Lake Harris RTE

After a slight delay in getting going, James and I mounted up for the short 98 mile ride to the Lake Harris Hideaway. Cruz'n Al had set up a RTE and we were participating!

Taking back road was a given as we headed to Tavares. To our surprise the GPS was taking the desired route a step further. We said back roads...not no roads! As we looked up the road, it stopped, at least the pavement. Hmmm...it says to go right. Dirt road on the right! Oh well, good practice.

After the short 3/4 mile of dual-sporting on a VTX, we were again on pavement and continued the ride. With some of the best burgers in the area, this place is well known and becomes a destination on the weekends. Today was no exception. 100+ bikes in the parking lot and standing room only on the deck.

A quick bite and we were off for our return. Another nice ride in the books.

Now that's a long ride...

With a 3:00 am CT departure, I was not going to be sightseeing much on the early part of the return trip. I left Panama City and rode Route 98 to Perry, FL. The road parallels the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico. At times the water is 20 feet away. As luck would have it, there was a full moon so I was able to see just a bit.

The sun came up at 6:45am ET. I had crossed the time zone line much earlier in the ride. After a quick stop for breakfast, I headed down SR19 to Homasassa Springs and then on to Tampa. Arrival was at 11:15am; 390 miles in just over seven hours with a fuel and breakfast stop. Not too bad.

I checked the SPOT Messenger tracking page and found that the system can create its own errors. Seems that on the way to Alabama, I did a slight detour... to Morocco! Hmmm... glad I didn't press the 911 button. :-) Here is a screenshot of the map. It's a classic example of technology bringing the world closer together.

Alabama

Left Monday morning for Daphne, AL and a week of work. A little light rain was falling from Tampa until I approached Crystal River. Bright sunshine was the order of the day after I outran the rain.

Can you say HOT? I worked my way up State Route 19 to Tallahassee. After that, it was I-10 all the way to Daphne. The heat was an intense 96 degrees. With the Camelback, keeping hydrated was not an issue but I still had to stop and cool off a few times.

Approaching Pensacola, I stopped at a rest area to snap a picture of the Blue Angel replica which stands guard over the parking lot.





The week was a busy one. My temporary residence was the Hampton Inn in Daphne. Pictures in the lobby show how much damage Hurricanes' Ivan and Katrina did. A buoy that washed onto the hotel property is marked with the names of these two famous hurricanes.

Stops in Fort Walton Beach, Destin, and Panama City were on the agenda as I began the return trip to Tampa. After a night in Panama City, plans are to depart at 5:00am for the final leg back to Tampa.