So here we find ourselves and because of my cousin Sherry and the motorcycle gods (the motorcycle gods would be, of course, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper) it now looks like I will have that elusive 2020 motorcycle road trip after all. And now after doing a few rounds of a Don Happy Dance (that you will NEVER see on You Tube) I presented the idea to my wife, Lisa. Both Sherry and I thought that it would be great if Lisa joined us on the ride around the coastline of Florida. Lisa used to ride with me all the time however, even then, she was never too keen on the longer distance rides. I do recall that time I did "make" her go on one long trip.
My son had just purchased a motorcycle in Florida but he was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. So the plan was for me to haul the bike up to him. I rented a truck and loaded up my bike and his bike. The plan was to drive the truck one-way up with the two bikes, meet him in Fayetteville, NC, do a weekend of riding, and then I would ride home. The ride home would be roughly a 7 to 8 hour ride straight down I-95. Lisa really wanted to go so that she could also see Josh. I told her that she certainly was more than welcome. In fact, I would be thrilled if she joined me. BUT she would either have to follow me in the car both ways OR she could ride with me in the truck to North Carolina and ride on the back of the bike coming home. She squirmed and moaned and groaned but she finally made the decision to ride in the truck and on the back of the bike coming home. You will be happy to know that she did survive although after several hours she did threaten to not get back on the bike at our last gas stop in Jacksonville. She said that she would just sit and wait for me to ride home, get the car, and then drive back to get her. I will admit to you that I had no doubt that she was dead serious. I took the time to emphasize that it would take me 4 hours or more to ride home and drive back to retrieve her. She gave it some thought and VERY reluctantly she finally relented and toughed it out. She did make it very clear that I was NEVER going to get her on a long trip again.
Over the years her enthusiasm for riding on the back of a motorcycle has lessened and lessened down to not only ruling out long trips but pretty much not wanting to ride at all. To be fair, it isn't just motorcycles. She really doesn't like long trips in trains, planes, and automobiles. So when I presented the idea to her to join me and Sherry on a ride that would mean riding ALL day for several days in a row it took her a while to calm down her fit of laughing enough so that I could understand her as she said "NO THANK YOU".
Sherry was still arranging for her exact days off so we weren't sure of the exact calendar dates but she knew the trip that she wanted. We could still map it out and fill in the dates later. Sherry asked me that since I was used to planning trips, mapping them out, and finding good lodging (most of the time) she would leave the planning of the trip to me. Nevertheless as far as I was concerned, this WAS Sherry's trip. I would have no problem working out the ride but I wanted to insure that it would accomplish what SHE looking forward to in this ride. She told me that she wanted to follow the coastline of Florida as best we could from Fernandina Beach at the northeast corner near the Florida/Georgia border all the way to Perdido Key on the northwest corner of the coast nearest the Alabama border. She said that she definitely wanted to see Key West because she had never been there and if possible to stop at Longboat Key because she stayed there once with her sister. She added that she had a couple of friends that she MIGHT want to see along the way but only if it worked out. AND we had to fit it all within the time limits of her approved time off from work.
About the same time that she had covered all of wishes and desires with me and I, in turn, proclaimed that I was up for the challenge she received the approval from her bosses for the time off. She was granted from June 11 thru the 19th. I asked her what day did she think she wanted to start to ride...... figuring that she would want a day or two to prepare......and without any hesitation she said "June 11 of course". That was all I needed to hear and I started working on "the plan".
The first day, Thursday June 11, will have two "unofficial" starts and one "official" start. Sherry's "unofficial" start will have her leaving her home in North Georgia early in the morning and riding to Yulee, FL just outside of Fernandina Beach. Mr. Google says that should take her roughly 8 hours. My "unofficial" start will be a few hours later than her start because my ride to Yulee, FL from the Daytona Beach area will only take me about 2½ hours. We will meet up in Yulee and it is there that we will make our "official" start. We will leave Yulee and head over to Fernandina Beach, and then follow Florida State Road A1A to Ormond Beach just outside of Daytona. The destination for that first night will be our house and that is where we will spend the night. Lisa and Sherry will get a chance to visit, we'll have a good meal, and we'll do any final plans or prepping for the trip. We'll settle in for the night with visions of gas stations, Waffle Houses, and motels dancing in our heads.
The next day I figure that we will head south using the coastal road (A1A) as much as possible with our eyes set on making it down to Florida City at the tip of the Florida Peninsula . It is mapped out to be all NON expressway riding so Florida City will
be an aggressive objective but it will also be a perfect place to spend the night. 
