Club Ride - 10/09/2010 - Solomon's Castle

Our regular weekly get-together and ride commenced in the usual way with breakfast at Snellgrove's that was fairly well attended. However, the riding part was a different thing altogether as only four started out and only three finished it up. We headed south by east, north, and west (yes, Glenn was leading!) and somewhere along the way JT abandoned ship with an abrupt about face and headed home to meet up with other riders for some other ride to some other place for some other purpose for some other reason.  How's that for overuse of "some other"?

Anyway, the three remaining souls -- me, Glenn, and Bob K. -- made our way down to Ona, FL, for a visit to Solomon's Castle and lunch on the Boat in the Moat. Always a quirky and entertaining experience, this visit to Solomon's castle was as enjoyable as all the others.

Here's a panorama of the castle grounds to give you some perspective:



And in this one you get a feel for the Boat in the Moat, which is also a restaurant:



This is the interior of the Boat in the Moat:



There are some captivating details to the decor if you take the time to look around...or up:



In addition to a tasty lunch, we all tried a different dessert. Here's Bob K. showing off his lime pie thingy dessert:



Somehow Glenn being bathed in this evil red glow was just fitting...and he's got that whole "imperial look" thing going on, too:



There were a few libations as well, but that one's not Glenn's...too big for him, anyway:



Bob K. was busy pondering the decor, global warming, and world peace:



Speaking of Bob K., he showed up for this week's ride on a baby-Burgman, you know, the 400cc variety:



After lunch we headed for home and all the chores and details of life that awaited us upon our arrival. By the end of the riding day I had clocked 174.3 miles on the ST1300 and I enjoyed each and every one of them.  Until next time...

Return to Okeechobee - September 4, 2010

Our weekly club outing was a bit of a stretch from the usual in that we decided to tackle a run to Okeechobee and back instead of staying within the usual Central Florida riding area. Five riders headed south after the usual breakfast meet-up, including: me (of course, how else could I have gotten the photos!), Gunny, Lloyd (too cool to have a nickname), Bob K., and Beaker. Here's a shot of Glenn (in the lead) and Lloyd as we make our way out of Plant City heading south on SR 39:



Here's Bob K. piloting his GL1800 and looking like he's having fun doing so:



Lloyd is just chillin' and being cool as he ambles down the highway...to Hell!?!:



Beaker was enjoying the ride despite his inability to out-ride the loud muffler sound that seemed to haunt him all day long:



Gunny tried his best to prevent me from getting a shot of him, but I prevailed after numerous attempts. That awful background is what you get for resisting me!!!:



Rolling down Highway 98...the desolate part:



Once in Okeechobee, we stopped to take in the sights of the big lake. This pier is located at the southern extreme of the city of Okeechobee and on the northern shore of the lake itself, right where 441, 78, and 98 converge:



While some of us walked out on the pier, others found the shade more to their liking:



The big lake! More like looking across the ocean than your typical lake:



Shot this photo of a bird from the pier:



And just a few feet away I shot this great example of why sane people don't go wading about in lake vegetation. That's an eight-foot gator lying there just waiting for something soft and squishy to come by for lunch:



Leaving the pier area, I stood by with camera at the ready in case anyone dropped a bike in the soft beach sand, but no one obliged me...dammit!!!:



With our business concluded, we headed back into the town of Okeechobee for lunch at a barbecue and steak joint called "Cowboys", which is located in the same building as the now defunct "R.J. Gators":



Some of the fellas anxiously awaiting the arrival of their lunches:



Gunny was pleased with himself for some reason or another:



A much friendlier sign than the one I saw the last time I was in Okeechobee:



It was a great day of riding and everyone seemed to have a good time. It was nice to stretch the proverbial legs a bit for a change and to see some relatively new scenery, as well. At the end of the day I had logged 278.6 miles of riding fun.  Sadly, this ride marked the end of the trail for my faithful riding gloves. After 16,000 miles of ST1300 riding in all kinds of weather, my Honda-branded Joe Rocket riding gloves are done.:



More riding adventures to come...with a new pair of gloves!!!

The photos posted above are only a handful of what I shot for the day. If you want to see the rest, click here.

Lunch!!!

The Kahuna Burger.

Waiting for lunch at Kahuna's

Everybody ordered the Kahuna Burger.

Skyway Tiger. Raaaawwwwwwrrrr!!!

Are you scared???

Lloyd waiting for the elevator at Barney's

And it was gonna be a long wait since he couldn't find the buttons.

Roar!!! Blackthorn Memorial at north end of Skyway

First appearance of my riding Tiger, too.

Shark!!!

This guy was fishing from the sea wall when he caught a SHARK!!!

Smile for your closeup Sharkey!

Give him a decade and he'll be ferocious!!!

They sitting there admiring my ST and wishing they had one, too.

I think this Trooper wanted a few words with Lloyd

Hopefully they were kind words of admiration about his motorcycling skills!

We are at the Skyway...again!!!

And darned if it ain't hot already to boot.

Forgot to mention that Okeechobee is a friendly town..,

No Riding - Family Business - August 14, 2010

There was no riding with the fellas for me and my brother, "Beaker", this weekend as we had to travel down to Okeechobee to take care of some family business. We did make the time to stop in for breakfast with the club at the usual spot before pointing the car southward.

Arriving in Okeechobee, we spotted this tank on display in a park in the downtown area:

I think "Beaker" wanted to take it home, but they had the thing pretty well buttoned up with strong welds in all the strategic access points...dammit!:

Of course a few welds didn't stop him from giving it the college try:

Despite being denied access to the interior of the tank, "Beaker" still felt like he had conquered the thing. I was disappointed that the cops didn't stop and yell at him...but that's just me.:

There we several other weapons on display in the park and "Beaker" did his best to make them go bang:

The park is a really nice tribute to Veterans of all wars and has many stone memorials to Okeechobee veterans in particular:

After our short stop at the park, we continued on our way and spent the better part of the day taking care of our family business. No motorcycling, but it was good to get this opportunity to spend time with other family and provide a needed service.

Club Ride - 08/07/2010

Our fearless leader was out of the country (yes, the whole USA) for a spell and he named me to be acting-dictator-in-charge. My first official edict in my acting-dictator capacity was to assign Big Ed to lead our weekly ride and he validated my extraordinary dictator skills by doing a great job of touring us through the Ridge area of Polk County.

Here we are breezing through the scenic countryside:

V-Strom cockpit shot. That's Mr. Sarcasm just ahead and Big Ed up there in the lead:

We stopped for a short break somewhere along the Ridge so that we could drink some cold water, check emails, voice-mails, and the like:

Big Ed apparently mistook Preacher for some kind of giant Florida bug and gave him a good dose of insecticide...or was it sunscreen?:

No, this wasn't a "professional" encounter...just a unique photo opportunity...so stop laughing; it didn't happen...yet!:

It was a good day of riding through some great scenery with like-minded friends. By the time my wheels stopped rolling I had 154 miles on the odometer for the day. Thanks to Big Ed for coming up with such an enjoyable ride on short notice.

Tried a bit of Night Photography the Other Day

Made a trip over to Tampa the other night and took a few night shots of the downtown skyline. It was an enjoyable and instructive outing from which I learned several things to apply to future such attempts. All that said, here's a few samples of what I was able to capture:

This was shot just before the sun slipped below the horizon:



This is what things started looking like once the sun was completely down:



This shot resulted from letting the shutter stay open a bit longer to pull in as much ambient light as possible:



I like the reflections in the river in this shot:



And by panning slightly to the right I was able to add the glow of street lights in the trees on the other side of the river:



This one was shot from the opposite side of the downtown area: