Every spring Faye and I take an anniversary trip, usually in March but sometimes earlier or later.

This year we decided on a motorcycle ride to Key West Florida. We went a little later than usual because of the weather.

I traveled some roads that I had not been on since Paul and I drove his green Torino (with bouncy recaps on the front) to Key West just after Christmas 1972.

Day 1: I24 to I75 to Macon GA. What can you say? Interstate droning and busting Atlanta. All went well. Got through Atlanta alive. We ended this day in Macon as planned.

Day 2: More droning. I75 to Wildwood FL. The only rain of the trip...a frog strangler just before Wildwood.

Day 3: I was looking forward to something off the interstate. I was hoping that hwy 41 would be a nice four lane through the coutryside just outside the heavily populated coast. No such luck. The western coast of FL is nice, but there is lots of traffic ... everywhere. I finally decided we'd have to get back on I75 to make some time.

Finally we got back to 41 and it turned almost due east toward Miami through the everglades. After 20 miles or so we finally arrived in the open, uncluttered countryside I was looking for. Once in the everglades the traffic diminished considerably. Like most roads we were on it was straight and in decent condition. There were some rough spots, but the Strom ate up the bumps.

It was a long haul through the everglades and this was our highest mile and longest ride time day. Finally we got to 997 and headed south to Florida City. This is part of Dade County, but an agricultural area. Lots of farming...nothing like Miami. We found a "coupon" hotel and planned for the next day.

Day 4: Everglades National Park. You are talking about 60 mi or so one way. It is actually quite relaxing to know this vast area is mostly untouched by human activity. Of course, some of that activity takes water away and that may eventually kill the everglade. Agricultural watering is an example of how water is used. 20 or more pumper truck will drive into a field and shoot water 50 feet in the air. A really inefficient use of water.

On the way back to the hotel I saw a sign advertising air boat rides. Being a machinery nut I like the idea of a 500 cu in Cadillac engine spinning an aircraft prop just a few feet behind me. We scooted over muck and grass all the while sounding like a crop duster. Fun.

Day 5: We take hwy 997 on down to hwy 1 and go to the keys. This was pretty nostalgic for me as a lot of the old road that Paul and I drove is still there. There is no road in the world like Hwy 1 out to Key West. Not really because of the road as it is pretty ordinary tarmac. It is where you go and what you see.

When you get within about 30 mi of Key West the variety of green in the water and around the islands is astonishing.

For lunch we ate at an Irish pub in Key West. I had an Irish breakfast which was fantastic and Faye had a traditional Irish lunch of cabbage, cheese and mashed potatoes (I forgot the name of the dish, but it was quite good). It was a little crowed around the southernmost point marker, but we got a few pictures without standing in a line. I haven't liked lines since standing in endless lines for class cards (old keypunch cards) at UTK in the 70s.

Didn't have any coupon luck so we stayed at a moderately pricey place on Marathon. A really nice place. Worth the money I guess.

Day 6: Then, it seemed, we had done and seen everything we'd come for, so it was time head for home. The weather was really cranking up in the midwest, so that needed a little planning. From Marathon we headed toward the coast back to 997 and then on to hwy 27.

We stopped in Florida City for gas. There I saw the coolest motorcycle rider I've ever seen. He rode up on an older Harley with factory bags. I don't know Harley models. He was an tall, lean, black man who was dressed as what would be described these days as "office casual". His neat goatee had a sprinkling of gray. He had sytle and calm. Excellent. I made a point of saying hello. I wish my camera hadn't been packed away; I really wish I had a picture of him and his bike.

27 runs straight into the middle of Florida. There are lots of everglades to go through. Not much traffic and in one stretch there was about 50 mi between gas stations. It's a good road, though, 65 mph speed limit, little traffic and few stoplights.

We spent the night in Sebring; nice town. I went out to the raceway but there wasn't anything going on.

Day 7: A big front was on the way, one of those late spring Canadian expresses. Bad weather forcast deep into the south. To avoid that, we angled west toward Tallahassee. We holed up there a couple of days. Not as big a town as I thought, but not bad. We rode down through. Second day we ran down to the coast throught the Appalachicola National Forest. More pines than I've ever seen. A good 50 miles of nothing else. Saw bear signs but not bears.

We went out to St. George Island. Pretty cool. The sound was brown from runoff from all the rain in the area. All the rivers were out of the banks. There was an interesting lighthouse. We then ran the coast easterly back toward Tallahassee. Remote and really out there.

Day 9: Well, its all business now. It was pretty cool overnight, and day temps only in the 50s. Actually, I don't think it got that high. The idea was to make at least 200 miles and get a little north of Montgomery. The route wasn't bad really. It was just cool and windy. We rode through two pretty large dust storms and the gusting winds made me work to the high profile Strom on track. I decided to buy a fork brace to try to improve dealing with crosswind.

We did it, but it was the toughest day of the trip. We stayed in Prattville.

Day 10: It was below freezing that night. We had already decided to relax until check out time to let things thaw out. Worked out great. Although a slab day, I65 home was not bad. The weather was good and it was nice to get home.

The very next day the sky was filled with tornadoes.

Key West Batch 1

Key West Batch 2

Key West Batch 3

2619 mi