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 It started out with a degree of uncertainty as, for the third weekend in a row, it tried to rain on our parade.  As I took the dog out before going on the ride a dark cloud moved into Palm Beach County and started to sprinkle a few showers.  I met Vic and Howard to ride over to the Palm Beach Harley-Davidson shop and the roads were wet.  The clouds spit on us a few times, but undaunted, we continued to our planned meeting area.

On arrival, we noticed it had rained harder there.  Puddles dotted the parking lot, but our riders continued to show up. One by one our group grew until we had 10 bikes and one passenger ready to go.  Unfortunately, Yarka couldn’t stay and we were down to nine bikes.  It was good to at least meet her and awfully nice of her to ride up just to let us know she wouldn’t be able to ride.

We waited a bit longer than our planned departure for some late-comers and got out of the parking lot about 9:15 or so.  Riding on the bee-line highway, it started to sprinkle again and briefly turned to light rain.  It took just a few minutes and we were out of the clouds and starting what would become a beautiful day.  The ride to Okeechobee had our group looser than I like to see, but we were fine until we reached US441 where Vic sent us right when we should have gone left.  No big deal.  We lost a couple minutes and saw the rodeo going on as we rode past it… twice.

Finally, we made it to Pogey’s and just minutes after getting there Frank and Barry rolled in.  They had hit heavy rains in Palm Beach County that caused them to be late.  It was good to see them with the group once more.  We started ordering food and drink when I got a call from our friends in the Treasure Coast Sharks.  They had also made the right when they should have turned left.  After giving them directions I went out to meet them.  A great group to ride with and great guys to just hang out with.

Our group had now grown to 16 bikes.  I took a few minutes to go over basics and we had a great, tightly grouped ride all the way back to South Bay.  There, three of our bikers peeled off to ride south.  We had riders from as far away as Miami and Port St. Lucie.  That’s a stretch of over 130 miles!  As we rode through Belle Glade Vic told me he was planning to take the short cut on CR880.  I have a friend that totaled her bike and nearly totaled herself on that road and I had avoided it ever since.  Vic turned right onto 880.  I went straight.  The light changed right after me.   Everyone followed Vic.  Whether he wanted it or not, he was now leading the group.

Recognizing this, I immediately turned at Canal St., the next right.  I knew it would bring me to CR880, though I’d be a few minutes behind the group.  Within 5 minutes I had caught up and took position at the tail.  It was great seeing all these bike stretched out in front of me.  It really is a great group of riders.  John suddenly pulled off the road and I turned around to stay with him.  His vest had broken and was causing some problems with riding, but within 2 minutes we were under way to catch the others.  Once caught up, we rode at the back until we connected with SR80.

There, I took the outside lane and caught Vic at the front.  He was surprised to see me since he thought I had taken smoother route on SR80.  He and Will peeled off at Seminole Pratt-Whitney Road and Howard, Frank, and Barry left at different roads to Wellington.  Our group was soon diminished to four: the riders from the Treasure Coast and me.  Instead of going straight to the Harley shop, we stopped at Duffy’s and had a few beers with great conversation.  I had to leave to get to the Harley shop to get a couple screws for the bike (which they didn’t have) and I got there just minutes before closing.

This was a nearly perfect day with great friends, a great ride, great weather (overall), and a group to be proud of.  I’m looking forward to next week’s ride already.

Sgt. Reyka lived in my neighborhood, just down the street from me. While I talked with him a few times, he was part of life here where I live. Everyday you passed his house you couldn’t help but notice the Broward County Sheriff’s car in the driveway. He worked the late night shift.

A few months ago, Sgt. Reyka was shot and killed in the line of duty. I don’t need to go into a tirade here about the scum that does something like that. Rather, I need to let everyone know that there will be a memorial ride to pay respects to him and other fallen officers. I encourage everyone to participate at one level or another. You can register for the ride at www.sgtchrisreyka.com. You can ride with our group if you’d like or bring your own group. You can drive your car to the breakfast if you don’t ride.

This is a worthy event to participate in. As details evolve I will post them in our event. Just click here.

