Past Rides and Events
ZephyrhillÕs Flea Market
Bob Smith
A nice four day weekend to Florida sounded great for this time of the year; John & Mary were going to visit some friends in Lakeland and asked Clete and Bob to ride along. We left out on a Friday morning at 8 am. The cold night did not materialize so we had low 40Õs to dress for, instead. It didnÕt take too long to warm up as we headed south.
Of course, we found a buffet below Cross City, FL. for a nice break to the morning ride. From there we headed down route 19/98 to Crystal River, picking up 44E to go around Ocala to #301. They were to pick up route #38 somewhere down #301 to go to Lakeland, but I found #38 off of 44E so we turned south on it only to find it to be a very curvy narrow road along a Florida Bike trail. The bike trail was on an old railroad bed and pretty strait, but not this #38. Did not make very good time as we enjoyed the scenery. It did not go very far either, as it teed into some other county road. I headed toward where #301 should be and finally found it, who knew that type of narrow scenic road was available in the center of the state.
Clete and I were going to stay north by Zephyrhills for a big auto flea market, so we separated on #301 to meet up sometime later in the weekend or on Monday morning for the return trip. There was a Strawberry Festival in Plant City with a nice car show Saturday evening and a 200-car display in St. Petersburg on Sunday to go to also.
I think I need to live down there, in the winter anyway, for the weather, but now I find all these interesting activities to do at the same time. I had been in Florida the week before to visit friends and came home to get the bike, attend a club meeting and meet up with my club members for this interesting trip.
Needless to say we had a blast all weekend, then set up a time to start back while checking the weather channel. Might be some rain up this way in the afternoon Ð do not know where this came from as it was supposed to be clear for the four days. After enjoying the tropical temps down there, it was a bit of a surprise that above Thomasville it went from 70 down to 65 real quick, then by Albany we hit some sprinkles, then hard rain, dropping us down to 48. Brrr Ð luckily we had already put on our rain gear to block the wind chill. We stayed warm and dry for that last hour of the trip.
We were back in time for the board meeting downtown, so I ran down there in the car. WouldnÕt you know the streets were dry by 7 pm; we could have spent longer down south and maybe had a drier ride back. (ha)
Mary Fiske
When we (3 bikes) left here on Feb. 20 it was 40 degrees but the warmer weather in Florida was so welcoming. We found a curvy Rt. 39 off Interstate 10. It was fun to find the curves down there. We rode for hours and then BobÕs machine started heating up so he took out his gallon drink bottle and babied it back onto the rode.
John & Mary left Clete & Bob on a route as they had to be down to Lakeland to meet their friends from upstate N.Y. We had a wonderful stay for the weekend. We had to leave early Monday the 23rd early to meet Bob & Clete on route 50 trying to get back before the rain but we found the rain for the last 1 1/2 hours riding home and that was a cold rain. We all arrived back in Columbus safely.
Chris Aycock
On Saturday the 28th I spoke to Bob Smith, telling him that the next day was supposed to be nice and warm. I wanted to ride some roads that I had never seen before, a pleasure that is becoming more and more difficult. Bob said he would call around to see if anyone else was interested.
Sunday morning broke clear and cool, but not cold. I met Bob and Mary and John Fiske at the appointed time. We set off to Larry and Faith MackÕs house to pick them up but unfortunately they woke up to electrical problems (in the house, not the bike). We wished them well and set about to performing the task at hand.
Above Lagrange, in the slice of Georgia between I85 and I20 lie sloping hills, small towns, and good roads. Our goal was to visit the towns of Texas and Kansas. Well, they were dots on the map but when we finally got to them we found out that they were the sort of places where the Ôwelcome toÕ and the Ôleaving fromÕ sighs were on the same pole. Okay, IÕm lying, they didnÕt even have a sign.
We did go through Roosterville (I saw the name on the fire department) and Jake. If you havenÕt taken the road, GA 100 is a great way to get to northwest Georgia.
All in all we went over 200 miles on pleasant two-lane roads, not a mile of four-lane. The weather warmed to just about 70 and the only sour note was a persistent south wind.
IÕll certainly return before the next February 29th.