Lake Wales

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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.