Yes, for the second week in a row we got rained-out. But again I have to give credit to the group. A couple of us are hardcore enough that it wouldn’t bother us to ride in almost any rain, but we had a range of riders that went down to a guy that just started this month. You can see his Honda Legend 250cc in the photo. I always put the safety of the group first.  Heavy rain started just a couple minutes after the picture was taken.

The part that really sucks is that we had beautiful weather just 90 minutes later. There was no way to anticipate it and since these events are planned several weeks in advance, it’s hard to do fine tuning on departures. It’s still frustrating to have two good planned rides in a row get dropped due to rain during the DRY SEASON. Now, what’s wrong with that scenario.

Our group is growing, however. Now, with 42 members our ride anticipation is typically around 10. We’ll look at alternative ideas for weekdays soon so we can meet more of our fellow riders.

I just got back from the Florida Educational Technology Conference in Orlando. Of course, I took the Harley because it was supposed to be good weather most of the time. It turned out that most of the time was pretty nice. I hit a 20 second misty type shower on the way up and that was it. The ride was great with a partly overcast sky and a lot of open highway. While the Florida Turnpike isn’t my favorite road to ride, it was good Wednesday morning. I made it to Orlando in nice time, checked into the hotel and went to the convention center.

Wednesday night I went to dinner provided by Adobe for the Adobe Education Leaders, of which I am a member. It was perfect outside, so I rode the bike to the restaurant. Adobe is a great company that does a lot for education in general, but really puts a lot out through the network of AELs. After eating I rode back to the hotel, but had trouble stopping. It was nice outside, a little cool, and just too great a nice to turn in that early. So, I took a quick run down International Drive in light traffic. I had an early meeting and thought I’d get into bed after the ride, but friends of mine stopped by and … well… we ended up at Bob Marley’s with the group from CompuTrack. Then I ended up with getting to sleep well after 2:00 AM. It made the next day tough to start.

After doing the usual convention stuff and being on my feet all day, we went to the Rosen Center for the Lexmark reception. This is another group that has been involved in the printing end of education for quite a while. We saw many friends there and stayed for almost two hours. From there we went to dinner with Scholastic, a company that provides several reading programs for our district. They took us to Jerry’s, a really nice restaurant that had Bulliet, my favorite bourbon. We got out of there too late to do the Casino Night at the Wyndham and ended up back at the hotel by 11:00. Well, I hadn’t been on the bike yet Thursday and needed to get gas for the return trip Friday. I had my excuse and went for a short ride to refuel. I only passed a half dozen gas stations before forcing myself to stop. The fuel light offered its encouragement, too.

Friday was the last day of the conference and it started early. It was mixed with vendor visits, video taping vendors interviews with companies like BrainPop (featuring Moby the robot), and interviewing other people from our district. I did a little tech support with one of our upper-level administrators and called it a day. My daughter’s birthday was the next day and I called her to meet in Wildwood, about halfway between Orlando and Gainesville where she does graduate studies. So, I drove an hour north to have dinner with her and her boyfriend at a truck stop I like there. I know… classy father… but the food was good and it was about the only thing I knew of in the area.

While eating, the temperatures continued to drop as a cold front moved into the state. Not that it gets that cold in Florida, but the temperature was hitting the high 50’s when I left. I hadn’t brought my heavy jacket and until I lose some significant weight, I can’t even consider the leather overpants. It was going to be a cold ride. I put on as much as I could for my torso: undershirt, long sleeve shirt, leather vest, long sleeve pullover, and a lightly insulated jacket. I also had my gauntlet gloves, which were a little warmer than the light weights I had worn up. My legs just had jeans on them and I felt the cold wind on my knees and thighs.

Having traveled north an extra hour meant I had increased my trip home, too. With temperatures dropping I rode back down the Florida Turnpike with just one stop at Canoe Creek for fuel. I had a hot cup of coffee and tried to get some circulation back in my well-chilled legs. That wasn’t working so I got back on the road. I was surprised at how busy the turnpike was at that time of the night, but I guess a lot of people had weekend destinations. I was in busy traffic the entire ride down, which is about 250 miles. Other than freezing, it was a typical ride with cold, wind, and compound semi’s blasting along the highway. I got in a little after 11:00 PM and got into a hot shower to restore some feeling to my body. It made for a good weekend overall. Sunday, we have our picnic ride. That will be relaxing by comparison and more fun with other bikers. It will be good to meet our friends from the Treasure Coast, too.

