Florida

[Guest BluesLover]

Howdy - a buddy and I got fed up with the cold and decided to head off to Florida on Feb 22, and just got back this morning.

 

By the way, we WILL take the credit for bringing the warmer weather up north with us!

 

It was a great couple of weeks of riding, friendship, more riding, some drinking, some eating, and lots and lots of pictures. We were joined by our lovely wives for 3 days and they brought with them some great weather last Friday and Saturday. We sent them home on a plane on Sunday and then headed to Daytona Bike Week on the Monday. Got the HOG pin, went to the Iron Horse Salloon and to Destination Daytona.

 

At the HD exhibit at Daytona, I tried the Reach seat on the 09 frame, and it has just jumped to the top of my wish list - sure helps short sh$ts like me to flat foot the bike!

 

Managed to hook up with some other guys down there called "The Geezers" for lunch rides on both of the Tuesdays that we were down there. The rides start out at Lakeland HD and the young ladies bring out freshly baked cookies for the riders to enjoy before the rides - now THAT is service!!!

 

The entire "roll of film" can be found at

 

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b320/BluesLover55/2009%20Trips/Florida%20with%20Vaughn/

 

For those that aren't familiar with Vicki, her nickname is "Shutterbug", so there are quite a few pictures from where she and by buddy's wife Terri joined us.

 

The new bike handled very well - it now has over 6,400 kms on it since last Oct 31 and all but 100 or so kms of it have been done in Florida, so I'm thinking it's starting to talk to me in "american".

 

It was great to have Vicki try the bike before the riding season officially opens. She had not been on the back of a bike since we had the accident on the Venture in early October, so I was a bit tentative as to what her reaction was going to be. From some of the pictures of her smiling on the back of the Ultra, you can see that she enjoyed getting back on.

 

We managed to stop at several HD shops, and some are absolutely huge! We met members from HOG and other riding groups from lots of places far and near - riders from Germany and Denmark, France and England.

 

We experienced all kinds of weather down there - a couple of beautiful days in teh low 80s while the ladies were with us, and nights that just barely stayed above the freezing mark. Last Sunday we started with heavy rain, high winds, and dropping temps. We waited til the rains passed and then followed the storm all the way from St Pete's (Treasure Island) to Orlando to drop the girls off at the airport.

 

Cheers,

[mother]

looks liike you had a great time.

 

u lucky guy you.