Nevada72 inspired me to try and write up our summer vacation from this year. I loved reading his write-ups of his traveling endeavors. So here is my attempt of posting pics and giving a little insight on our trip from this summer. I'm going to do it like Nevada72, where I will add more as time allows.




Here is a pic that pretty much sums it up.

 

Our trip started on May 23, 2014. The only dates/times set in stone were a condo for three days on Panama City Beach starting Memorial Day May 26th and the Florida Georgia Line Concert in Springdale, Ar. on Friday May 30th.
So we had 3 days to get there and 3 days to get back. 9 days total.




Those involved on this trip: Rick and Cheryl, Myself and Sharla

 

First I will have to say we are the worst at taking pictures. We seem to only get a few pics when we are getting on or off the bikes at a motel or restaurant. I wish we took more.
Even though we didn't have definite plans on where we would stop for the nights on the way to PCB, I had done quite a bit of research on places to stop and see and had ideas of where motels were at in likely areas that we may stop for the night. That helped a lot. I know some on here doesn't necessarily hit all the HD shops when on trips, but we like to. We collect the poker chips at as many places we can. It doesn't solely dictate our routes, but it does guide us some.


Day 1: Home to Jackson, Ms. 380 miles.
We started off about 9am. There wasn't necessarily a definitive stopping place for the day, so we were pretty relaxed and just enjoyed the ride. We stopped at McDonalds just 15 minutes down the road for a quick breakfast. It seems to be our place of choice for breakfast on most trips if we just want something quick. I would say that as far as awesome mc riding roads, this was not going to be one of those trips. But through my research before we left, I kept us on smaller highways (as many as I could find that seemed to have curvy areas) and off the interstates where possible. Cheryl, my sister-in-law now, doesn't care too much for interstates.


Our first stop of any significance was in West-Monroe, La. Who can ride by the Duck Dynasty capitol and not stop? It was time to eat, so why not stop at *****'s place first.

 

Is it me, or is there something wrong with the site? When I try to up load a pic, it goes to a page that says the server is not working???

 

Pics from Duck Dynasty World.







I was a little disappointed in Duck Dynasty. When watching the show, you just always assumed that the show happened right inside that building. Your mind tells you that just inside that door is the offices and the warehouse where the show happens. Nope... that is the Duck Dynasty Store. Pretty cool inside and just about anything you would want that says Duck Dynasty. Parking lot wasn't much in the Motorcycle friendly department. Or for cages for that matter. people just parked everywhere. kind of a cluster.

Well it didn't take long for us to get all we wanted of that. Time to move on.

From Monroe, we traveled I-20 to Jackson, Ms. where we stayed for night #1. Pretty uneventful evening. We went to the local Walmart for drinks and something to snack on for the evening.

 

Day 2 was something I'm not really used to. We got up and around and ready to head out.... well we didn't really have a final destination in mind. We just knew that we had 2 days to get to PCB. This is not how I usually roll and I wondered how I would handle it. But in the end, it was pretty cool and I liked just moving along and figuring it out as we went.





Packed and ready for Day 2.

We started the day by hitting the HD Dealer there in Jackson. Now if you haven't ever been there, it is something different. It is NOT one of the new multi-million dollar high rise looking buildings. Now I'm not really knocking it, but it really reminded more of an old flea market. They still have anything and everything that they have ever had in that store. You could find anything from all the brand new motor clothes to stuff that had 2 or more decades of dust on it. and that included some of the motorcycles. This is where taking lots of photos would help. maybe I could show some of you that has never seen this store, what i mean. We didn't know whether to feel like we were dirty when we left this place or just saw a nostalgic HD event.

Now to head on to our next destination. At this point like I said earlier, we really didn't have a true destination for where we would stay the night. Our only goal was to get to the coast and start riding east. We took 49 south to Gulport/Biloxi area. We stopped in at MS Coast HD in Biloxi. Pretty cool place and a little more modern. There Rick found a pair of HD boots he had been looking for for a long time. He had worn out the pair he had and wanted some just like them. He bought the new ones and had the old ones shipped home. It was getting near lunch time at this time and we asked some of the ladies where we should go for some good seafood. They pointed us towards McElroy's Harbor House Seafood, which is right on the coast off of 90. I had some of the best oysters on the half shell and fried shrimp i've ever eaten.