Generally, whenever possible, I try to spend my nights at a hotel from the Choice Hotel chain. As I put the route together for this adventure I again plan to use Choice Hotels for all or most of our nights. The wide variety of different hotel brands generally allows plenty of choices. In the past not only could we expect a comfortable and clean room (most of the time)
we could also count on a decent and
early all-you-can-eat breakfast bar. To stick with CDC guidelines during the covid-19 outbreak and to help insure the safety of customers and staff it is doubtful there will be ANY breakfast bars at ANY of our stops. In fact, it is certainly possible that there may NEVER be breakfast bars again....EVER! They may or may not have prepackaged breakfast treats to pass out but we will have to wait until we get to each hotel to find out. More than likely we may see more than our fair share of Waffle House counters.
The "plan" calls for us to stay in Florida City for two nights. I picked Florida City because it
is just a hop, skip, and jump from the U.S. 1 causeway onto the Florida Keys. The morning after our first night in Florida City we'll cross the Causeway (we will ride the motorcycles instead of hopping, skipping, or jumping) and once on the Keys we plan to take the Overseas Highway across the Keys all the way to Key West. How long we stay in the Ernst Hemingway Playground will depend on weather and traffic. Hopefully we will have enough time to take our picture at the Southern Most Point Buoy and the Mile 0 sign on U.S. 1 as well as hit some of the shops so we can buy the obligatory t-shirt or conch shell and maybe a burger at Sloppy Joe's.
After Key West and another night at Florida City the "plan" calls for us to head west through the Everglades trying our best to not run over any alligators, pythons, or Canadian retirees. When we hit the Gulf Coast we will turn north to follow the west coast of Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. On the way north near Sarasota we hope that we can make a stop at Longboat Key. This is a stop that is important to Sherry because it is where she had a short but fun vacation with her sister. We may eat there or it might just be a photo op stop. The objective for the day is another rather aggressive ride as we will continue north to Clearwater and stay at another Choice Hotel.
One thing the plan doesn't plan on is that there will be no resting for the wicked....or for Sherry either. We will rise the next morning and continue heading north until we reach the Florida Panhandle. We will turn west skirting the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Our objective for that night will be Panama City. At this point we HAVE TO remember to change our watches because even though we will still be in Florida we will have crossed over to the Central Time Zone. I say this with experience because of the time Lisa and I went to Panama City Beach we DIDN'T change our watches and we were AN HOUR EARLY to everything. We sat outside Gulf World one morning waiting for them to open and getting all upset because they were so blasted lax with opening on time. Thank God we were "tourists" so we could get away with being stupid....although even though we were tourists I continued to use my turn signals so we weren't all bad.
Our sixth day should be our shortest day of riding. We will finish riding across Florida's Panhandle and make it to Perdido Key. That is the most western tip of the Florida coastline right at the Alabama/Florida border. Upon reaching that point we will more than likely act like tourists taking pictures and gawking at sights. After being the tourist couple we will double back into Pensacola and stay there for the night.
Our seventh and final day of riding "together" will take us from Pensacola eastward back across the Panhandle to Lake City on a little more northerly route. This will be our last overnight stay while on the road. Our "official" ride together will have started in Yulee, Florida and will end at Lake City, FL. The following day we will do a farewell fist bump and Sherry will head north into Georgia to her home and I will continue east through Florida to my home in the Daytona Beach area.
If all goes according to plan (our fingers, toes, and eyes are crossed) we will have eight straight days of riding. For the most part we have agreed that this will be done rain or shine. Keep in mind that if we are confronted with a major thunderstorm, tropical storm, hurricane, earthquake, tsunami, gangs of desperados, a murder hornet vs killer bee battleground, or Godzilla OR if our tender butts start screaming at us we will stop until the obstacle passes (or that we regain feeling in our butts). I admit that it is an aggressive plan. Even on the many long trips that I have taken in the past I generally only ride 3 or 4 days to my destination. After staying at my destination a few days I will then ride 3 or 4 days to return. Eight consecutive days of riding will apparently be a feat of endurance for both me and for Sherry. However, all that being said I do think that this over-the-hill grandpa biker and the one middle-aged (but also a grandma) gal biker will both be up to the task.
It is my intention to do everything in my power to give you a daily report of our ride and about our destinations. That IS my intention.....however who knows what the reality will be? As for now, I am going to close this up for today. In a few days we will share our prepping and packing and we will do our best to make it sound exciting.....maybe by saying we had to walk in 2 feet of snow 10 miles each way and all uphill. Oh wait, that's how I told my kids I went to school. Whatever......we will do our best to let you know what we did to help insure that we would have a safe and reasonably comfortable ride.
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