The thing about weather forecasts is that they are at best, estimates. The schedules meteorologists create for storms are followed no more closely than the ones I make for my wife. Ouch! So, when the front scheduled to finish through our area decided to linger in front of the mirror several extra hours we had to cancel our planned ride around the Lake Okeechobee. But all was not lost.

Any chance to see the dedication and common sense of the people I ride with is a pleasure to me. Personally, I got up early and entered a message to our meetup that the planned ride was scrapped due to conditions that were not favorable for a group ride. That done, I also met at the starting point to talk with anyone that showed. Four others actually came just to meet the people in the group. Leon rode his cage, which was probably smarter than the rest of us. Carl came on his Kawasaki Vulcan ( a bike that I see gaining popularity with many ), but couldn’t ride to a local breakfast location due to a commitment. We met Jody on her new Harley ( beautiful bike ) and Will was there with us. We talked for over 30 minutes and then broke up as three of us went to a local place for breakfast.

The ride, Looping the Lake, is rescheduled on the group already. We’ll hope for better weather next time and look forward to the picnic event this coming weekend.

The ride out of Tampa had been changed due to the need for fuel and once we found it we were totally off course.  I asked for some direction to the an expressway I knew would take us to SR60 and was surprised that it was more than 80 blocks away and in a direction that I hadn’t suspected.  So, we were off again.

I verified instructions as we drove through the city.  Traffic was light and the ride wasn’t bad.  It gave us a perspective of the complicated group of islands, inlets, and connecting roads of the Tampa area.  Reaching the Gautney, we road across a beautiful causeway that hovered 20 feet above the water.  It was possibly the most relaxing and serene part of the ride.  The bridge is a couple miles long and gives a great view of the city’s inside coast.

We exited the causeway and drove a few lights to the Cross-town Expressway.  This would take us across water to SR60 in Brandon, but I had no idea about the new Brandon Expressway.  labeled as Sunpass only, they must be releasing the gate on Sundays.   This bee-line had one or two other cars on the entire road.  We flew unimpaired all the way to Brandon where I felt a little more familiar with the area.  We scooted through the Brandon Mall parking road to SR80 and were back on track for our ride.

One the way to Brandon we had caught a short shower for 30 seconds or so.  It was enough to remind that the forecast in the Tampa area diminished as the day went on.  Our plan was to be out of the area before any major storms occurred.  We found the storms were there first.  Much of the road we traveled now had evidence of rain from less than an hour previously.  In the distance, we saw lightning as we progressed back to the east.

Our ride was looking good except for one cloud that insisted on blocking our path.  It was dark and looked like heavy rain.  I decided it was the right time to stop and let those that had rain gear put it on.  Our temperatures were in the high 60’s to low 70’s and the extra clothing wouldn’t feel bad at those.  We started up again with the weather making my decision the right one.  While the storm lasted only 10 or 15 minutes, it was good to have rain gear on at parts of it.

Coming out the other side of the rain we found the temperatures had gone up 10 degrees.  Now, it was too warm in the gear so when we found our stop at Yeehaw Junction it was an opportunity for everyone to get into cooler attire again.  Andre got more gas and we were off.  Someone had called home and found it was pouring rain in greater West Palm Beach in spite of nice skies in our current location.

It was at this point that I was disappointed a bit.  The group shattered as we entered US441 and those with the need for speed found satisfaction.  I stayed back and kept us together a bit until it was just Ian and me riding.  The ride home from there is relatively simple and one that most bikers are familiar with .  As an emergency vehicle passed us I thought about the worse case scenario and was relieved that none of our group was involved.  In Okeechobee, they were actually waiting for us and we joined back together.  The rest of the ride we looked much more like a group, though we still hit speeds that were not acceptable at time.

As we moved into Palm Beach County the roads began to get wet.  We rode SR710 (the Bee Line) to Haverhill Rd. and by then it was raining.  It was actually amazing that in the rain we still did not get very wet.  Those with lower fairings were enjoying a basically dry ride in light to moderate rain.  (Note to self: next bike has lowers)  We rode through town and Ian peeled off to have dinner with his family.  Good man.  The rest of us continued to Nothin’ Fancy, a biker bar with some attitude and live music.  Definitely a place that every rider visiting West Palm Beach should visit.  After a beer I took off as did Andre.

