November 18, 2011

           I spent the day driving back from St. Augustine. There’s not much I make exciting about that. There was a terrific windstorm all the way with beach sand drifting on the road so bad I had to cut back inland at Ft. Pierce. There is a lot of wide open space on the north Florida coast, likely because it is north of the frost line. Nothing commercially valuable grows there that I know of.
           Here is a still from the helmet cam, tilted to compensate for my inexperience with the gadget. See the spectacular Florida sunrise this morning, looking south east. Not so clear is the huge size of those waves and the wind (strong breeze on the Beaufort scale). The “small” wave just reaching the beach at center is around 8 feet high.
           Continuing south, the vegetation changes from pines to palms and since it is beachfront, the lots still sell for a fortune for anyone that wants to live in the wilderness. It can be a forty mile drive to the gas station from some of those locations. The newest beach houses are built on pylons which won’t do a lick of good when the Azores slides into the Atlantic. The older houses, now very rare, are situated a good quarter-mile inland.
           Since I knew the route, the trip back was several hours faster, until I hit Hobe Sound. I was on US1, which became a traffic jam that took me five hours to go 105 miles. I bothered to count that I hit 57 yellow lights, which means I spent an hour idling at intersections. The wind was blasting from my left so I did not consider driving back to the coast road, A1A. US1 is probably the longest stretch of unsynchronized traffic lights left in America.
           But don’t be mislead, the trip was fantastic and I am sold on motorcycle travel again. I made the entire distance of 640 miles on $34 in gas, which is so cheap I didn’t even think about it. Add another 58 miles of driving around St. Augustine and the scooter now has 4,900 miles on it. We used a quart of oil on the trip but that is partly due to a slow leak that Chinese engines all seem to develop. Here is a typical view from the road bed.
           I stopped only for gas and two hot meals. I was bundled up Seattle fashion with an undershirt and hooded winter jacket. This is enough to keep one comfortable as well as warm, which reminds all that a motorcycle is year-round transportation in Florida. I learned other details as well, such as my cell phone works up there. I also got lots of text messages. Why aren’t text messages on the no-call list?
           Another town on the skids is Titusville. The economy was boosted by NASA and they overbuilt correspondingly. I’ve blasted this type of business before, with motel rates going up five and ten times whenever a launch was scheduled. What should have been a welcome boon quickly becomes necessary for survival, so I’d hardly cry if industries built on that model go under. Like St. Augustine, these people need to learn a new way to operate if they expect to survive. I saw maybe five mom and pop diners along the way, and their prices were outrageous.
           [Author’s note: example was a “deluxe” burger. Deluxe originally meant it comes with everything including fries. This one was $5.70 by itself, the fine print said add $1.00 for fries. Now they overcharge you for the coffee at $1.80 per cup. That’s already $8.50 and they’ll have their hand out for a tip. No, I’m not chancing $10.00 for a burger at some nothing roadside diner.]
           The good news is there are no semi-trailers using the state roads (US1 and A1A), and the route is patrolled well enough to control the speeders. It would have been nice to drive something that kept up all the time, but the sustainable speed on the scooter is 45 mph, so don’t push it or it might throw the belt again. But a bigger machine would have been nice in some of the open areas. Don’t quote me, but it seemed that since I was driving against rush hour, that might explain hitting every other light. They may be streamlining the flow for the majority.
           My conclusion? Although I doubt I’ll see St. Augustine again, the journey was more than worth it. Something to remember and a reminder that I have not yet seen many parts of the USA. I know Venezuela better than most states in the northeast. In the future, I’d tend to limit two-wheel travel to six hours per day driving time plus breaks. I’m sold on this type of adventure, so watch for developments. Six years was a long time to wait for a real holiday. Therefore, I count St. Augustine as a real holiday even if I didn’t leave the country.