Road King Blog

Every once in a while, I get the hankering for some Fish and Chips. The other day, Lisa and I were at a local restaurant , and I ordered some. Unusually for that establishment, the food was a bit of a disappointment. So I was left with an unsatisfied want, lingering in the back of my mind. Oh, the horror!

Well, it was time to handle that lingering food itch. Fish and Chips. Good fish and chips.

The best Fish and Chips I’ve had in a long while - perhaps ever - are served at the Rose and Crown Pub in the World Showcase at Epcot in Disneyworld.

So, a 100 mile round trip for some lunch? Sounds great to me. Have annual pass, will travel!

The trip itself is unremarkable - pretty much a straight haul down Route 417 to Disney. No drama involved, just point and drive and eat up the miles. That’s pretty much what the Road King thrives on, and it was a beautiful day for a ride. In no time, I was arriving at Epcot. Unbeknownst to me, I was arriving a short while after a charity half-marathon had completed. This caused some confusion, as the chap at the parking gate didn’t know that the motorcycle lot was closed for the event. So I faithfully followed the green painted line to a dead end. Fooey. No worries, though - it brought me out very close to the main gates at Epcot, and I was able to find a parking spot easily.

After a short walk in to Epcot and a fine lunch, I decided to visit a couple of the resorts for pictures. First stop, Wilderness Lodge. One of the newest resorts at Disney, Wilderness Lodge is modeled after a giant log cabin, the sort of lodging one would find in the national parks of days gone by.

Of all the resorts at Disney World, I have to say that Wilderness Lodge is my favorite. My friend Glen, on the other hand, is a big fan of the Contemporary. One of the older resorts at Disney World, it is still looking great today thanks to Disney’s devotion to upkeep and renovation. The Contemporary boasts some unique features. First, it is on the Monorail line, but it has the only indoor monorail station on the entire system. The monorail literally runs through the upper level of the lobby of the hotel.

The Contemporary is also home to one of my favorite places to enjoy a special occasion meal - the California Grill. The restaurant is built atop the hotel, with 360 degree views of the surrounding area. The view of the Magic Kingdom is spectacular, but the best part comes at night, when the daily fireworks show begins at the park. Inside the restaurant, they time the courses around the show, and the lights are dimmed. The soundtrack from the fireworks show is presented in the restaurant. If you have a table that does not have a good view of the show, there are two viewing platforms out over the roof of the hotel. It is a really amazing dining experience, and the only thing that trumps the show is the food. Absolutely fantastic.

I could have happily stayed at Disney and played the rest of the afternoon away, but I had two restless dogs at home who needed a trip to the dog park. So back up the road I went, for now…..

After a nice, brisk morning walk up Beach Street to Main and across the Halifax River Bridge, I arrived at the Ocean Center, where Harley Davidson had their expo set up.

After drooling on some of the new 2009 Harleys, and wandering through the displays of parts, add-ons, and motorclothes, I popped by the Harley Owners’ Group booth for my Daytona ‘09 pin.  I then walked back over the bridge to the vendor area at Riverfront Park.

There were a few custom builders showing off their creations.  Not all of them were willing to allow photos of their work, though.

Yes, this is a big-block V-8 powered motorcycle. 427 cubic inches, around 500 horsepower:

As I was finishing up my visit, things were starting to pick up on Beach Street:

I picked up a couple T-shirts, and headed for home.

On the way out, my sunglasses kept fogging up, so at a stoplight, I yanked them off and put them in my vest pocket.  Yeah, you can see where this is going.  On the way down 415, doing about 55, I see my sunglasses fly up out of the pocket and pass my helmet.  In the mirror I see them hit the road, slide, and get run over.

Sigh.

Gotta get some new sunglasses.  And a brain.  Might be best to get the brain first….

Matt

Today was, by a large margin, my longest ever day on the bike.  Over 150 miles in all.  When the day started, I was headed out to log some Interstate miles today, and ended up riding up to Daytona Beach.  There is a road circuit there called “The Loop”, which winds through some very pretty scenery.

Started out going up 417 to I-4 toward Daytona, which is roughly 50 miles away from the house.  It is a pretty nice ride for the Interstate, for the most part two lanes per side, speed limits from 65 to 70 miles per hour with well maintained surfaces and markings.  Today, as is often the case, the traffic was moving in clusters, with some space in between.  It was relatively easy to float in the space between clusters and enjoy a large space cushion.

To get to Daytona Beach from I-4, you can either merge onto I-95 N and then take the first exit (Route 92 / Speedway Blvd), or you can get off of I-4 about a mile before the I-95 interchange onto Route 92.  The latter is the better way to go, by far.  The 95 interchange is a bit of a mess.  Heading down into Daytona Beach on Route 92, you pass by Daytona International Speedway, which was hosting the Lucas Oil 200 and the Budweiser Shootout today, which made riding through the area a bit of a hassle, with lots of congestion and (my favorite), confused drivers randomly changing lanes and making turns from whatever lane they happen to be in.

Once finally clear of the Speedway traffic, 92 crosses over the Halifax River and ends at Route A1A (aka Atlantic Avenue).  Turning north on A1A, the initial impression is, well, less than impressive.  Towering condos line the eastern side of the street, obscuring the view of the Atlantic Ocean with garish splashed of yellow and pink stucco’d concrete and glass.  It was in this canyon of condos and tourist traps that I stopped for a bottle of water and a navigational consultation with my iPhone.  Pushing north along A1A, you soon exit Daytona Beach itself and enter Ormond Beach.

What a difference a few miles makes!

Once in Ormond Beach, all the development on the eastern side of the road abates and you are left with broad panoramas of the Atlantic Ocean, dotted with boardwalks over the protected dunes to the beach.

