TWD - 2005

TWD -2005, is the title of the trip to Houston for the run to bike week in Daytona.  Lee J.Curcio and I are taking this first road trip together.  It all started at Ingersoll-Rand Pumps and Compressors on Team Valley Gateshead in 1973.  Lee was the big American boss from New York City and I was the wide boy in the applications office.  Lee and I struck it off straight away; in fact I was Crocker and he played Kojak, I wish I had a pound for every time Lee would call out in a thick New York accent "Hey Crocker, get in here".  But you won't appreciate that unless you are a certain age!

Lee took to biking a little later in life than most and this is to be his first major biking road trip.  Ant and I called in to see lee during the run to Milwaukee in 2003 for laundry, bike service and general R&R whilst on a 9,500 mile bike trip (see Milwaukee Missive) and the seed was sown for me to return and have a road trip together.  Whilst 67 and only biking a few years, Lee has all the enthusiasm you can imagine for this great adventure in the form of Trip With Dave-2005 or TWD-2005.

So TWD-2005 is nearly upon us, I fly out to George Bush International on Monday 7th March 2005; let the good times roll!

This is the approximate route, I made it in Micro Soft Streets & Trips but the actual route in Garmin Map Source follows our selected US Highway route rather than a blast East and West on Interstate 10.

Only a few days to go and I have not been down my check list once!  Better get active.

Sunday 6th March.

Well I am packed and have had to reduce my packing list and remove the tools as I am sure I would have had to pay excess baggage, having a rental bike I hope not to have any need for tools - I kept my Swiss Army SOS kit which should cover most eventualities.  I have also added a matrix (at great personal risk if 'er indoors sees it!), check out Facts & Figures.

Monday 7th March.

Very un-eventful flight and of course my mate Buzz came through with the special seats that made the 9 hour flight bearable.  Just as we arrived at Houston there was a thunderstorm which for a while threatened to have us diverted to Dallas, which would have caused major problems, as it was the increased 'Homeland Security' had me delayed for what appeared to be an eternity!  But all through, bags collected and Lee there with a warm greeting; so off to Republic to collect the Glide - a glitch getting the keys but all soon sorted and at $75 per day a real bargain.

Tuesday 8th March.

An 01:30 telephone call from George Young with a business style question!  He did not know I was in Houston so I bet he gets a shock when he gets his mobile phone bill.  490 Miles - takes some doing on US Highways rather than Interstates but after leaving at 06:00 we finally arrived in Biloxi at 19:15!  Here we are with Manuel (affectionately known as Feo):

This is my stead for the duration, an '04 Glide with a few miles on her, the plus side to this is she has some throaty sounding Screaming Eagle touring pipes parked outside our Waffle House Breakfast stop where I got the 'Grits' that repeated for the rest of the ride!

Whilst negotiating Baton Rouge, LA (Louisiana) the traffic management got us onto the undesired Interstates, so we stopped on an exit ramp hard shoulder to check a paper map (yes you still need them even with a Garmin) and guess what a traffic cop on a Road King pulled up to check us out, he nearly decided to ride US 190 with us to Daytona; but duty called.

Our overnight stop was in Biloxii, MS (Mississippi) which has gambling.  Lee was convinced that I, as a non-gambler, would experience beginners luck and he was right!  I won $160 on two hands of three card brag and one go on the slots - Lee won $500, his best hand was three fives which alone paid out $375.  So our luck was in, we had a long 13 hour day in the saddle because we elected to take the scenic route mainly on US190; ending with a hairy 60 miles on fast, dark Interstate10.  There is no twilight, the Garmin told me at 6:05 that it was sunset and by 6:15 it was black.  The Garmin took us directly to our hotel with no hassel and after a thirteen hour day that is exactly what was required.

Wednesday 9th March

From our experience on Tuesday we decided with 430 to do that the use of the Interstate was the only way we could arrive in daylight at Lake City, FL.  So I10 all day for high speed mile crunching results and into the hotel just after 3pm but it was actually 4pm because we had ridden through a time zone, riding in America is measured in time zones crossed not miles ridden.

The day was filled for me with thoughts of my friend John Emery who's funeral I was missing whilst cruising the Southern States of USA, if only I could have been beamed back to the funeral ride to show my respects for a brilliant bloke, RIP John Emery.

I was trying today to master the USA CB Channel but due to a mixture of interference and Southern Good Ol' Boy drawl I could not understand a word they were on about.  As we neared our final destination we decided to do the last 60 miles on US90 by coming off the I10 at Maddison and lucky we did because it was not long before we found a town called Lee!  We had to take a picture of Lee (my riding buddy) in his namesake town of Lee:

Lee, the person, is not little but is Proud - as the sign says.  Now I will check if the Best Western, Lake City, FL, wireless internet connection can handle this down load - you are reading this so it must have!

