Well I’m back, 2500 miles 1400 in the rain, the only bike problem I had was with the puddle, I buried the bottom of my motor and my feet in a deluge. It was 9:45 am Friday and I was soaked to the bone. I walked across US 19 to a bowling ally but they didn’t care for me dripping on the rug, so I went next door to hOOters. Even though they were not open they made me coffee, gave me a couple towels, and found me a bike shop. Sweet they were, treated me like a puppy that just got run over by a train. While I was sitting on the porch some good-ol boys from Georgia stopped in for an eye full, since the establishment wasn’t open yet they sat around the round table lookin at me and my coffee, sayin, “what happened to you Son?” Well I told them the story, and they volunteered to run their truck across the road and jump my bike, still raining like a cow squirting on a flat rock I road two miles and found the shop. Leaving the scooter running I went in asked if I could have my charging system checked, they were more than helpful and in a few hours I was on my way to Jen’s Hollow, Ceder Key USA.
I got some coldbeer, warm smiles and tour of the Island, back to her crib for more brew and story telling with her and her main squeeze Wil. The Key has changed some since I last visited, a friend lost his house down there in the storm of 85.
About 4 hours later I was on the road and ran in the rain until about 100 miles south of Nashville. In Nashville I stopped and got a no-tell motel where I soaked in a jet-tub and dried out my gear. I was about 750 miles from my place 18 hours later and it was 3 am.
Since it was only a couple hundred miles to my destination I started late after a big breakfast at the local grab-an-growl. When I arrived I found my buddy in good spirits, even though the doctors had just bored a tumor out of his head the size of a tennis ball. I hung out for four days, he had kemotherapy for three. He handled his treatments with ease, so I took some time out to go see John in Louisville, a town I haven’t been to for a while. We met at a coffee shop,
Heine’s ' I think? where I had an hour or so to test their Cappuccinos. It’s an art community, walk to the little shops restaurants and bars. We walked to the bar then to the restaurant, a nice local place, good food, atmosphere and company. Being a work day John went on and I went Krusin
about town. First stop the scooter bar, where I could get the low down on “what’sup’s?” I was directed to the river where the road winds through the trees to another meeting place where cycles gather. From there back to downtown and
Stevie Rays blues bar, with a long history of good tunes and fine sippin whiskey.
From there I was invited to another place on Main St. where you could park your bike next to a table on the sidewalk, good folks food, and Jazz. A fine time was had by all!!
The following day I packed up and headed out for
Old City in Knoxville to meet some folks and listen the a BlueGrass Band. On the way I stopped in Lexington, met a jockey I knew from Vermont and had a Hot Brown Sandwich!!! From there I road about 60 miles east to Whitesburg Tn. to visit a friend from Florida. They dragged me to see the new Kevin Costners movie as soon as I walked in the door, it was pretty good, even for a guy who doesn’t like theaters, the noise, the chairs, or the price of popcorn.
While in town I looked at property, developed and not, nice area, but a bit rural for my liking. From there down to a buddies ranch in Webster Fl. about 80 north of home, kicked back and shot the bull til midnight, caught some z’s, and on the road again. On the way through Tampa I got stalled in a traffic jam at Malfunction Junction, a consequence of a 7 car accident, some Camaro Z28 parked his frontend in the backside of a Porsche Targa and slow responses of other drivers caused a few thousand vehicles to wait for the mess to clear.
I’ve got 170,000 miles on that Harley now and this was the first time water ever effected it. I’m living in Jungle down here, water being a key ingredient and since this is one of the largest TwoWheel communities on the continent I’d say the Harley, although not a boat, is as good a land locked water craft as they get, but what do I know?
The brain bucket is an option in this state, I use it when it rains/hails or in States that haven’t got the sense to allow choice. Since head injury is far more likely in a cage/car I think helmets should be worn by all. More people die from head injuries in bathrooms so full faced helmets should be worn in the shower. In Florida when the helmet law was in effect more people died from broken necks caused by the ping pong syndrome of bouncing helmets then would have died from head injury using the statistics supplied by the insurance industry, thus they reversed the law.
Since Florida is a state that issues drivers licenses if your legally blind, the safest thing for motorcycle enthusiast is for driver to be tested for vision, or be issued a mandatory seeing eye dog.
And so another adventure of ahOOligan at large comes to a close.
This episode was edited to fit the screen and made suitable for all audiences.
My thanks to Jen, Wil, and John for their hospitality.
