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!
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!
2 comments:
Wonderful photos, you must love your camera. I did spot the 2 rays and wonder did you also see any horseshoe crabs.
Food looked delicious too.
Looks like a great ride. I visit family in Orlando every summer. My father-in-law rides and I have ridden in from Texas the last two summers.
We may have to use your report to map out some new places for us to ride.
Great blog.
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