Thursday 10th March

We left Lake City at 06:00 and it was bloody freezing!  But the forecast was good.  Lee did not have the right gear and suffered a frozen finger so I loaned him my H-D winter gloves and he was fine.  As we only had to do about 100 miles we could dilly and dally and for sure smell the roses. 

Our first treat of the day was to find Grannies Kitchen in Starke, FL.  This was our first 'Mom & Pop' Diner and it lived up to expectations, the trick is to pick an eating establishment that has Red Neck trucks parked outside, not pick a franchise site.  The company was convivial and the clientele interesting.  There was a historical tractor fair in town and I got to ride on one.  I would tell you what it was but the answer I received was heavily disguised by a Southern Drawl and a gob full of chewing tobacco!  I did decipher that it was built in 1941.

We will have to give Lee a crash course in digital imagery as this shot took a lot of tooing and froing.

I bought some throat mixture and throat sweets because I had a tickly cough - which I am sure was starting to annoy my riding buddy Lee.

Ocala Harley Davidson is brilliant but the two items I really wanted were out of stock, Johan's blue neon's and my Chrome front wheel; but the stop did ensure that Lee's defunct passing lamps and heated grips were now back working after the exceptional work of the service department.  I did get a new pair of Harley Jeans at $26 (about £15) and a cruise palm gizmo to fit to Lee's throttle for the high speed Interstate return run.  Ocala H-D even provided a free lunch but I did give the hot dog cooker a ride around the car park on my Harley.  This cop bike was in for Service - they do like the Road King for this job.

Into Comfort Suites, The Village, FL (near Lady Lake Central Florida) at about 2pm, so I went to Leesburg H-D, about 12 miles South of the hotel, but once again struck out for the two parts I am after.  Whilst I was H-D Dealer checking out Lee did the laundry and shopping!  Then stayed by the hotel pool, on my return I joined him.

So there we are, inside a brilliant hotel, with high speed internet connection, and all the facilities ready to hit Bike Week tomorrow.  That's all folks!

We ate in Chilli's and I had a rack of ribs to die for, also I ordered a Jack & Coke, which not only was the strongest I'd ever had but the waitress brought two - happy hour!

Friday 11th March

Well this was the focus of the trip to attend Daytona Bike Week.  We had a real cool ride from the Hotel to Daytona, using SR40, SR19 and SR42.  SR means State Route and these are like our A & B roads in UK.  At one point I saw a sign warning of bears for next 22 miles and I thought I was going to have bear problems on my 2006 Alaska trip!  Apparently there are brown bear and cougar running wild in  this part of Florida.  We stopped for morning OJ!

Daytona is wall to wall bikes and I was surprised at how many non-Harley's there were but of course this weekend is all about the Daytona 200 an event for sports bikes.  Lee and I wondered the streets of Daytona drinking up the atmosphere.  Lunch was a Phillidelphia Steak Cheese Melt, and yes it was as scrumptious as the name suggests.

I got my BJ Air Horns replaced due to a minor problem and their two year guarantee cut in and I was given a brand new replacement.  We then strolled Main Street grabbing a beer, after having to reverse my HOG vest as no colours were allowed!  All the way there were strange cool bikes, look at this VRod, at first glance I thought it was a Road Glide.

Then we studied all that Harley Davidson had on offer at the convention centre and we partook of the HOG Hospitality, Lee checked out the Road King which I think suited him; what do you think?

Lee decided to head back to the Hotel as I was going to the Iron Butt Party, which would mean a late night ride back to the hotel which Lee did not want to do.  I arrived and checked into the IBA Daytona Party and started to check out all the high mileage machinery.  They were definitely equipped for the long haul, extra fuel cells, two GPS systems, radar detectors, PIAA lights.

For me the highlight of the evening was the award to a guy who rode 108,069 miles in one year, and get this, he is 74 years old.  Now when I do 18,000 miles in a year I think I am a high mileage rider but over 100K they must never be off the bike!  Some of the awards were unbelievable, 30 consecutive days of 1000 miles, two Coast to Coasts in 100 hours; for a change I was the lowest mileage rider in a group and to think we wanted our LEJ'OG (Lands End to John O;Groats) run to be IBA accredited - the cheek of our request.

Saturday 12th March

Today was the day of the Rodeo; YeHa!

Arcadia Florida has the Grandaddy of 'em all! (rodeos), this is the 77th running and was in doubt because of the four hurricanes that blew through Arcadia in 2004.  In fact it was such a testament to the spirit of the community that Governor Jeb Bush came to open up the event, and here he is welcoming us to Arcadia:

The Rodeo was brilliant, very entertaining and exciting good hometown family fun.  The days riding was also very good and we arrived in Siesta Key at about 5pm ready for an end of day beer.  Ivonne (Lee's wife) and Manuel (Lee's Step Son) were in town too; they had flown down from Houston to meet us and take Lee's Mum out shopping, to an evening meal and on Sunday to a baseball game.