Summarizing this ride is difficult.  The first leg included making some new friends and then leading them through very dangerous conditions in the dense fog.  It was the most intense part of the ride and could have been a good reason to call it off once we saw how bad it was.  The second leg was great riding for Florida with hills, turns, and the Skyline Bridge soaring across the bay to St. Pete Beach.  The final leg felt like the ride home as we had been out riding since before 6:00 AM to get to our starting point and leave by 6:30 AM.

If I have one recommendation for this ride next year it would be that we do not return on SR60.  Brandon has grown with some of the other communities and this is no longer a pleasant ride on a country road.  SR70 and surrounding roads will give us a more rural setting that takes us through hills and turns.  It will also give us another chance to ride across the Skyline Bridge.  Now, we have a few local rides coming up before February’s big ride in the SoFla360.  I’m looking forward to these.

Our ride to Lake Placid had been one of the most stressful rides I’ve ever done. The visibility made it far less safe than I like and we probably should have just stopped. But the group was a seasoned bunch of riders and we successfully pushed on, finding that we could outlast the fog.

Riding west on the Firecracker Trail, the fog settled back giving us a couple thousand feet of visibility. While you could still see fields shrouded in the white blanket, the road was far safer as we started out on SR66. The road wove through gentle turns and soft hills as we went through the rural tracks and small towns.

We came to Zolfo Springs and did a couple turns moving from US17 to SR64 in a matter of yards. SR64 is the continuation of the Firecracker Trail that would lead us across the state to I-75. The road was still nice and somewhere after Lake Placid I must have lost my heel shifter. I suddenly found I had to return to old habits to shift gears using only the toe shifter. To my knowledge, that was the most severe loss of the trip.

Finding I75, we rode that to the I-275 exit that would take us across the Skyline Bridge. This was our first toll of the day and worth every penny. The span stretches out before you like serpentine concrete. The middle of the bridge reaches so high that the low clouds that were once creating the fog now shrouded the beams that reached skyward. It was nice enough to want to do again.

Once across the bridge I exited to regroup and check my directions. I shouldn’t have. We ended up in a lane forcing us to go one exit further than we wanted. After doubling back we made our way to the beach and soon found The Hurricane, our breakfast buffet destination.

The food was good, not great. The chatter was great. We had a really great bunch of guys that enjoyed the stop, but were ready to ride quickly. Afterall, it is about the ride. Another fog bank was rolling in on the bay and it was so thick that within minutes we couldn’t see the beach and water just a couple hundred feet away. It was time to move before the weather changed. We just weren’t ready for Andre’s bike to need gas, but it did… again… already.

We ended up leaving our normal route to search for gas. I have no idea where we were in the end, but it was deep into Tampa. Once fueled we were ready for the last leg of our journey. I’ll add that section tomorrow.

This entry will be about the events of the first leg of our journey.  It was a great day and had more diverse conditions and adventures than is typical in a trip like this.  Our ending mileage was about 470 miles.

When Andre approached me on the idea of riding up to St. Petersburg for breakfast one day my thoughts were of a nice long ride in the Florida sun along back roads to the west coast.  The idea was so appealing that I thought this would be the perfect major ride to bring in the new year for our riding group at 360Bikers.  It has all the elements that we like on our motorcycles… nice roads, turns, great bridges across waterways, food, fellow riders, great experiences and none necessarily in that order.

Our adventure was much more interesting than I ever anticipated.  It started about 6:00 AM on Sunday morning where I was pleasantly surprised at my arrival at the mall.  Typically, I’m waiting for riders as I arrive about 30 minutes before departure.  When I got there Allen was there with his two friends and Ian was there, too.  (See members at our meetup site)  Within minutes, Andre arrived and it looked like we were all there.  After introductions and talks about riding experiences to get familiar with the group, and an overview of anticipated weather including some dense fog in some counties, I outlined our trip quickly and by 6:30 we were on the road.  Since I was the organizer I took the lead on our ride as we left the Wellington Mall.

