Author: myironhorsejourney

 

I finished my herbal tea this week, so I met with Vicky Lyn again to see what I needed this time.  She could tell right off that I hadn’t been eating the greatest – she even mentioned that I had had some fried foods (ooops, too many sweet potato french fries).  I’m also still retaining fluids, so I’m sure she will add something that will help with that.  I had mentioned that I wake a lot at night,  so she is make something up for me that will help with that.  I will make up a tea right before bedtime, which will help me sleep.  Most of that is from being in a different hotel and bed every night, I’m sure.

I haven’t done much riding this week, it was windy and chilly at the beginning of the week.  Last night we had a frost too!  I’m heading to the west coast for the weekend to catch up with some friends who are down from Maine on vacation.

 

Things are starting to bloom and turn green!

Love and Light to you all!

 

The picture above is called the burning bike, the last Friday of the event they burn it.

Wow, What a Week!

This is the first time I’ve attended a bike week for the whole event.  I’ve gone to Laconia Bike week for the day as it’s only a couple of hours away from where I live in Maine.  About two years ago I attended Daytona for a couple of days, and was lucky enough to catch up with a friend and ride on the back of his bike and see the area and events.  This week I was able to see and participate in the whole thing, a lot different when riding it.  When I got into town on Friday there were so many bikes, the energy was fantastic.  Everywhere you looked there was a line of bike!  We stopped on Route 1 where there were tents and vendors set up.  After walking around I talked to a vendor doing sewing and asked if they could fix the zipper in my chaps.  She said yes, so I went to my bike and got them.  She said it would be a day or so before they would be done, I was fine with that.  I know I will need them heading back to Maine later, I will be heading towards cold 😢.  About an hour later I got a text saying my chaps were done – wow that was fast.  They even texted me when they were closing so I didn’t stop by when they were closed.  Chaps & Bags LLC has fantastic service, my chaps came out great.  Highly recommend them, there is a photo included with all there contact information on it.  There were events set up all over Daytona area, we hit swap meets, car show, checked out vendors in all the different areas.  We went to Iron Horse Saloon, River Grille on the tomoka, Black Sheep bar, Hanksters Hot Rods and so much more!  Met up with others along the way, and rode over 1,200 miles during the week. That’s with one day off as it was raining in the morning and got a little windy in the afternoon.

Just seeing all the different bikes, and the paint jobs so many of them have is totally amazing.  I’ve tried to capture just some of them in the pictures above.

Cars, Cars and More Cars!

We stopped at Hanksters and checked out all the old cars.  There were a few that I wouldn’t mind having and riding around in.  Most were for sale too!  We also stopped at a local Sonic when they had a small car show.  I know some of my friends will enjoy seeing these cars.

 

Rolling with Ronda

Ronda Brown is the new ambassador for Law Tigers.  I contacted her a while back knowing that she was going to be attending Daytona Bike Week, hoping we could meet up.  I got a text from her one day saying she missed me by one day at the Ocala Harley dealership.  We made plans to meet at the dealership in Daytona, the traffic was backed up for quite a ways.  I looked over and saw her license plate Lucee, so I pulled up beside her and introduced myself.  We both chuckled and chatted the rest of the way.  We later left that area and went out for a late lunch, early supper.  It was great talking to someone doing the same thing, out on the open roads traveling across the U.S. alone on our motorcycles.  Check out her Facebook page and follow her journey on Rolling with Ronda.

 

Women Riders World Record Meetup

On Saturday, March 17 we met at Skips Western Outfitters on International Speedway Blvd. to attempt the World Record for the most female motorcyclists.  We had 516 ladies and the record was 1,133.  We didn’t quite make it, but we had fun and I got to meet a lot of great women!  Here are some pictures of the event and bikes!  Maybe next year will be the year, how great would that be!

 

ScootinAmerica

I have been following Adam Sandoval with ScootinAmerica for about a year now.  When I decided to take this trip I was hoping that I would run into Adam somewhere along the way.  When I frirst got into Florida every dealership that I stopped at I had missed him by a day.  The day after I did the Keys I found out that Adam and Ashley were out there the same time.  Well today I finally caught up with him at the Daytona International Speedway.  I had so many things I wanted to ask him, but I ended up not….I think because there were so many people there to see him.  It was still great to finally meet him.

Well, that sums up bike week for me, now I need to catch up on some sleep!

Live and Light to you all!

