Wednesday Night Riders: WE'RE BACK!! MORE REPORTS

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

WE'RE BACK!! MORE REPORTS

After close to 6,000 miles on the truck and 3,000 on the trike, we made it safely back to Iowa. What a journey! There were no problems with the weather. In fact, the only snow we saw was on the ground, and that wasn't until we reached Dubuque. I guess the old Iowa weather axiom about north and south of highway 20 still holds true.
Since I didn't have access to the internet for the past few days, I am going to post a couple of our more interesting bike trips in Florida in the past tense.
The first of these was a GWRRA chapter meeting that we attended in Crestview, Florida, on a Saturday morning. After stuffing ourselves at a breakfast buffet and meeting some very friendly riders from the chapter, we were able to join some of them for a ride after the meeting. We were led by a couple of the chapter members on a really neat ride through some of the northern Florida back country (yes, we actually found a couple of curvy roads) to a park that is the highest point in Florida. When you see the photos, you will note that it's really not very high, and in fact, is the lowest high point of all the states! We were joined by a couple from Alabama. The wife rode a Gold Wing trike, and the husband had a new Harley. You don't have to have a Gold Wing to be members of GWRRA chapter.
Our second interesting journey started the following Saturday at an Italian restaurant in Panama City with the Panama City chapter joined by the Dothan, Alabama chapter. After an incredible veal parmigiana lunch, we were led by the Panama City chapter director, Dick Smith, on a ride to Wewahitchka, Florida. Besides Dick and us on trikes, the group included a retired police woman from Toronto on a trike, a retired lady school teacher from Atlanta on a two wheeler Gold Wing, and another chapter member on a Spyder. Wewa, as the natives call it, is the home to Tupelo honey. This is the only place where this honey can be produced by bees using the tupelo trees. In fact, a movie was shot here called "Ulee's Gold" and starred Peter Fonda who played the role of a beekeeper. We also rode to Gaskin Park that is right next to the Apalachicola river. Florida does a great job with their state and county parks. After leaving Wewa, we journeyed on down to the coast and had some ice cream in Port St. Joe, an old historic port town on the Gulf of Mexico. Actually, it got a little dark before we got back to the condo in Panama City Beach. However, I did get to operate the CB on the trike for my first time. Seemed to work well communicating with the leader. I found out you can take in a lot more scenery when you're not leading!

Here's some photos and hopefully a video on the trike from the above two adventures. The next and last report will be for NASCAR fans and a look at a Slingshot. Stay tuned!