Well, it isn’t an adventure movie but it’s always an adventure. This time our Wauchula trip broke down literally. Ian’s Harley became I’ll and we stopped for repairs. We ended up riding back almost to Teri’s house before it totally died. Then we had an adventure with the trailer as we finally to the bike home. It all ended with a great meal at our new hangout.
Well here we are 2 weeks since the start and end of Bike Week 09 and I already miss it. I’m actually late with this, as we got back home on the last day of Bike Week. Some of us had to get back to the job we last saw 9 days ago.
What can I tell you about Bike Week? If you haven’t been you need to go and if you have been, then you already know. Bike Week has something for everyone. Old bikers and new bikers, you are guaranteed to find something that fits you. It really is like your local bike night, times 100,000. The amount of bikers and bikes is really overwhelming and I never get tired of seeing it. You will definitely see your model and make, in many different styles and colors here and steal ideas to make your ride fit you and your personality. I can always find something to add to the bike. Which is just as it should be. If you go to a venue like this, you should expect to find the best possible prices. If you search around long enough you will find a great deal at bike week.
It may have been just me, but I thought I noticed a few less of everything this year at Bike Week. A few less bikers and a few less vendors. This shouldn’t come as any big surprise, given the economy. I’m sure the final numbers on attendance will show a difference. I did see an interesting report on Destination Daytona while I was there. The evening local news reported they were selling 45 Harleys a day through bike week. I was surprised but if you did the math, 45 X 9 days is 405 bikes for the week. If you have several hundred thousand extra people in town to ride motorcycles I don’t think it’s out of the question. So good for them and great for bikers everywhere.
There were some great shows at bike week as well. If you’re inclined, you can pay to watch the AMA races at the track. There were a number of custom bike shows. Endless bikini, T Shirt and shorts, shows. We missed the Cole Slaw wrestling but we did catch the Monster Energy “Dome of Death”. They weren’t to be confused with the “Wall of Death” at the Iron Horse. These kids were free and much more dangerous. We missed “Little Kiss”, midgets who dress up, make up and all, like the original Kiss and have concerts, but we did see the house band on Main Street, rock some of Ozzy’s “Crazy Train”. I heard ”Little Kiss” sounds just like the original. We miss the Brawl in the Cage at Destination Daytona but we did see some Evangelists crusaders versus Strip Club Choppers. This was interesting for several reasons. The crusaders were pretty much protesting everybody and everything. The guy hanging out at the Strip Club Choppers tent, looked amazingly like “Kid Rock” just taller. The crusaders had a guy with a bullhorn, one guy with a pole that had signs listing those being denounced, and 2 security guys standing behind him. Kid Rock was drinking beer after beer and blaring death rock at the crusaders. I thought Kid Rock and Strip Club Choppers got a raw deal because about 1/2 a block away, there were 2 beautiful young ladies having a “bikini bike shine”!?!?!? They definitely deserved some protesting.
We saw the shows. We bought some shirts. We took some photos. We acquired some ideas and new parts for the bikes. The real essence of Bike Week though, is the riding. I saw many country ride tours and saw some obvious tourists/vacation motorcycle groups along the roads. I know they had a great time. We are lucky enough to stay about 58 miles west of Daytona when we arrive for our vacation. I say lucky because by now we know every different way to get back and forth into town. Here are a couple of country roads you must find and ride, while at bike week (CR309, CR308, CR308B, US17). I call CR308B, the “little dragon”, those of you who have visited Tennessee and US129, you know what I am referring too. I often wonder how the locals feel about their backroads? I mean, I travel here at least once or twice a year just to ride. I wonder if I would be more apathetic if I lived here year round? Every morning and every night we had a great ride. After 9 days and about 2,000 miles it was hard going home.
Finally, I did catch up with Mike & Debbie and Mikey from the 360 Bikers, so we did officially call this a 360 run. As the most Popular M/C riding group in South Florida, we had a responsibility to show up at Bike Week. Of course I will continue to provide myself as a guide whenever anyone want to find some country roads during bike week. I’m so selfless, it’s the least I can do. Until next time, Ride Safe!!!
GR
We had lunch at an Irish place called Erin’s Isle. Highly recommended as the food was good and the prices extremely low. We also have to compliment the waiter for taking on 24 customers he wasn’t expecting, doing individual checks, serving us, and keeping everything straight. He was impressive as the owner, who was very accommodating for our group.
After refueling at the gas station next door, we organized again and got underway. I had gone over the route because with a group this size traffic lights make it tough to stay together. We had a couple riders that did not keep the group tight and sure enough we got split. After turning at Immokalee Road we waited for the rest of the group before getting underway.
Now, we were out of the traffic and headed towards Immokalee on a nice road that disappeared into old South Florida. I remembered this part of the ride from the previous year and the nice turns in the road as it twisted from running east to a northward path. Once in Immokalee I took a route that avoided traffic lights so our gappers wouldn’t split the group. In minutes we were on the road headed north.
— Video Coming Soon —
About 13 miles north of Immokalee I was looking for Keri Road. This would lead us through our fourth or fifth park of the day and take us on two roads I had never seen before. The park is Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest (yeah, you say it three times real fast) and the road was nice with little turns. A couple road patches did make it rough, but overall I’d ride it again. This road gave us a left turn at the end of it to get on a road that led us to SR80, a familiar road to most of the riders in our group. From here, we road to Clewiston for our last fuel and rest stop before heading home.
LK
We prepared to leave the gas station as two other large groups that were there rode out ahead of us. We actually ran into the BMW group later on the ride. Our number of bikes was now 21 as we prepared to get onto US41, the 2-lane highway that preceded the Interstate as Alligagor Alley. The beauty of this ride is the changes in geography. We begin the ride with a lot of sawgrass in the Everglades. We ride past long expanses of the grass with obvious paths cut through it by the airboats. This ride is a peak at what Florida was like 100 years ago.
Riding west, we come to Big Cypress and begin to leave the sawgrass plains behind. Along the right side of the road is a guardrail and then a ditch that is about 10 to 15 feet wide. Along the shore away from the road you see alligators resting in the sun as it rises in the South Florida sky. The temperature is rising and the cold-blooded reptiles come out to warm themselves. What struck us all was the quantity of gators. We say hundreds of them along the shores just a few feet away from us. We saw more alligators in 50 yards of ride than most people see in their lives! They were everywhere and occasionally you’d see a couple riding in a canoe. It must have looked like dinner to some of them. It looked dangerous to us.
We saw a lot of beautiful birds, too. Everything from egrets to herons to eagles to hawks. This is a ride with nature that is perhaps the best in South Florida. Leaving Big Cypress we actually ride along the southern border of Collier-Seminole State Forest.
Riding further along the cypress give way to an open plain that isn’t as wet as the sawgrass swamps. We came to CR92 in Collier county and went down the road that was new to most of us. The short ride of about 5 miles took us to a small causeway and across to Marco Island. We rode through the short island in about 10 minutes and came across another causeway leading us towards Naples and our lunch destination.
Lee
