Sunday, May 28, 2006
Key West to Orlando
Key West to Orlando
After my additional day in Key West, I was ready to get back on the road. I walked out of my room to check on Tigress and there she was, LYING ON HER SIDE!!! WTF??? The cover was still on and it appeared that nothing was stolen upon first inspection, so I took the cover off, got her back on her feet agan and started looking her overmore carefully for damage - some scratches on the right saddlebag, looks like the PIAA 910 bracket is slightly bent, the mirror cover is detached, but it's supposed to do that. The biggest damage is broken right mirrors - not only the stock one, but also the Mirrorvex that installs over the stocker. SHIT!
I guess the positive things about this stupid act are that the tipover wings actually do work - without them, there would have been considerably more damage. Secondly, Honda designed some kind of valve which shuts off the fuel if the bike goes over 45 degrees from vertical - there was no oil or gas on the street at all. Still P***es me of, though.
So, I get over my anger, get my gear stowed on the bike and I'm off to Orlando to visit some family I haven't seen in years.
Got a Florida stamp for the NPT at Biscayne National Park, just east of Homestead and right next to the Homestead-Miami Raceway - looks like a beautiful facility.
I used to think that the Illinois Tollway was one of the worst in the world because of the constant stopping to give more money just to get around Chicago. I was wrong. Florida's Tollway has Illinois beat, hands down. Afer I got the Biscayne NP stamp, I decided (against all of my principles) to "try" the Tollway, at least to get around Miami. First toll booth, go thru the routine I described earlier, but I learned a valuable lesson - put your folding money in the 'stitch jacket so you can get at it with your gloves on. 20 miles later, another toll plaza, and yet a third 20 miles after that - this is getting old really fast. Then I saw a sign advertising the "Sun Pass", just like the iPass in Illinois. The ad said something like you' d save $6 with it from Ft Lauderdale to Orlando and I knew that this toll plaza bs wasn't going to go away. I finally had enough of Florida's Ripoff and decided to go over to I-95 - I needed gas and was getting hungry as well, so I got off the Tollway at Boca Raton and headed east.
Boca Raton must have banned all McDs, BK, Arbys and any other fast food place you can imagine because there wasn't one to be found anywhere. Got gas back on US 1 and headed north, still looking for a BK. I finally found one about 2 miles north of Boca. Service was absolutely terrible and I waited a full 10 minutes for 2 hamburgers and a cheeseburger.
Finally got back on I-95, got dinged for tolls on the Beeline and some nickel and dime stuff around Orlando - Gad, I hate tollways!!
Picture this, however: You're cruising north on Route 1 after some relaxing time in Key West, you've got some rock-on tunes playing on the iPod, temps are in the low 80s, skies are overcast, - no scorching sun - but little change of rain You've gotten two corners of the 4 Corners tour in the bag and are headed for #3.
It doesn't get much better than this. Life is good.
Later,
Mike
After my additional day in Key West, I was ready to get back on the road. I walked out of my room to check on Tigress and there she was, LYING ON HER SIDE!!! WTF??? The cover was still on and it appeared that nothing was stolen upon first inspection, so I took the cover off, got her back on her feet agan and started looking her overmore carefully for damage - some scratches on the right saddlebag, looks like the PIAA 910 bracket is slightly bent, the mirror cover is detached, but it's supposed to do that. The biggest damage is broken right mirrors - not only the stock one, but also the Mirrorvex that installs over the stocker. SHIT!
I guess the positive things about this stupid act are that the tipover wings actually do work - without them, there would have been considerably more damage. Secondly, Honda designed some kind of valve which shuts off the fuel if the bike goes over 45 degrees from vertical - there was no oil or gas on the street at all. Still P***es me of, though.
So, I get over my anger, get my gear stowed on the bike and I'm off to Orlando to visit some family I haven't seen in years.
Got a Florida stamp for the NPT at Biscayne National Park, just east of Homestead and right next to the Homestead-Miami Raceway - looks like a beautiful facility.
I used to think that the Illinois Tollway was one of the worst in the world because of the constant stopping to give more money just to get around Chicago. I was wrong. Florida's Tollway has Illinois beat, hands down. Afer I got the Biscayne NP stamp, I decided (against all of my principles) to "try" the Tollway, at least to get around Miami. First toll booth, go thru the routine I described earlier, but I learned a valuable lesson - put your folding money in the 'stitch jacket so you can get at it with your gloves on. 20 miles later, another toll plaza, and yet a third 20 miles after that - this is getting old really fast. Then I saw a sign advertising the "Sun Pass", just like the iPass in Illinois. The ad said something like you' d save $6 with it from Ft Lauderdale to Orlando and I knew that this toll plaza bs wasn't going to go away. I finally had enough of Florida's Ripoff and decided to go over to I-95 - I needed gas and was getting hungry as well, so I got off the Tollway at Boca Raton and headed east.
Boca Raton must have banned all McDs, BK, Arbys and any other fast food place you can imagine because there wasn't one to be found anywhere. Got gas back on US 1 and headed north, still looking for a BK. I finally found one about 2 miles north of Boca. Service was absolutely terrible and I waited a full 10 minutes for 2 hamburgers and a cheeseburger.
Finally got back on I-95, got dinged for tolls on the Beeline and some nickel and dime stuff around Orlando - Gad, I hate tollways!!
Picture this, however: You're cruising north on Route 1 after some relaxing time in Key West, you've got some rock-on tunes playing on the iPod, temps are in the low 80s, skies are overcast, - no scorching sun - but little change of rain You've gotten two corners of the 4 Corners tour in the bag and are headed for #3.
It doesn't get much better than this. Life is good.
Later,
Mike