The group consisted of three Harley-Davidson in the Electra-Glide class, two Hondas (a Gold Wing and VTX1800), and a Kawasaki Vulcan.  We fell into formation and I felt good about riding with these bikers in a very short time.  Their experience showed immediately as they not only fell into riding formation, but also seemed to be aware of everything the other riders considered as we drove down Forest Hill Blvd.  There was a little fog in our area, but it looked like it was going to be a great day.

We turned onto SR80 and headed west into increasing dense fog.  I found myself looking for vehicles in front of us to which I could attach my eyes.  At times taillights were the best thing I could see.  The further west we went, the thicker the fog seemed to be.  Visibility was dropping to under 2,000 feet quickly.  Our group tightened up to maintain visibility to traffic and to stay as a group.  Occasionally we dipped out of the thick soup and found areas where we could almost feel the sun trying to come up, but they were short lived.  As we rode cautiously towards Belle Glade we came upon a light show shining in the distance.  We all immediately knew that the fog had claimed an accident and saw the fight between a cane truck and a small white vehicle had the east bound traffic stopped.  Fortunately, I didn’t see any cars going east at that point.  But the vision of the accident made me a bit more cautious.

My biggest concern was the tendency for small animals such as muck rabbits to come out onto the road.  While the sounds of our bikes may make them pause before entering the highway, it could also startle them in front of us causing an accident with no time to react.  The fog was getting worse and at times visibility was less than 1,000 feet.

Moving through Belle Glade and South Bay was effortless in the early hours as the dense fog lingered in the streets.  The few vehicles we saw out were driving cautiously even at lower in-town speeds.  We moved north onto US27 which would take us the length of this first leg.  The highway was quite eerie with the feeling the the fog could swallow you at any turn.  It was hard to believe we were riding at speeds of 65 MPH at times as we stayed in the left lane for the distance.   I followed the lights of trucks at times until they went faster than I could see.  Perhaps they had better visibility above the ground as our line of sight often drifted below 150 feet.  I often felt I was slowing down just to see if I was still on the road.  The group stayed close and followed my lights.  Allen stayed close, which helped my visibility, gave me more confidence, and provided more lights for the rest of the group to follow.  The ride had become dangerous not because of a great storm, but from the fog robbing us of visibility to ride.  The recent 55-car pile-up on I-4 was fresh on everyone’s mind.  It, too, had been influenced by the dense fog of central Florida.  The damage there was so severe that even the highway was damaged to the point of being closd for 3 days while it was rebuilt where cars had burned away its surface.  We did not want to be statistics.

Undaunted, we continued into Clewiston with the few other cars and trucks on the road.  Then, a police truck came from behind us and went speeding by.  Moments later, another police vehicle followed by an ambulance.  We knew the fog had found another victim.  Using the bright flashing lights of the ambulance for guidance we stayed a close, but safe distance as we rode several miles north of Clewiston.  Eventually, the ambulance slowed as the other emergency vehicles came into view and eventually we saw the small white car lying in the ditch.  Apparently the driver had lost track of the road in the fog and went off the shoulder without knowing.

A few times the sun pushed on the fog making it bright and giving us hope that it would lift.  Then, just as quickly, it would disappear and it was all I could do to follow the yellow line at my left.  The fog thickened and at times I swear I couldn’t see more than 30 feet in front of me.  It was the second most dangerous ride I’ve been on and just a few steps short of riding blindfolded.  I concentrated on the yellow line so much that my eyes tried to trick me into seeing oncoming curves on a road that had few turns in it at all.  It’s Florida and you can drive for miles without seeing a true curve, yet my eyes were trying to create them from the soup we rode through.  The moisture in the air was so great the those of us without lower fairings had our legs soaked.

As we road north we found the visibility improving somewhat to where we could see cars more than 1,000 feet ahead.  Yes, at highway speeds visibility was a challenge.  Our first stop was going to be around Lake Placid and as we approached this milestone the fog seemed to ease back.  It didn’t go away, but the view was safer on the highway.  We found a gas station for our fuel stop and grabbed a drink or snack while we talked about this first part of the journey.  I hoped this was the worst of it.   After about 20 minutes, we were off on our second leg.  I’ll write more about that tomorrow.