Pic off the deck of McElroy's.

After an awesome lunch, we headed east on 90. Taking our time and trying to see all the sights. We didn't get into Mobile till pretty late. It had the next available HD dealer on our route and I was a little nervous that they would still be open. They were and that was a pretty good thing. They had the best dealership that we visited for the whole trip and were probably the friendliest place as well. Now before leaving on this trip, Mobile was the LAST place I wanted to stay the night in. I don't really know why, I think I just felt like it would be worst place as far as crime and such. Anyway, Rick was talking to one of the ladies about what to do around the area and she mentioned an old hole in the wall bar that would have some blues playing that night. Well he fell for that. So next we had to find a motel somewhere near. We found a room nearby in a Holiday Inn of some kind. The prices weren't too bad and it was a really nice place. By the time we got in our rooms, we were ready for some drinks. It was an act of congress to find a liquor store and by the time we took care of that, we were all so tired we stopped at a Taco Bell for something to eat and just went back to the room and crashed. So much for the Blues Bar...

 

Nice trip and pics. Looking forward to more. McElroy's is a pretty good place to eat. Both Jackson and Biloxi HD need upgrading.

 

Your observation about Mobile is correct. Just pass on through to Gulf Shores.

 

Day 3 started with my favorite breakfast stop at Cracker Barrel. As usual, the only pic is of us getting ready to get back on the bikes.




We could have easily made it all the way to Panama City Beach on this day, but our reservations for our condo wasn't for another day. So we opted to try and see a few things and just make our way in that direction. We started with a side trip to Dolphin Island.





Hwy193 to Dolphin Island.




Dolphin Island is kind of a congested little area. I really don't see how all that stuff doesn't just get blown away by any of the storms that I imagine blow through there. We checked out Fort Gaines.




Sharla is always ready to ride!!!








Sharla and Cheryl checking out some history of the area.<br/>

We would have liked to take Mobile Bay Ferry, but that would shorten the trip and we wanted to check out some other stuff as well. So we back tracked to Mobile.






Rick and Cheryl riding across one of the bridges back to Mobile.<br/>

Once back in Mobile, we rode through the tunnel under the Mobile River. Harley's sound the best in a tunnel don't they? We had all seen the USS Alabama before, so we didn't stop, but here is a pic of it as we went by.




Once across the river/bay, we took 98 south. I can't remember now if it was Daphne or Fairhope, but what a neat little town with lots of little shops to shop in. But the thing that got my attention the most was all the flowers that were decorating the streets of this town. They were everywhere.




Our next stop was Gulf Shores. Our senses were full of all the scenery of the area. Riding the smaller highways in this area gave an indication as to how the people lived in this area of the world. I found it very interesting. The small communities in this area seem to keep things looking a little better than where we live. Around here you would think every house had its own junk yard.

As we were getting into Gulf Shores and getting closer to the beaches again, Cheryl was already starting to give her favorite saying for the trip. "Mama needs a DRINK!!!" This seemed to happen every day but the time frame may change depending on how long we had been riding since the last stop...
It was about time to get something to eat anyway. So we are riding down Gulf Shores Parkway (Hwy 59) looking for a good place to stop. We hadn't gotten to where I figured all the better places to eat yet but was seeing lots of billboard signs giving us some ideas as to what was available. As we rode by one of the more fancy signs (the ones that change from one advertisement to another) up came a sign about the Oyster House. Obviously Cheryl had seen the sign as well because at the next stop light, they pulled up beside us and we both started saying the same thing at once. And it is always awesome when a plan as to where you are going to stop and eat is decided without all the "what you think?, well I don't care, what are you thinking??? crap that can go on when you get a group together. Let me give a plug here for the "original Oyster House". Do NOT ride by this place without stopping to eat. It was the best place we ate on the whole trip in my opinion. Of course the only pic we have is a selfy from inside the restaurant.




