Day 9 --- NEWS FLASH

Just received a call from our son Jeremiah. Jeremiah was excited to tell us that he was the top salesman for the month at Cycle Center of Denton, Tx. Way to go Jeremiah!

Day 9

Heading out this morning...in rain again! Although we had a lull for a while today, it turned out that we started the day in rain and ended in rain!

Sharlene with Amanda (our desk clerk from Maine). Amanda was excited when she learned that our ride would be taking us through her home state!

These girls were excited about the scooters...I think they wanted to come along!

She is ready to buy a scooter!

Meet Mike and Vanessa. We pulled into a service station during a POURING rain and Mike and Vanessa were sitting in their car. They looked at us as if to say, "You guys must be crazy but you sure look like you're having fun!" We struck up a conversation and found that they were visiting from Virginia. Mike shared a former adventure with us...some years back, he and a buddy rode BICYCLES from Oregon to Virginia! Now that earns BRAGGING RIGHTS! These folks are VERY friendly and we greatly enjoyed our time of conversation.

Day 9

It's around 9 A.M. and I'm looking at our scooters through the hotel window. Burgman scooters are absolutely beautiful...unless they are soaking wet! We woke to rain this morning (I swear it wasn't on the radar last night!) Looks like we will have another wet ride for the first 100 miles or so today. I don't really mind riding in rain but packing the bike while raining is a pain in the...!

Just look at those CLEAN windshields!

More to come...

Day 8 ..details (by Sharlene)

We rode 266 miles today. Weather was great and we timed the rain to occur during our lunch stop. LOL We didn't plan it, it just happened that way. We loved our tour of the Hemingway House, thanks to Tyler. Conch, the term used when you are a local. Bogart's was great and would recommend it to any one. Kelly even pointed out the coldest spot in the pub to sit. You know, since we were the only people in Key West that had long pants on. Safety first! We had light rain as we left town with our matching Key West T-shirts to be seen in up coming photos, like tomorrow. A fun and memorable day for sure.

Day 8 - Key West

Sharlene-Southern most point South---Key West. Although this is a true perimeter ride (closed loop), we will be documenting the "4 corner cities" as well.

Ken - Key West

Hemingway House

The "Hemingway Penny"...Test your trivia!

This is Tyler.Tyler is a tour guide at the Hemingway House. Although Tyler has been there only six months, he is funny, witty, knowledgeable and entertaining. He reminded us that we are closer to Cuba than a Wal Mart (now, that's scary!) As it turned out, Tyler also rides and was greatly excited about what we are doing! (Ed. note..We visited the Southernmost Wal Mart today!)

Sharlene at Bogart's Irish Pub and Grill

Who could this be???

Kelly, our server at Bogart's. Kelly will be celebrating a birthday next week. Happy Birthday Kelly!

In its earlier life, this was Shepherd Pie at Bogart's. When Kelly noticed that I didn't finish off those 4 peas, she was kind enough to offer me a "to go" box! You just don't get service like that too much these days!

Day 7 Florida City, FL by Sharlene

We had an enjoyable ride today only 237.8 miles, easy day. We were going to take 75 all the way into Florida City until I came up with, "what about 41?" After talking with Tommy, our hotel staff guide, we came up with 75 until Port Charlotte then cut over to 41. Great idea, however by time we came to Ft. Myers we cut back over to 75 until the tollway then went back over to 41 to cross the Everglades. We kept coming across panther crossing signs and never saw a one! Believe me we were looking as we would not like to run over one on the scooter. Not exactly the best way to acquire the Burgman 650 executive, in white, that I've had my eye on before we left Denton! We topped off our gas tanks not knowing exactly what to expect on the way across the Everglades. It was a two lane road that we took at a leisurely rate of speed, you know in case we need to take a photo of one of us moving a gator out of the road way or something. What we did find were several birds, two dead turtles, Terri - information gal extraordinaire, Indian Village, a few camp grounds, blooming wild flowers, mangroves, swamps, and ended with a Indian casino. No rain for us today, just some cool spots when the cloud cover allowed. As we came into Florida City there were plenty of fruit stands and crops growing on each side of us. Reminded me of my home town of Fresno, CA. We ended with our customary dip in the pool to cool off and seafood dinner at a local restaurant. Our convenient hotel location has allowed us to walk to anything we might need. It also gives us a great starting point to the Keys.

