past 3 or 4 days she said that she was planning on starting out at 7:00. She said that there was a person riding with her as far as our meeting place in Yulee, FL so her ACTUAL starting time might be adjusted based on his starting time. I told her to text me as she left and with each gas stop so that I could adjust MY start time.
My morning started off pretty normal. I wake at 5:20 and do my "morning stuff". I wake Lisa up at 5:45 (I don't have 25 minutes of "morning stuff" but I do like to play two games of Sudoku) and I take the dog out for her "morning stuff". As Lisa was getting ready for her day at (gasp) work (hey, someone has to finance my motorcycle mania) I made coffee and watched the morning news. By the way, I have come to the conclusion that they do LIVE news on Monday and then just show a repeat taping the rest of the week. Then at 7:01 my notification beeped and Sherry was on her way. Good for her.
Originally I planned on not loading my bike until after we returned to our house in the evening. That way I wouldn't have to ride with a full load all day. As Lisa pulled away to go to (gasp) work I thought that since I still had two or three hours I might as well load the bike up and then I wouldn't have anything to do. Spoiler Alert: I am REALLY glad that I loaded the bike in the morning! I checked everything off of the packing list and before long the bike was completely packed. The only items not on the bike today that WILL be on the bike for the next 7 days is my computer.
Before I knew it I got another beep around 9:00. Sherry was at her first gas stop at Milledgville, GA. I went to my dear, old friend, Mr. Google, and he said that she was only about 4½ hours from our meeting place. I was figuring that I would start right around noon but since it was going to take me two hours or just a hair more I decided that maybe an 11:30 start would be better. So I rustled me up some grub.....that was said in my John Wayne voice.....took the dog out for her "late morning stuff", cleaned up my lunch mess, and headed out to the garage.
At 11:25 I pulled out of the garage. Just before pulling out another beep came in with Sherry saying that she was filling up at Hazlehurst, GA and was still on track to be at the Marathon station/store in Yulee between 1:30 and 2:00.
Even though the vast majority of our trip will be on NON-expressway I elected to jump right onto I-95 and head north. I live about 1 mile from the ramp and the Marathon station was about 5 miles from I-95 so the ride was ALL expressway. That's fine with me. I really don't mind the expressway and I certainly don't mind the 70 to 85 MPH (give or take). The ride was a good one. Traffic wasn't bad and the weather was good.....for the most part. As for the parts that were not within the "most part" the sky did spit on me a couple of times. It was a pretty hot day so that little bit of Ma Nature's spit actually felt pretty good.
I pulled into the Yulee Marathon convenience store & gas stop and filled up. I was still a wee bit early so I was able to get in there and fill up before they got there. After topping off the tank I got ready to move the bike over to the side and then I could go in and grab a water because I obviously had time. I turned the key and it all lit up nicely. I pushed the start button and............NOTHING! Not only did I get NOTHING but at the same time ALL power was gone. WHAT????? Of course I tried five or ten or a thousand times like it was going to change. In case you were wondering.....it did NOT change. I was getting NOTHING. So I pulled the bolts, removed the back pad, removed the saddle, and looked at the battery. Yep....it certainly was a battery. I am very good at looking at things. Well, I wiggled a wire or two like I knew what I was doing and said a couple of magic words I heard on Penn & Teller's Fool Us. I turned the key and...............IT WORKED. As I reinstalled the saddle and pad I turned the key at each point and.......IT WORKED. So I have no idea what was wrong or what I did.....but it is working fine now.
I went in the store and bought a bottle of water. Did I mention that it was about 200° and the humidity was in the neighborhood of 2,435%......more or less. I came back out and found a good spot to plop down so I could look up US 17 and see them come. I wanted to take pictures of them as they cruised in. One thing that I have noticed on my various trips over the years is that people can just tell that you are on a motorcycle trip. I have purchased gas a gazillion times while not on a trip and NO ONE comes up to talk to me......except the occasional poor soul that just happens to have made it to the gas station but has no money for gas.....and, by the way, they still have no money for gas as they walk away from me. Anyway, when I am on a trip people just seem to be able to sense it and they come up and talk. The first person that stopped to talk to me was a local sheriff deputy. We talked about my bike, my cousin's bike, Key West, and riding in general. I hope that he was being a really nice guy....it could be that after riding 130 miles in the 200° heat I looked like a serial killer. It was really a nice talk.
Shortly after he pulled away another fellow pulled up and asked if that was my bike over by the curb. He said it was a "nice bike" and "have a good ride my friend". People really are quite nice. Just a couple minutes after he pulled away I looked across the intersection and I saw Sherry and her friend, Bill, coming toward the light. All they would have to do is turn left and then immediately turn right at the first driveway. I grabbed my camera and started heading for the driveway and.....what?.....they turned right. About 5 minutes later my phone rang. Guess who. We straighten out the confusion and in minutes they were with me at the Marathon.
I met Bill. He was visiting people around Daytona Beach and was nice enough to accompany Sherry on her ride. He was one of her instructors several years ago when she took the Motorcycle Safety Course. We took all the obligatory pictures and off he went to finish his ride. We also took off to ride Florida's A1A down the eastern coast as far as Ormond Beach.
The route includes crossing the St. John's River in Jacksonville on the Mayport Ferry on the St. John's River. It is just a five minute ferry ride but it is kind of neat. We continued to ride south through Ponte Verda and St. Augustine. At Flagler Beach we stopped for a few photo ops and for me to
call my wife, Lisa, and give her our ETA of approximately 20 to 30 minutes. We stopped a couple young gals to snap some pictures for us. They were young teens and kind of giddy and giggly but, do you know what, she was waving the camera around all goofy and weird but the pictures she took were great.
We rode the famous Ormond Beach "Loop" through some wetland and "jungle". It is a very cool ride and it is also about the best way to get from Flagler Beach to our house. Once here we did some quick "evening stuff" and the three of us headed to a local sports bas called Houligan's. We had great food and great conversation.
Right now I am finishing this while Lisa and Sherry have both gone off to bed. I guess that I should do the same (my first clue was Lisa coming back to the living room and saying "are you coming to bed or not"). Tomorrow our quest to ride the entire coast of Florida will continue. Please feel free to Like, Share, and/or comment. Talk to you again tomorrow!
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