When I was out riding around the other day I saw signs for Swamp Fest.  I had another day with nothing planned, so I decided to check it out.  When I looked on-line I found that 2018 is the 25th event for this being held, and has grown from a small community fundraising festival to an annual event that draws thousands from all over.  They bused people to the fest from different parking locations.  Having a bike I was lucky because they had bike parking almost at the front gate.  After paying you cross a bridge to get over to all the vendors and events.  As I was crossing one of the volunteers told me that there were about 10 manatees straight over at the beach.  There was a small group of people watching, and when I looked I could see three of them.  Most had left as the tide was going out.  It was pretty cool, as I have never seen a manatee before.  You could see a couple of them off in the distance playing and rolling in the water.  Wish they were closer so I could have gotten some more pictures.

 

After watching the manatees for a bit, I headed down to where all the vendors were.  Over in the middle they had a stage with live music.  I didn’t get the name of the first group, but the second band was Free Loaders.  I walked around and checked all the vendors out, then walked down to the area where all the food trucks were.  With all the different aromas it was hard to decide what to eat.  After I went back to the stage area and listened to the music for a while.  Before leaving I went back over to where the manatees were hoping they had come back in.  No yet, but I could see them from a distance.  While checking that area out I noticed these little crabs just coming out of the mud.  You will notice in the pictures that they have one large claw and one small one, these are fiddler crabs.  The male has one large claw and one small claw, whereas the female has both the same size claws.

I wandered around for a while, then crossed the bridge back to the entrance.  There was a structure that you could climb and get a birds eye view.  After leaving the fest I took a left out of the parking lot which took me south along the immediate coastline to Hudson.  I passed quite a few bikers, so this must be a popular riding spot.  I can understand why, it was a beautiful ride.

Daytona bike week is starting so not sure when I will have time to post, but I will fill you all in at some point.

Love and Light to you all!

I headed out with no destination in mind, as I got going I decided to head up to the Harley dealership in Homosassa Florida to see what was happening.  On my way to the dealership I had a bike come up beside me and point to the back of his bike.  He was from Maine.  I was hoping he was going to the dealership a couple miles up, but he didn’t.  Would have been fun seeing where in Maine he was from.  After the dealership I took off and headed towards Floral City.  I took Oak Park Boulevard and Stage Coach Trail, nice ride through the countryside of Florida.  When I got to Floral City I saw a sign saying historical district, so I turned and followed that.  That area was a nice area of canopy trees – very pretty and serene!  I then hooked onto Route 48.  There was all kinds of construction going on.  I got back to my hotel about 3:30, and hung out for a few hours.  About 5 I headed to Pine Island to watch the sunset.  Great little beach, there was a snack shack, play ground for kids, along with beach and picnic areas.  I could see from the kids that were in the water that it was shallow for a ways, so great for young kids.  There was a ton of birds on the beach – I don’t think any of the kids thought about all the bird poop they were swimming in….

Love and Light to you all!

 

What better place to go and watch the sunset, then at Sunset beach.  I stopped and picked up a salad for supper and had a little picnic at the beach.  It’s a hot spot for everyone to go to, as the evening went on the beach got busy.  I sat on the bench that you see in some of the pictures.  When I got up to leave, I was surprised to see all the people behind me that watched the sunset.  Everyone gathered at the waters edge to watch this beautiful sunset.

Check out the green orb that shows up in some of these pictures.  You can see it on my neck.  I even had one on the end of my nose (I didn’t include that one).  It didn’t matter if I was using my phone or my camera it showed up in a bunch of my pictures.  Goes to show that I always have someone around me!  Was a great place to have a picnic and watch the sunset.  Surprisingly parking was free!

Love and Light to you all!

 

Worked my way down to the western side of Florida again, this time to Tarpon Springs.  I had been to this area a few years back with friends.  Neat little tourist coastal town.  It was fun going in and out of all the shops, and spending the afternoon walking around.  I’m noticing that it’s getting busier compared to when I first arrived in Florida, you can tell this is tourist season.  This area has all kinds of shops, restaurants, boat rides/excursions with plenty of places to park and plenty of places to sit and people watch along the way.  It’s built up a lot since I was here two years ago, but still a fun place to visit.

Love and Light to you all!

 

After checking out Disney Springs I headed up to Leesburg for the night.  Then I stopped in Mt. Dora, as I heard it was a cute town to visit.  It was a cute little town with shopping and some old historical buildings.  I tried to get some shots of the town, they don’t do justice.

 

I left Mt. Dora and headed up Route 19 towards Jacksonville. I thought Florida was flat?   I found some rolling hills on Route 19 & 17.  Great ride with farm land, orange groves, pine tree farms, and just plan woods.  There was some traffic, but nothing major.  Was a nice enjoyable ride.

Can’t believe I need an oil change already, I’ve put 3,000 miles in about three weeks.  All of it has been cruising all over Florida.  I’ll get service done and take a few days to relax some.