Day 7

After a long day in the sun, this is a wonderful sight!!!

Seafood just seemed to be the thing to have tonight!!

Day 7 - A few pics

Panther Crossing? Do I really want to be here?!?!

We are in the Everglades and Sharlene is looking for a gator!

Sharlene and I at the Everglades City Chamber of Commerce.

This is our newest friend, Terri. Terri greeted us at the Everglades City Chamber of Commerce. Terri is a great lady and was very kind to us. She made our pic together and gave us a free book about the Everglades! This trip has given us the opportunity to meet some really great folks! Way to go Terri!

Sitting in traffic during road construction on the Tamiami Trail

Sharlene acting weird

There she goes again!

After riding in the hot sun all day, people do some weird stuff while sitting in traffic!

Still just like new!

GPS...never leave home without it!

Day 7

This trip has allowed us to meet some VERY nice folks! This is Tommy showing Sharlene the best route down to Homestead...Sharlene, you're supposed to be looking at the map!!! LOL

Day 7

Went out this morning to give the scooters a "once over" and found this little guy doing sentry duty!

Day 6

We started out our day at 9 am in Monticello, FL. We rode 293.8 miles today and about half of it was in the rain. Thank you Tropical Storm Beryl! It tested out the rain cover on our Tourmaster bags. They worked just great and proved to be water resistant even when we pulled the covers off. We spotted our first Burgman on the road in Inglis, FL. So if anyone knows who travelled north on 19 with a silver scooter, add a comment! The wind gusts were strong at times and as you can see we even pulled under a over pass on 75 today. Ended our ride about 6:30. We enjoyed dinner at Sonny's BBQ, one of Ken's favorite's. Then a dip in the pool. We are ready for some Alleve and a comfortable bed.

Day 6

Rain! A little shower now and again is OK but the bottom dropped out and we ran for cover!

Rain

Still more rain! LOL

Meet Georgie and Don. We struck up a conversation with these very nice folks while having dinner tonight. Georgie and Don are full time RVers as well so we had plenty to talk about! VERY, VERY nice folks!

Day 6

The inevitable finally happened...Tropical Storm Beryl gave us our first opportunity to test the rain gear. I'm sure there will be much more rain before this trip is finished!

Day 5 -- Kens' Thoughts

It dawned on me today that I am really enjoying this ride. Not just a lot of fun but Buzz Bike fun! What I mean by that is when I was a boy, I received a Buzz Bike for Christmas. I loved that bike and for the first week or so, it stayed in my room with me at night. So over the years, fun and enjoyment has been (jokingly) gauged against that bike!

I am doing this ride with my wonderful wife and best friend who loves riding as much as me. I catch myself cruising along wondering what I ever did in life to deserve such fun. I am truly a blessed man!

When you ride all day, every day one of the things you begin to notice is custom license plates. These plates have become a way for us to "identify" ourselves. I decided today to make a little mental poll to determine my favorite.  Without a doubt, the coolest plate read "1MTAKEN". If my brain holds out, I may do this little poll on a daily basis.

We seem to grab attention in various places we stop. We are always quizzed about our gas mileage but the comment that really gets me is "You're gonna do this ride on one of those?" This comment seems to come mostly from guys riding those "shakers" that you hear coming a mile away. Sharlene makes me hold my tongue, but I really want to say "Well, I sure don't want to do it on one of those!"

