I made it all the way to the rest stop at mile 104, the first on the freeway. If they dare put any further south, certain types of people would start living there. The approaches would be lined with fruit stands, but since that is also uncomfortable, I won’t say anything. The biggest expense on travel days is the gasoline and it took 4/5ths of a tank to get there, I’ll maybe get more specific later.Then this dude on a custom bike pulls past me. We sort of paraded along until the next rest stop, where this fancy picture was taken. He refers to the batbike as “old school”. After this point, the number of semi-trailers thinned out and I made good time, averaging 68 mph. Remember the maxim that every mile per hour over 55 takes 5% enjoyment off the ride. By the Ormand beach intersection, I was tired and cut over to the coast road A1A. I got to experience their mini-rush hour.
Ormand is where the real vacation begins. The prelude was to get out of South Florida as quickly as possible, which to me means freeway. I’m aware that my tales of travel are statistic-heavy and there is a reason for it. Car travel is something you can Google for mileage and such, but sidecar travel is unique. You also know how I feel about travel books that don’t about what things cost. Such authors ain’t right in the head.
This, my third trip along the north Florida coast, gets better with familiarity. The previous trip was by scooter, a thirteen-hour drive in November 2011. The view is great from the higher seating, once again I could see over the coastal vegetation and see the ocean without renting a condo with a balcony. The Ormand Beach photo shows the Atlantic breakers looking northeast from around five miles north of town.
St. Augustine. I got my usual room at the Scottish Inn who lower the price when you pay cash. That is the right idea, keep up the good work. The motel is not new, but an economical stay that keeps me coming back. From there I turned the town upside down to find Bob White. Remember Bob? Inherited some money on the condition he move to St. Augustine? Everybody promised to visit, but I think I’m the first and it took me ten years. Now that I know my way around town, I checked all the likely spots. Nobody has even heard of him. Hmmm.I know the route here, too. That helps, since I can avoid the bad spots, such as gas stations that have extremely difficult return routes to the freeway. I made it here in 5-1/2 hours. I didn’t stop to eat, same as last year, my appetite behaves itself on holidays. Time permitting, I’ll give more data later. Right now, I’m in the Scottish watching a Bond movie. Despite sunblock 85 coatings and a heavily overcast sky, my forearms were stinging from the approaching Florida summer.
St. Augustine is a college town, but there is still nothing to do. During my hunt for Bob White, I walked around the touristy area of the old city. Correspondingly, that part of town has become largely impersonalized. With too few exceptions the staff can only answer simple questions that involve you spending more money and tipping them in the process. Like, not one person could or would tell me if there are any clubs around that play country music.
The tourist area consists of tiny alleyways designed by the Spanish who knows when. It is worth a look, say an hour’s time to walk the whole place. Lots of tiny shops with not so tiny prices. Here is a typical walkway into the old town, which is many places has become surrounded by hotels and such. It is easy to get there, but I like to use these paths. Adds character.Statistics, let’s have a look. Total daily expenditure was $139.94, distance covered 318 miles. That is a good average for motorcycle travel, I’ve found. Included in that price was the largest expense, gasoline at $49.68 which also accounted for three of my five stops. Food was $19.86 but some of that was drinks from the rest stop vending machines, which is pricey but better, I’ve found, that taking anything along. (You either bother with a thermos or it gets warm.)
My room was $44 inclusive, and I spend $17.00 looking for Bob, which I wrote off to entertainment. I drove past the Spanish fort, and my advice to budding private eyes if you need information about the town is make your first stop the legion at the western foot of the Lion’s Bridge. It won’t always be good information, but it exists in unlimited quantity.
My travel time was from 9:50 AM. Stops were Mile 104 rest area at 11:20. St. Lucie at 12:20 PM. Mile 225 at 1:10 PM. Mims rest area 2:00 PM. Mile 269 at 3:10 PM. This irregular-looking pattern is because I don’t consider gasoline stops as a real break from travel. I did stop momentarily in Ormand to take pictures. The sidecar gets more than its quota of attention.
Last, sorry to bring it up, but all pictures that are my original work are copyrighted, even if they do not bear a watermark. Ask me before using them for anything else. And damn you MicroSoft. Now that loathsome Outlook is following me around and installing itself on other computers when I check my e-mail. Damn you, MicroSoft. You don’t know what “End now” means but you sure know how to shit the bed.