I could not resist popping off the road and down onto a sandy parking area to snap this shot.  It was a bit dicey getting the bike to stay upright while I dug the kickstand puck out of the saddlebag to prop it up and keep the bike from sinking into the sand.

Back on the bike, I eased out of the parking area, over the potentially treacherous lip between the roadway and the sand shoulder, and resumed my travels northward to seek the fabled Loop.

The Daytona Chamber of Commerce describes The Loop thusly:

t’s like no other ride. It’s freedom, sunshine, open road and graceful curves. It’s called the Loop and for motorcycle enthusiasts everywhere, it’s a riders dream. 

The Loop begins with a northerly trek at the foot of the Granada Bridge on John Anderson Drive in Ormond Beach. Going North, riders are greeted by a cathedral of trees up to the Highbridge Road where they hang a left (to go west) and go over the bridge and the Intracoastal Waterway (the Halifax River). There are several places to stop along the way and just enjoy the Florida countryside. After more winding turns, you’ll come upon Walter Boardman road where you will make another turn that takes you further west to Old Dixie Highway. When you reach Old Dixie Highway, take another left (to go south) toward Ormond Beach.

If you haven’t ever taken the Loop, we recommend it highly. This leisurely ride will give you a feel for Florida’s natural beauty. Check out Ormond Park and the Fairchild Oak tree - one of Florida’s oldest living Oaks. Bring your camera, maybe a boxed lunch, and enjoy. The Loop is approximately 22 miles long and a must for riders who enjoy an open road and Florida’s natural beauty.

Intrigued by the description above, and encouraged by the vastly improved scenery on A1A once outside the environs of Daytona Beach proper, I continued forth in search of Highbridge Way.

Highbridge way leads West, away from the ocean and crosses the much smaller HAlifax River north of the Tomoka Basin.  The bridge itself is unimposing, save for the fact that it is a drawbridge - and that means steel grate decking.  Riding across steel grate decking feels very odd, as the bike squirms and wriggles in a mild but very noticeable way.  It feels squirrelly, but the key is to just relax and let the bike do it’s job.

Highbridge road quickly enters a shaded canopy of trees, and becomes quite twisty.  The views are amazing, but unfortunately I was not able to stop and get any pictures.  The Google Maps pictures of the road are pretty good, and give a decent feel of the area.  Highbridge Road ends at Walter Bordman Road, which takes to to the Old Dixie Highway, and a nice ride through the Tomoka State Park on the way back South to Beach Street and Route 92 where it all began.

An awesome day for a ride, and an awesome ride it was.  I also passed the 1,000 mile mark on the bike, but that’s fodder for another post.  Until then, I’ll leave it with a map of the ride from today.

Map

Fort Christmas

Headed out for a ride this morning, with no particular place to go or time to be there - just me, the machine, and the road.  I had decided earlier to head in the general direction of East, along Route 419 out of Oveido through Chuluota and beyond.

The town of Oviedo is an interesting place.  The downtown area, such as it is, has a healthy population of free-roaming chickens.  Oveido was first settled in the late 1800’s, and like most communities of the time the primary avocations were farming and raising livestock.  Today, there are approximately 30 chickens that call Oviedo home, and the town has adopted them as mascots of a sort.

Leaving Oveido and passing through the town of Chuluota, you enter an area dominated by farming and ranching.  Most people don’t associate Florida with cattle, but there are over a million head of cattle (mostly beef cattle) in Florida.  As you motor sedately along Route 419, you’ll see one rancher’s large fence banners proclaiming “Beef - it’s what’s for dinner!”.  The cows seem rather unfazed by the traffic flowing by, as the calmly go about doing whatever it is cows do between being born and being dinner.  This is truly the Road King’s element, purring along at 2200 RPM in 4th gear, in the “sweet spot” where the engine vibration is at it’s smoothest. 

Turning off of Route 419 onto Lake Mills Road, you pass along quit, tree-lined roads bisecting large fields of cows and horses.  From here, North Fort Christmas Road takes off to the Southeast, leading you toward the town of Christmas.  Along the way, you encounter Fort Christmas Park.

Fort Christmas was one of many outposts build in the early to middle 1830s during the Second Seminole War.  Today, a replica of the fort stands as a historic park and museum, along with examples of period dwellings.

Leaving Fort Christmas, a short trip down Fort Christmas Road leads to State Route 50.  Turning East on Route 50, I headed into Titusville, along the banks of the Indian River.  From Route 1 in Titusville, you can look across the Indian River and see one of the largest buildings (in terms of enclosed volume) ever built - the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral.

The VAB

 Built as part of the Apollo project in the early 1960s, the VAB is currently used to assemble the Space Shuttle Orbiter / Fuel Tank / SRB “stack” for Shuttle missions.

The VAB is 525 feet tall, 716 feet  long and 518 feet  wide. It covers 8 acres, enclosing 129,428,000 cubic feet.  The space is so large that it has it’s own weather - NASA employees say that on very humid days, “rain clouds” have been known to form near the ceiling.

The doors in the VAB walls are the largest doors in the world, standing a staggering 456 feet high, and taking almost 45 minutes to open or close.

From Titusville, I headed back in Route 50 towards home.  Stopped and picked up some lunch for the sweet, wonderful, tolerant wifester (who puts up with me taking off on the bike).  The total ride was a little over 75 miles, which is by far my longest effort to date.  A great day, and a great ride.

Went out for a long ride today, and set out on the superslab for the first time. Short trip on 417 today, which went fine.

Rode up to the waterfront in Sanford, then followed US 17/92 up into Volusia county for a bit before returning back home via 17/92, 419, 434 and Tuskawilla.

Getting close to 500 miles in the saddle, and having fun.