The bikes are doing fine, I added about a pint of oil to Sharlenes bike today but that's not too bad. The oil change was done 3,000 miles ago and we have really been running these scooters! We plan to stop around Savannah, Ga. for service on both scooters.

Enough for now, sleep is calling! We hope to be in Key West this Wednesday so we will need to get up and going! We will be on the road early to get ahead of TS Beryl! Good night all, more tomorrow!

Day 5-- Another Pic

After riding all day, we were looking for quick and easy. Our waitress was working her last day and was preparing to head back to college. After a bit of a chat, we quickly realized that this little girl is going places. I tried to get her to let me post her pic but she was just too shy! She did say that I could mention her name. So here goes...Good Luck Whitney, in your future endeavors! You are super!!!

Day 5---A few pics

What is this all about?!?! These helmets gain about 10-15 pounds at the end of the day! LOL

Florida has a very cool Welcome Center! Man, would I love to fly this thing!

We are now in Florida. It will be several days before we have another State sign.

We stopped to chat with this very nice family. They were kind enough to make a pic of Sharlene and I together. Thanks guys!

This is the lady to see! She was handing out free orange and grapefruit juice...very refreshing after a long ride in the hot Florida sun!

Somewhere in the Florida panhandle...a VERY good sight when you have all the fuel warning light blinking!

Does she EVER read signs?!?!

More of Day 4

We actually left Lafayette, LA before 9 a.m! Last night it got down to a balmy 68 and we used our fleece sleeping bags for actual covers. We had some dew this morning on several things so it made for interesting packing when breaking down our camp. Down the road we got a quick bite to eat for breakfast and off we went. We had a bit of trouble with our Scala headsets so we stopped in to fill up and reset them. Every Louisiana store just isn't complete with out gator heads and paw key rings. We stopped in Mandeville, LA for a drink and snack, the welcome center in Alabama, then onto Mobile, AL. That gives us 285 miles for the day. We have our first hotel stay tonight. So we hit the pool to cool off and picked up pizza and adult beverages as a treat. We are looking at 260 miles to Monticello, FL or if weather permits possibly 300 miles to the KOA in Perry, FL. Predicting some rain tomorrow night but will consult the weather and see what we are heading into. Thank goodness for sunscreen! We will be brown as bears or perhaps black bears before we finish this ride! 

Day 4

Alabama has a "teensie" State sign that hides behind a tree so we stopped and made this pic at the Welcome Center.

How many of these pics do we have to take?!

Day 3---Shar's Story

We left camp at 10am this morning..hmm..always a bit later than we wanted but met our camp neighbor's from TN. We had our camp breakfast of hard boiled eggs and packed up. About 40 miles down the road the fuse cover on Ken's scooter fell off. Looking for that took about 20 minutes but failed to produce the cover ..darn. We will be looking for a quick McGyver fix or stop by a bike shop for another one. One draw back to a long trip is keeping the GPS ( Lila ) charged for the whole day. Not so much of an issue when we have an easy freeway day. When you are looking for a place to stay or specific directions at the end of the day, it's very helpful. We stopped for lunch in Hankamer, Tx.  Just before we pulled in my throttle lock broke. I can't decide if I want to leave it off, as the throttle is much easier to turn. I finally have the knowledge of how to work the radio part of my scala communicator. I have tunes! We pulled into Lafayette KOA with 300 miles today, that includes our dinner run to the store. We put the tent up in record time and setting up camp is going to become more routine every day. One thing in the tent is getting up earlier with the sun isn't a problem. As most of you know we tend to be night owls..but not any more. In fact it's dinner, shower and bed time. Looking forward to more of I 10 tomorrow.

Day 3--Lafayette La.

One state down...a bunch to go! LOL

I can't remember the names of these NICE folks (they made our pic) but thanks guys! Send me your names and I will post them!

Lafayette Louisiana

Just rolled into Lafayette a couple hours ago. Got camp set up and fixin (Texas word) dinner. Wanted to post a couple pics but Sharlene will post more later.