On the road Friday a.m.

Early Friday morning I will be hopping aboard the Guzzi Stelvio and traveling north to Leeds, Alabama with my friend Andrew Steadman on his Triumph Tiger. We will meet up with some friends at the big Vintage Motorcycle Festival at the Barber Motorsports Park. It is about 500 miles or a bit more to Leeds, so not a really long ride. It should be enjoyable not having to grind out 700 or 800 miles.

The weather here in Florida has turned warm again, after a brief cool front last week which gave us highs in the mid to upper 80's. This week has been unseasonably warm, with highs in the low to mid 90's.

The weather for the ride north calls for some rain and for cooling temps over the weekend in Alabama, with highs in the upper 60's and low 70's. Those cooler temps will be welcomed whilst roaming around looking at hundreds and hundreds of classic motorcycles, watching a lot of those vintage bikes take to the racetrack and enjoying all the other events at the festival.

Canuck and the Kid's excellent lunchtime adventure

Today at lunch Scott the Canuck and I took a walk down International Pkwy to try to find out exactly where the proposed new interstate exit was going to be located.

This entailed entering a heavily forested sector of land and doing some exploring. The terrain was rough, with copious vegetation of all sorts slowing our speed. Additionally we spied a lot of wicked barbed-wire fencing, no trespassing signs and critters but they did not impede our progress.

With some trepidation we plodded deeper into the forested region and at times felt that getting back to civilization might be a real challenge. Our dungarees became coated with thorny stickers and such items. We fought our way through areas of deep, soft sand and the Canuck almost fell down but for his excellent physical condition and sense of balance.

Finally we saw signs of civilization, including some empty cans of Budweiser, so we knew we were on the right track back to safety. We emerged a short time later near the office and breathed a sigh of relief, our scouting mission complete.

Here are a few really crappy cell phone pics and a map showing our harrowing path.

Daytoner

I took a little ride on the Stelvio to Daytona Beach today, in search of a pair of waterproof gloves. Just about every trip I take on a cycle I end up wishing I had waterproof gloves, since I have all the other waterproof gear.

So off to the Helmet Shop I rode. I found the gloves and at a good price. On the way back I stopped for a few pics at Halifax Harbor as I spied an Alfa Romeo Spider parked there :=)

5 days 'til Birmingham

This coming Friday I will be boarding the Guzzi Stelvio for a nice ride up to Birmingham, AL along with my friend Andrew (he will take his Triumph Tiger). We will be meeting up with our friend Rob there to enjoy a couple days of vintage motorcycle racing and shows as well as an aerobatic show, phenomenal museum and all other sorts of diversions.

The riding up there is nice in spots as well, with some very nice and scenic backroads which we are sure to enjoy.

Close your eyes and be transported back to 1969.....

When Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) boomed from car stereos around the USA.

This video is from 2005, 60 year old John Fogerty, the heart and soul of CCR, still full of energy on stage and playing a rollicking version of my favorite CCR tune, Fortunate Son!

Fogerty continues to release great new music, including his last two cds, Deja Vu(All Over Again) and Revival, which are LOADED with fantastic tunes.

Day 2 of Bike Day at Work

Yesterday was so much fun we did it again today! Again Many of the folks at work rode their bikes in today to take advantage of the beautiful Florida weather this week.

Today we gained a couple new bikes and lost a couple from yesterday. Based on the bikes we saw these last two days it's safe to say most of Fiserv's riders prefer Japanese iron, as most of the bikes were cruisers of that persuasion along with one sport bike. Andrew Steadman and I seemingly carry the flag for Europe and we also have a couple Harley Davidsons that showed up.

So here are a few pics from today's turnout. Also I have included some pics of one of the new Tesla all electric sports car and finally some worn out, has been "sports car" from the 80's.

The results of Bike Day #1

My last minute email imploring motorsickle riders at work to ride in and park together today had a pretty good result. 8 people rode in. 7 of us parked together and one parked elsewhere.

The kinda funny side to this story is that the area I chose for the bikes to park is really close to where the division President parks his really nice 500+ HP Corvette every day. So it seems our bikes kinda forced him out of his space and he had to park elsewhere.

I ran into him in the office and he had heard through the grapevine that I had made the call for riders to bring their bikes today. It was kind of a funny moment.....he mentioned that he was glad he was being attentive and aware or he might have run over a bunch of bikes while pulling into his space!

Anyway, here are a few pics. We will do it again tomorrow and hopefully get a couple more bikes.

CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE!