Skip to main content

Lake Wales


View Larger Map

This was my second ride with this bike club.  There was a bike or two less than last week but still a nice group ride into territory I've never seen before.  KSU (cool biker lingo for kickstands up, and I'm a cool biker after all)  was scheduled for 8:00 am and they estimated the ride one way was 110 miles.  After a ride briefing off we headed and I'm on a ride again!




This was at our first stop.  We travelled south down I-75 across the Sunshine Skyway bridge  and then East across some really interesting back roads.  Things I found interesting:  lots of quarries out there with gigantic cranes.  And they were working, too, on a Sunday.  Things of note I saw in this lower-Bible thumping state:  
Passed Whispering Oaks, Lonesome Cow, and Bent Lake Ranches.  
Lots and lots of orange groves with those goodies starting to look ripe.
A mix of estate looking homes along with shacks barely looking habitable. 
Drove by a good old fashioned chain gang.  Okay, no chains, but people picking up trash on the side of the road and a bus that said Dept of Corrections. And well supervised, I might add.


Some of the bikers really get every possible convenience.  Very cushy riding.  This is a Goldwing with an impressive cockpit.


Our destination was Manny's Chophouse.  Nice place, and good food.


Probably getting ready for the first winter snow.


The majestic Skyway Bridge heading home.


Look up the history of this bridge sometime.  30 years ago a ship rammed one of the pillars and several people fell to their deaths.

Got home about 4:00 pm and enjoyed the ride, the company and the solo trip home.  The map above was my route back home.  Inching ever so perilously close to Tampa, and "I Don't DO Tampa!"

Further impressions of the bike:  I like it more than last time.  I installed risers that moved the bars up a couple of inches and back an inch and a half.  Nice mod. The group is pretty friendly, too.  I like them.  But man they sure do run fast, and I was hard pressed to keep up.  Not because my bike can't (it has to be about the biggest bike there) but because I spend too much time sightseeing and looking around.

Next ride is the Tin Butt Run.  It is not a led run so I'll have to follow a map with instructions and hopefully I can find my way around the route.  It is a 300 mile run and we all end up back at 4th Street Shrimp Company, a place I've wanted to go.  Entry is $12.00 and a new unwrapped toy.  Should be fun.  The run after that one is to take the toys into Tampa, but I don't know if I'll go on that one.  I don't do Tampa, after all.   



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more