The Longest Road. Part 2

My oldest daughter had turned me on to facebook and I thought that it would be a good way for us to keep in touch. So with a little prodding, I sat up an account. Through the internet I was introduced to a guy who lives close to me. He told me about the V-twin expo in Cincinnati and I loaded up the tahoe with wife and child and headed into the snow towards Ohio. As luck would have it,,, I was told at the expo that you had to have a pass to get in. I called the guy that had told me of the expo and I said, "Hey Bean're, They don't want to let me in." We met up at the coffee shop in the Hotel and I have to tell ya, I met a golden guy. After coffee, we set out to get me a pass. It took all of about 1 minute for him to get me a pass from one of his friends. I have ran into Kevin on quite a few occasions and I have always found him to be a character. One of the many great people I would find on my road.
Winter has seldom been a good time for riding in Tennessee but with the aid of my heated suit, I was able to ride out of town and head south. I have family all over Georgia and I had lived in Florida for a number of years. I travelled all over the gulf road from Jamacia Beach, Tx. to Tampa. Then it was time to head to Bikeweek. It had been almost 10 yrs sense I had been but I thought it would be a good run. Cold would be an understatement. I spent the day riding around seeing all the old places I use to haunt and then I pulled into South Daytona and found the Limpnicke lot. What a great time. Cool bikes, cooler people. I had made no provisions for where I would sleep so I set out for Ormond Beach in hopes of finding a room for the night because the temps were still dropping. No Vacancy signs are now a thing of the past. Use to be you could drive around looking for a room. Now you have to park and go in to be told they have no rooms available. I found a semi truck parked in the back parking lot of a hotel. I pitched my tent next to his trailer tires and slept the night away. You may wonder why, The trailer blocked the view of the security camera and I was able to sleep all night without being run off. Early morning and I'm packed up. Destination IHOP beach side. I pull in and park then realize there are 100 motorcycle enthusiasts waiting to get in. I'm not feeling the love so I'm ready to go somewhere else but my bike isn't. Push on the start button and nothing. Out come the tools and over come the 100 riders to tell me what my problem is. I stand in amazement that they are able to diagnose my problem from 50 ft away. haha. After I cleared the crowd I figured out that my starter button had shit the bed but with a short jumper wire I was able to get the bike started. Down the road. I spent the day bouncing around New Smyrna and Edgewater. I spent the afternoon at the annual oyster roast at Magoo's. As night was setting I decided I would head south and find me a room. No such luck. Before I got to Titusville my headlight quit working. I-95 pitch black is not a good place to be without a headlight. I followed a trailer that had a shiny back door until the next exit. Only thing there was a closed gas station and a closed McDonalds. I pitched my tent at McDonalds and slept the night away. That is until the morning manager started ranting and raving outside my tent. I finally had to tell her to go fix my breakfast to get her to shut up. Next stop was south of Orlando at a friends house. Worked on the bike a bit and had a good day of catching up. In the morning I headed back to Tennessee.
As spring was coming on my road trips were beginning to get longer and my wife was beginning to get sore. Spring break I loaded her up on her bike and we set out for the Louisiana bayou. 8 days of puttering about to the ends of all the roads we could find. I had bought a pop up camper to pull behind the bike and me and the Mrs. had a great time. We had timed it just right. 3 weeks later BP oil had what they called an accident. From this trip she gained a bit of understanding as to the joy of traveling the road with no destination in mind. She has enjoyed a few long trips with me this year including the Bourbon trail in Kentucky and a trip up to West Virginia. We have put quite a few miles on together. She is quite a trooper.
My next event stop was being called a Gypsy run. This sounded right up my alley. I met up with some hooligans in Taylorsville NC. This was the beginning of The Big Mountain Run.
Until next time
PEACE AND GREASE.