So I got to spend 20 days in May on the road, well really 19 since we road on June 1st. The beginning of May I had a business conference in Atlanta, so I took a couple of extra days off to add to my allotted travel time and rode the bike out then came back to Oklahoma via NC, TN, KY, and MO
This year momma said she wanted to go to the beach, and she didn't get to go on my trip to Atlanta at the beginning of May so I had to take her through Birmingham to see Barber Motorsport Museum and Atlanta to go to the Georgia Aquarium. The plan was of course to just take the street glide and she would be a passenger, but as the time got nearer I could tell she really wanted to take her bike. So at the last minute I suprised her with a set of heel raiser pegs and a windscreen to make the trip easier for her.
We left Saturday 5/23 at 6:30 am, cool overcast skies and some slight sprinkles along our route until lunch time around but not much other than that, stopped for lunch in Conway Arkansas, the sun was out and the weather was warming up so we stripped our jackets off and headed for Olive Branch Mississippi, once at olive branch we decided to just boogie on to Tupelo.
510 miles of interstate later she's still smiling, so am I.
We packed up our belongings, had a bite of breakfast and then left Tupelo headed for Birmingham. Somewhere along the line I got it stuck into my head that there was an hour lost in there because of the timezone change, so I proceeded to pour on the go juice and cruise at mach .95, We get to Barber at what I think is 12pm... the doors are locked I'm crestfallen. Then I find a little dude and ask him if the Museum is open that day he says yeah in an hour... oops!
Danny Eslick is a hometown boy from our neck of the woods, it was really cool to see his 2009 Daytona Bike on display. It wasn't out 2 weeks earlier.
It's like being a little kid in a toy store being told look don't touch.
Off to Atlanta later that afternoon, turns out we barely missed some nasty weather. More on that later.
Dinner time in Atlanta
Our room at the OMNI CNN Tower looked out over Olympic park, priceline 68$ Tipped the desk clerk a $20 got about 3 or 4 levels in upgrades in both size, location and view from our room. Not bad for an $88 room.
For those who have lost friends or loved ones in the ultimate sacrifice of serving their country, and for those who have or are still serving thank you for making our way of life possible.
The Aquarium... Whale sharks and Manta rays cool!
We left the aquarium and headed for Florida, have you ever noticed how your GPS never takes you the way you want to go, for example we had some pretty good storms on the horizon I wanted to stay on the beaten path... simple right? Nooo google maps takes me around Dothan AL, through 70 miles of 2 lane back roads in AL and FL, all in the middle of a giant thunderstorm. But we made it to Panama City Beach, first stop Dinner Dusty's Oyster House, if ever there just do it, raw and a Panama Red beer. Amazing.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn resort on the beach $179 a night, then resort fees, then parking... you get the idea nicle and dime you to death total price winds up being about $260 a night, but it was worth every dime, absolutely gorgeous.
The water was really warm it just caught her by surprise.
After we checked in at the beach a group bikes from Wisconsin rolled in, I was visiting with them while I finished unloading our bikes and they had been to Barber on Sunday as well, they got to ride through the storms we avoided when we left, we just missed these guys by about 30 minutes in Birmingham, in the meantime some drunk college kid comes down to impress us with his scooter parking abilities... he almost dropped it on some guys pearl white ultra classic. Needless to say he didn't hang around much longer when we told him he was an ***, in the most polite manner.
As best we can figure out the scooter rental places tell people to beep their horns at other bikes... I was just a little tired of motor scooters and horns when we left.
The next day my wife wanted to walk out on the pier, as you can imagine parking is limited. In the midst of a full size parallel parking space there is a single 50cc motor scooter we diagonal parked in the spot, another bike came cruising through we waived him in next to us, then we gave the scooter rider an absentee lesson in proper bike parking. We picked his scooter up, parked it properly next to our 3 Harley's and then went and enjoyed our visit, my wife and I came back to find 2 more bikes parked with us. Rental places really should give parking etiquette lessons to the people they rent to.
This was the view from our room at 7am in the morning, the decision was made, time to go play on the beach. We stayed on the beach till noon.
We decided we wanted to go to the HD dealer for a shirt, she didn't bring any riding sunglasses for use without her helmet either, so we bought another pair of sunglasses for her collection....she must have 6 pair of riding glasses now. Then it was lunch time, we wound up at Dusty's again, seriously just go to Dusty's when down there.
Standing on the pier watching the storms to our West
We have this thing about Mini Golf... but it was Mini Golf time then back to the beach for a late afternoon in the surf and sand.
We hugged the Emerald coast the entire way across to Perdido Key and the Flora Bama bar. I had planned on turning north around Destin but the night before we left my wife said to me, "hey if we are going any where near there can we go to the Flora-Bama bar?" When Momma asks it means yes we are going that way. We ditched the Helmet till we hit the Alabama state line, average speed limit along the coast line is 35mph through all the resort areas but it was tranquil. Obligatory oysters and Bushwhackers.
Next up USS Alabama. Since we had some storms rolling our way we decided not to attempt the ferry across to Dauphin Island, good choice they suspended operations due to incoming weather.
When exploring Battleship park take industrial strength mosquito repellant. My wife wanted to look at the B-52 and the other aircraft at the park, we were bitten through t-shirts and even our jeans when we went over to the B-52. I have never been bitten through fabric in the past.
Last edited by bettingpython; 06-04-2015 at 03:20 PM.
New Orleans Ya'll! I have going there since 1994 for vacation, took her down in 2007 she loves it as much as I do, we have friends down there and never tire of the city. I am disappointed with what the cruise line business has done to the city. It brings in a class of tourists that don't care, some of my street performer friends say it's become really hostile and hard to make any money now. And for us it's a real blow to the wallet since Hotels have jacked weekend rates through the roof because they can, it was always higher those nights but the ship traffic with people staying the night before they cruise has just caused it to sky rocket, Friday night our room rate was 2.5 times the wednesday rate and Saturday had we stayed it would've been 3.5 times our first nights rate. A few of our favorite things.
06-04-2015, 12:10 PM
To the emerald coast and back.
