Club Ride - July 25, 2009: Glenn's Inferno

After our usual breakfast conclave, six of us set out for the Ozello Trail by way of the most indirect route possible. The weather was in a cooperative mood and we rode north under clear blue skies and in air that was still mild in temperature and bearable in humidity. But, alas, those conditions were not to persist as we soon found ourselves in sweltering heat and suffocating humidity. Of course, that wasn't enough to stop us because we're tough! And heat resistant! Or so we like to think, anyway.

The route north turned to two-lane roads once we got north of Zephyrhills:





There were plenty of hills and sweeping curves to be enjoyed along the way:









Boyd was astride his new Suzuki DL1000 V Strom...:




...and this dirt road was just too alluring for him to pass up...:




...so he gave the V Strom's dual sport capabilities a quick test run:




I played around with the camera a bit and took this interesting photo of the road passing beneath my bike:




And then I took this shot of the rider's perspective of the Black Passion's cockpit:




After a water break Boyd swapped off with me so I could ride his V Strom as I am interested in one myself. This is the rider's view from the V Strom:





That's Boyd astride the Black Passion:




Here's the group headed north on SR 491 northwest of Brooksville; Boyd is still riding the Black Passion at this point:




We got lost somewhere in Crystal River while trying to find a Suzuki motorcycle dealership. Glenn used his technology to save us:




But our predicament was so bad that it took multiple iPhones to save us:




Boyd wasn't worried, though, because he knew his new V Strom could get him out of any predicament:




We finally made it to Ozello where the roads are twisty and the community is wired with nuclear accident warning sirens for the nearby power plant:




We had lunch at our favorite seafood joint:




The restaurant sits right at the water's edge:




The Lost Brigade was happy to have arrived at a place where they could eat...again:




No one would take Lloyd up on his offer to pull his finger...so he did it himself:




Boyd and Glenn weren't so impressed by Lloyd's finger-pulling trick:




...But Eddie was mesmerized by it:




Eddie told a story about some big plate or some such that I wasn't paying too much attention to:




...And when I asked a simple question the response was immediate and hostile:




For those who are curious, Ozello is about midway between the mermaid's flippers and her knees:




After lunch we headed out of Ozello and back toward more urban environs:




These are some of the views along the Ozello Trail:






Back in civilization, it was time to feed the steeds:




We stopped at a Suzuki dealership for me to look at a v Strom, but I was less than impressed with their pricing and lack of enthusiasm to sell it:




Bob was a better and more enthusiastic salesman for this Burgman they had in their showroom; I think he almost sold it to Eddie:




Boyd used the downtime to put the V Strom through some paces in the parking lot:




Leaving the dealership we headed south toward home through the urban jungle with its sweltering heat and jammed traffic:




You may not be able to read it, but the air tempature (second reading from bottom right on dash) says 97 degrees; and that's the moving temperature:




That does it for this ride report. We split up at I-75 with half of us taking the fast route home and the other half making their way through the back country to their homes. Another great day of riding and fellowship in spite of the heat.

Club Ride - July 11, 2009 - I poked the bear, but he wasn't hungry!

Our usual Saturday club ride was an extremely well-attended affair this week with no less than 17 people showing up for breakfast; so many, in fact, that we ended up occupying four tables in the restaurant. In this shot, our group is the vast majority of the people you see:


That's Eddie and his wife, Marlena, along with son Paul and his wife Darlene in the foreground. The rest of the group runs in a right-handed "L" behind Eddie.

After breakfast we headed south-by-southwest to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge where we took in the ambiance of the two rest areas on either side of the bridge. We still had a good-sized group after breakfast with 12 people and nine bikes total:


The views from the south rest area were very nice as usual and we watched as two large ships went under the bridge:


I spotted this airliner flying overhead at the same time the ship was negotiating the channel:


There was also a gaggle/flock/herd/pack/murder of stingrays hanging around the seawall on the south side:


There are two stingrays in this photograph. Can you spot them?:


We moved over the north side of the bridge where there is some shade at the rest area. While there we took in the nice views...:


...and watched the parade of boats headed out to the Gulf of Mexico:


We posed for a group photo that I am not in because 1) I prefer taking photos to being in photos; and, 2) I was taking the photo:


Right after the group photo we were attacked by a giant lizard that crawled out of the ocean and...okay, so it's not a giant lizard...it still looked pretty dangerous...and big...yeah, that's it...big...that's the ticket:


Boyd and Glenn were plotting something...either that or voting on who would get fed to the lizard. Thankfully, as official photographer of the day, I was exempt from consideration:


Bob was smiling because the lizard-feeding vote was running against Kyle:


Some guy pulled into the rest area in his spiffy Ferrari. Naturally we all had to take a closer look:



Sweet car! The engine is so loud they were wearing earplugs to compensate:



Boyd was running scenarios for explaining to his wife why he wanted a Ferrari. In the end he opted for lunch instead:


Thanks to the State of Florida, my search to find myself is officially over:


Speaking of lunch, we rode over to O'Maddy's in Gulfport for ours:


The group was still a happy group...or maybe the prospect of more food was making them happy:


Our group was so large that the restaurant had to split us up; they put the trouble-makers at this table:


I had a delicious salad topped with a tasty piece of grilled salmon:


Eddie was proud of himself for also ordering the salad:


Boyd didn't mess around with rabbit food and instead went straight for the dessert menu:


On my way to the men's room for a little relief, Glenn warned me to watch out for the ice in the urinal trough; he wasn't kidding, but he failed to mention the mermaid!:



While the others finished their lunches, I went for a walk on the pier across the street from the restaurant:


Walking the pier gave me a chance to get shots of boats at anchor:








The pier afforded a nice view of the streetscape across the water:


The pier also had this interesting historical marker commemorating a steamboat from days gone by:




Looking through the glass panel allows you to see a ghosted image of the steamboat out on the water:



There was a nice veterans' park next to the pier:



I like this shot because of the way the sunlight plays against the flags and the sky:


After lunch we headed to Barney's Motorcycle Shop in Brandon:


While at Barney's, Boyd and I test rode a Suzuki V-Strom 650:


Kyle couldn't test ride the V-Strom because his feet wouldn't touch the ground...maybe next year, Kyle!:


"Now you listen, Mister, there will be no peg-scraping, rubber-burning, or curve-straightening on this test ride. Got that?":


Boyd managed to behave on the loaner bike and still had a good time:


Barney's had plenty of other interesting toys to look at and dream about besides motorcycles:




Another great ride came to an end as we saddled up under darkening skies and headed into the storm and made for home with many miles and good memories under our belts. Until next week, Ride with Pride!