After our most awesome dinner and a couple of beers, we continued down the beach towards Pensacola. It was too late to hit the HD dealer in Pensacola and it was about time to find a motel for the night. As we were riding into and through town, Cheryl was busy on her smart phone finding us a motel. I guess with the Memorial Weekend happenings, finding a motel wasn't real easy. We had our own private party poolside that night. We met a guy that was staying there who was in the area with FEMA and had invited us out by the pool where he was hanging out. He was there working the area for all the flooding they had had in the past month. Well this guy had a side gig where he was a DJ and he had his computer there with all of his songs. He didn't have much for speakers, but it was still a pretty cool thing. We still had our bottle of crown from the night before so we got some cokes and ice and went out to join him and a few others that had gathered. It made for a good time.

Tomorrow... Day 4.

 

Day 4. Its only about 100 miles to our condo on Panama City Beach (PCB) and we can't check in until 4pm. So today is about taking our time and enjoying what there is to see. The breakfast at the motel looks edible, so we just eat there. It wouldn't have been so bad, if they could have kept up with the demand that hit just about the time we went down stairs. We start our day by hitting the HD in Pensacola. Rick and Cheryl both have been looking for new helmets, but have yet to find one that fits. They are on both sides of the spectrum. Rick has a large head and Cheryl has a very small one. Neither of them can find a helmet that fits, much less one they like. Note: Rick finally found a modular helmet that fits and he likes a couple of weeks ago. Cheryl has yet to find one.

We head south to Gulf Breeze and then on down to Pensacola Beach and ride 399 down the beach. It was a bit early, but we wanted to get our beach party started, so we stopped at a pretty cool beach bar and had a few beers and appetizers. There was a pier there, so lots of people fishing with others just relaxing and enjoying the beach.

The ride across 399 was pretty cool ride in that there are many beaches and at times, water on both sides of you. I thought it was a bit crazy in one area that the speed limit was like 15 because we were in some nesting place of some little beach bird. We saw a few of them along side the road and figured out why the speed limit was so slow. They will run across the road and not bother to get out of your way. I wanted to get some pics of us with the bikes along the beach and we figured somewhere here was as good as any. Plus you couldn't get the bikes any where near the beach in PCB.







Here is a shot of Sharla and I crossing some bridge. I thought it was cool that it looked like we were sitting completely still except for the flag flying on the bags.





One of our intentions for the day was to hit the 3 HD dealers in the area. We hit Pensacola HD right off the bat. When we got to Fort Walton, we had to leave the beach highway and travel out of our way to make it up to Heritage Cycles (they deal in HD and other brands), but we found them locked up tight. We were all really surprised to find them closed since it was memorial day. We found out later they had a big memorial day parade and party the day before.

So back to the beach highway and making our way towards PCB. We made a lunch stop in Destin. Our family have been to Destin several times in the past for vacation and we all wanted to try Hog's Breath BBQ again. If you haven't been there, it is a really cool place. The BBQ is pretty good and they have an awesome T-Shirt shop.




The rest of the ride to PCB was pretty uneventful. When we got there, it was still a little early to check into the condo and Rick had an issue with the rear lights on his new '14 SG. So we headed up to HD of PCB. This was another really nice HD store. They took good care of Rick's problem and we shopped around killing time till we could go check in.

As we made our way up to the HD dealer and then made our way back to the beach to find our condo, we scouted around to see where we could buy supplies for the few days we would be in PCB. I'm sure it is not a surprise, but we found a walmart between the two. After checking into the condo and unloading the bikes, Rick and I made it back to walmart for those supplies. Now the fun part. Trying to get all those supplies on or in the bike to make it back to the condo. We had people stopping in the parking lot to watch our little endeavor. One even offered to put them in their car and deliver for us. We may have taken them up on that, but we pretty much had it all packed by then. This would have been another Great photo op, but you know by now we aren't very good at this.

The next installment will cover the 3 days we were in PCB.