Just a ride.
My friend and fellow world wide scooterist Warren called and told me and his wife Susan were coming to Disney world to camp with family and friends and wanted to know if he brought his scooter would we go riding. I told him I never turn down a chance to go riding.
Day 1 Feb 23
After the usual yoga with Wendy, I loaded up and headed off to Orlando to overnight with my grand niece and her grandmother. Today's ride is different than most of mine as I'm destination oriented and not the ride oriented. There's nothing wonderful to see or a good road to travel along the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Orlando. I took my usual way out of town up the Suncoast Parkway to Brooksville. then turned right on highway 50 and headed east towards Orlando. Not a bad ride but not one I'd like to do often. West side of Orlando I hopped on the turnpike, took it to the East-West expressway and that took me all the way through downtown Orlando and spit me out on the other side putting me within a few miles of Sara's house. All in all it wasn't a bad ride. There are a lot of tolls so it might be expensive when I get the bill, but worth it.
Almost a great evening with Sara and her grandmother who cooked this Italian sausage and zucchini spaghetti for a lovely meal. The downside is, for humorous entertainment Sara watches The Bachelor and some show on Netflix of people who never saw each other but got engaged through a wall. Yes, the youth of America are scary.
Day 2
It's cold. This morning's temperature when I hopped on the scooter was about 42 around 8. I got on the East-West expressway again in rush hour traffic expecting the worst but it was actually all in all pretty mild. Warren, who came up from Disney, met me at the Break Room in Winter Garden. We had a coffee and then hit the road again.
First stop was the international tractor museum outside of Leesburg. Mr. Paquette has assembled a pretty large collection of old International Harvester tractors, trucks, refrigerators etc. Warren and I both spent time on farms in our youth so we enjoyed walking through it and seeing some of the stuff we played with when we were younger. Warren still has a farm but it's leased out so he has no tractors to play with.
From the farm , we headed up to big Daddy Garlits drag racing museum outside of Ocala. This is a pretty interesting place that I drove by for years but it never stopped until Bill and I came by a year or so ago and stopped in. To our surprise, Don was there and gave a personal tour of his garage and other parts that are usually off limits. Unfortunately, he was not here this time so we weren't as fortunate.
From there we had it across country towards our overnight destination of Cedar Key. The further we went the more isolated the country was with few houses and no gas stations on our route. We check into the Dockside, our usual haunt about 5. Pretty quickly we were back on the scooters and headed for the upper Swanee national Park to watch the bats fly out of their house at dusk. It was still pretty damn cold and sadly it was too cold for the bats to go to work. So we stood there until after dark visiting with a guy from Missouri and no bats. Rode back to the hotel in the dark, parked the scooters and walked down the street and had a dinner of oysters and crab bisque thereby making it an official oyster tour.
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| Coffee meeting |
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| Warren and the tractor museum |
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| I did not know the International made M1's for WWII |
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| The bat house |
Day 3
We started the morning with coffee at The Daily Grind. They don't start breakfast until 8 but Terry threatened Martin and he went to the kitchen and whooped us up some breakfast. From there we loaded up on the scooters and headed down the long straight road to Bronson. Hardly a bend in the road. We stopped at Bo Diddley's grave and Warren was very appreciative as Bo Diddley is one of his featured artists on his iTunes. From there we made our way over to the Williston international airport and the Pyper Kub where we met Bill for a cup of coffee. We chatted with ourselves and with David and Carol the owners. I introduced you to David on the last trip on the way up to camp David. He's in his mid-80s and has the stories to go with his 80 years. This trip we had time to chat with Carol his young Bride. She's probably 20 years younger than he is and a lot cuter.
We continue to truck eastward in the direction of Salt Springs. In a rural area of Levy county there is a Greek Orthodox monastery that I had visited several years ago and we pulled in to see what was going on. It is large area of well-tended land and a few buildings on the site and not much else. Not much has changed since my last visit other than they are building a log cabin out in the far side of the field and there were more graves. Interesting about the graves and that the women were planted in one field by themselves in the men and another. A monk came out of the small chapel and we asked if it would be okay to go in. He said yes but they were having a service for a monk who had died last night but please go in. We stepped in the door and admired the very ornate interior. There was a monk over in the corner reading something that of course we cannot understand as it was in Greek. It was a minute or two before my eyes spied the monk that had passed away laying in a little manger and his monk suit and his white scraggly beard right in front of the altar. It was a struggle for all of us not to take a photo but we respected the situation and walked outside.
Down the road we passed the Chi University. The school of veterinary medicine in holistic Chinese techniques. Next time I pass this way I'll stop in and see horse acupuncture.
Destination of salt springs was odd Todd's but we couldn't find odd Todd and we went to another small Cafe where they informed us that odd Todd was yes and business Todd had been sick and it was not open at the moment they called her soup vegetable soup actually it was vegetable stew and was excellent. Full and warmed up a bit we went our separate ways Bill headed back to Jacksonville and Warren and I hit it for Disney world. It's about an hour and a half ride too close to Disney or I did warn I do and off I went to Avon Park in my favorite hotel the jacaranda. Are you English finished with a martini and a meal at 18 West.
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| Warren and Bo Diddely |
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| In front of the chapel |
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| The Kentucky man can ride in 45 degrees with no socks. |
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| The end of the day |
Day 4
The antique auto races and the first Trans-Am race of the season are occurring at Sebring raceway just a few miles down the road. I feel about until the temperature warmed up to a reasonable riding number and off I went. Though I enjoyed the the Racine and the noise it doesn't hold the interest that I've had in the past so after a couple hours I loaded up on big red and we went touring. We had a picnic lunch on a pier out into the lake of unknown name. Very nice tranquil setting and enjoyed it very much. We continue to meander around the orange groves of Florida what the smell of fresh blooming oranges in the air. And extremely sweet smell was only broken once by the smell of a skunk. Return to the hotel late afternoon pulled off some layers and headed back out to Sebring to the small theater to see 1917 highly-touted movie. Enjoyed the movie but I didn't highly doubt it. 18 West is closed on Sunday so I had a nice Publix sushi platter for dinner in my room watched a little TV and call it a very successful day.
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| Lunch |
Day 5
It dawned another beautiful day and slightly warmer, so I was on the road by 8:30. A great ride on a few back roads and ended a great trip by noon at home.