Love and Light to you all!

 

After spending time with friends I headed over to Disney Springs.  The last time I had been here was back in 2,000 with my kids, and it was called Downtown Disney.  Boy has it changed.  Back in 2,000 there were a few shops, lego land and virtual reality building.  Now they have a parking garage, which was free parking, lots and lots of store, lots and lots of restaurants, streams, bridges and I’m sure much much more.

 

I wanted to see the legos, some was the same like the sea creature.  Inside you could buy all kinds of LEGO sets, and they had areas where the kids could build while there.  Just a neat place!  I’m always amazed at the things they build with them.

I spent about an hour and a half walking around sightseeing!  Time to go for a ride and then find a hotel for the night.

Love and Light to you all!

 

Today while out riding I passed a sign for helicopter rides.  I turned around and went and checked it out.   I couldn’t go until others showed up, they like a full load each time.  Two others showed up shortly after I got there, so we would have enough for a ride and a full helicopter.  We went up for about 10-15 minutes.  The pilot took us over by Disney.  It was a nice sunny day, great views, could see for miles.  In a couple of the pictures you can see Epcot’s dome.  When we first took off the pilot went forward, then back and did a couple sharp turns, that made me a little nervous at first as I can get motion sickness at times.  – it was a nice smooth ride after that, you could see all over.  Disney looks so different from the sky!  So glad I stopped and did this!  🚁

I can check this off my bucket list!  Oh wait, this whole trip is a bucket list…

Love and Light to you all!

New Year’s Eve one of the couples I went out with had gone to iFly that afternoon, and told me all about it.  They talked about how fun it was, and got me excited to try it.  They have facilities all over the place.  I was going to go when I was in Texas, but the weather didn’t corporate.  I saw that the had one in Tampa, and was going through the area.  Now was my chance to do it.

I think I like this way better than jumping out of a perfectly good plane.  One thing, I didn’t have to worry about landing (especially with knee issues).  It doesn’t matter what the weather is either – you can fly anytime.  There were seven or eight of us, and we each had three times in the air tunnel.  We also were taken way up in the tunnel by the instructor. Very fun, I would do it again!

Love and Light to you all!

I’m WaWaing…. I found a drumming circle that is held every Sunday from 3pm to sunset on Treasure Island.  Was so excited.  After driving around for half an hour to find a parking spot, I finally parked in a Walgreens lot.  A sign was posted that violators would be towed if parked longer than half an hour.  I crossed the street and went down to the beach.  The information I found said that once you got to the beach to follow the drumming.  I couldn’t hear anything.  I went down a little ways (not easy walking in boots).  I still didn’t find anything, so I headed back before I got towed!  I guess it just wasn’t supposed to happen – bummer!  The positive is it was a nice afternoon out on the bike – never seem to get tired of that.  😍

Love and Light to you all!

While in Naples I went to the botanical gardens.  I wasn’t sure how they would be as Naples had the direct hit from the hurricane last September.  Where I’m not from the area, I didn’t think they were that bad, you could see where some trees have been trimmed, and some were really wind blown.  I got talking to one of the workers and they said that they lost 1/3 of their trees and plants.  They have replanted some, but not all of them.  Now they are having to move and replant as some plants were under trees with shade and are now in full sunlight.  A whole cycle of issues.

 

 

The gardens were beautiful, they also had a lot of water features.  It was a very relaxing afternoon walking around the gardens.  I got to get a walk in along with seeing the different plants for this area.  Win win to me!

Check these two pictures out, the flower has a bee inside eating, and the lizard is shedding his skin.

 

 

I hope these pictures help brighten your day, spring is on its way!

Now I’m going to catch up with a co-worker who retired a few years back and lives in Naples.  Can’t wait 😍

Love and Light to you all!

 

Today I took Route 41 from Florida City over to Naples, Florida.  I thought this was the road that they called alligator alley, but that Route 75.  I followed water all the way, and multiple time I could see alligators sunning themselves along the shoreline.  As I was driving I kept see birds with their wings out, and I was trying to figure out what they were doing, were they protection a nest, or babies?  I stopped at a rest area, they had information boards about the wildlife.  The birds are Anhingas, they dive and swim underwater to spear their prey.  After they eat, they spread their wings to dry their feathers and use the sun to warm their bodies.

While riding, I saw a road sign that read Panthers…. made me a little nervous!  Route 41 is mainly wooded and swamps.  This was a nice ride, not much traffic!  If you are interested in doing airboat rides, both ends of 41 have multiple businesses that offer this.    Someday I will get my nerves up to do one, as I would love to ride in an airboat.  Just not to sure about the areas they take you, too confined!

Love and Light to you all!