Sunday 13th March.

Another hot day in Florida without a cloud in the sky.  We are just getting ready to go to the ball game, report to come later.  It was Cincinnati Reds v's Cleveland Indians and the Indians won 10 - 1.  Very exciting match played in blazing heat, even the locals were looking for shade.

Mrs Curcio had her 'Miss Daisy' hat on and she also found it very warm.  After the game we had a fantastic fish meal on the inland water way between the mainland and Siesta Key at Phillipe's - I had Red Snapper.

Monday 14th March.

We just rode 420 miles!  All over Florida we had been spotting 'Badcock' furniture stores, can you believe it such an unusual surname as mine and the family had a State wide chain of shops, here is me beside one of the family vehicles.

So because it was a slow day here is a picture from Daytona that did not make the cut earlier in the week:

Tuesday 14th March.

We decided funds were so depleted we would make a sea change in the schedule and run 500 miles to Kinder, Louisiana.  The forecast was poor so Lee got decked out in his Frog Togs and poly bag shoe over boots, although he did not look cool he sure did stay dry:

The reason I say about our funds is because in Kinder it is home to Lee's casino "Coushatta" and we knew we would win and boy did we!  $1,500 between us!  The 500 mile run was worth it, 12 hour day in the saddle an the last four were in torrential rain.  Lee lost a peg from his gear shifter and the Garmin once more came up trumps with information of the nearest dealer I had set in as a way point.  Cajun HD was a brand new purpose built store so a replacement (non standard upgrade) peg was obtained and fitted; this time using thread lock.

On the run we came across a thirty mile long wonder of modern engineering as the Swamp Freeway.  It is a two lane highway built on concrete stilts above the Mississippi delta, how on Earth it was ever engineered is a testament to mans ingenuity.  The riding conditions were horrendous to a well seasoned wet weather rider like me but to Lee who makes a point of never riding in the wet it was a real challenge.

Arriving in Kinder after twelve long hours, four of which were soaking wet and we set about fleecing the casino.  The dealer was a stereotypical Southern Girl.  Black as the Ace of Spades and a Southern Drawl as thick as syrup.  She had a solid block of gold as one of her front teeth, with a $ sign moulded into the front of it!  She took to me and guided me gently through the gambling etiquette and soon I was a few hundred dollars to the good.  This gambling is so easy; how do the casinos prosper?  I have gambled in three and won in three, too many customers like me partaking of the free hospitality and leaving with more money that I arrived with and they would soon feel the cold economic realities but I guess some folks loose?

So that's almost it.  One more day in the saddle and just time for one more gratuitous sex picture; later

Dave

Wednesday 16th March.

On this trip it was not supposed to be wet and cold; but it was.  We had a 200 mile run for home and the plan was to do it all on back roads.  A lazy rise and stroll across the parking lot to Waffle House where I had crawfish omlete.  As we headed out of Kinder a State Trooper had an intersection blocked with his cruiser and all the lights flashing, Lee tried to squeeze past but the Trooper had different ideas.  Finally we realised he was escorting an oversize load and wanted to run ahead of us, which was fine as we were content to poodle along the country roads.

You can see the long straight road and the overcast outlook with Lee looking sooooo cool in those Frog Togs; that at $60 kept him warm and dry for the last two days - makes my FXRG Suit at $455 not look not such a bargin as I thought.

So all too soon we were back in Sugarland, 200 miles and only about 6 of them on I10 (this avoiding a 50 mile detour around Beaumont), bike returned to Republic, and vittles purchased for the end of trip BBQ.

Lee and Ivonne were tremendous hosts and Manuel a great help to ensure the BBQ Party went with a swing.  I enjoyed being the centre of attention as the crazy English Biker who had taken Lee on his first major road trip.  Lee had many firsts on the trip, riding in the dark, riding in the wet, riding with the 18 wheelers on Interstates and planning routes to avoid Interstates so we could be one with old hometown USofA.

Eighteen months of planning and a trip to 'bullshit' about for years; the stories will grow with every telling, the rain will become wetter, the dark darker, the miles longer, each time we are asked to recall our adventure - but it will be here on this website for you all to refer to or hopefully be inspired by to plan your own Road Trip.

Trip with Dave - 2005 has been an unmitigated success; so much so that my Coast to Coast in 50 hours has been shelved for Tex Mex 2006.  I had plans for a six week adventure in 2006 but now Lee and I are planning to use a couple of those weeks for TexMex06 (this is only a working title) and we only have 15 months to plan!  This will be on my own bike so anyone know how to get a Harley to Houston?

Please let me know what you think of the report of Trip with Dave 2005; your feedback will help me decide if I should continue to write about my biking exploits.

Later

Dave

 Facts & Figures