Okay I have move this to the Road trip section. Apparently someone got their feathers ruffled that this was in the General discussion where I have posted similar reports before.

We are not affiliated with any organization. We call ourselves the Wild Hogs because of the movie we like and enjoy! No cell phones have been harmed in any of our rides.

Wild Hogs Ride - Day 1

December 26, 2017

Dedicated to our riding brothers and sisters up North that are snowed in. Wish you were here!

Praise goes to the Lord for giving us the ability to do this ride, safe travels and understanding wives!

Our first days ride has been awesome. We left NC at 9am with a warm 37 degree temperature. We saw 50 degrees by noon in South Carolina and it hit a high of 55 degrees here in Amelia Island, Florida when we arrive at 5:15pm just before dark. Today's mileage count was 442 miles.

Just got back from a nice dinner at The Surf Restaurant and chilling right now.

We hit I-40 to I-77 south all the way to Columbia, SC. Amazingly easy through Charlotte but it got really congested as we neared Columbia. I had no idea there was so much road construction through Columbia.

At the I-77 and I-26 junction we jumped off onto Hwy 321. Stopped for fuel and a hot dog to tie us over. The sun came out and I switched glasses and put my shades on and dumped the Gerbing heated gloves for lighter thinner more comfortable pair.

We rolled down 321 with Savannah as our next stop. I love this highway and the small towns you go through. On the long 55 mph stretches we cruised at 70 and passed a few cars. My buddy was surprised at how easy the 114 rolled around slower traffic effortlessly without a down shift!

When you think of towns like Denmark and Fairfax you are probably not thinking of South Carolina! But a word of caution, when you hit those small half mile long towns with a 35 mph speed zone you better slow down! We saw more than one Barney Fife set up with radar. We dropped off 321 onto 119 toward Savannah and it was a beautiful ride. We were the only people out there and it was swamps on both sides with shaded road ways. Cruising at 70 mph loving life! Well we rolled into the HD dealer from the West side like I have been many times before and it is now an Indian dealership! Wow when did that happen???Stopped at the Sonoco on the corner for race fuel and realized the new HD dealership is across the road near the I-95 South on ramp. Rolled on over for a butt break and a few poker chips before jumping up on I-95. It was totally stupid. We were running 80 and being passed on both sides and twice cars were making emergency stops in all lanes.

We bailed off on Hwy 17. What a beautiful ride and stayed on it all the way to Amelia Island. My buddy had not been over the BIG Sidney Lanier Bridge at Fancy Bluff Creek (Jekyll Island) which is 480 feet tall above the water with steep approach angles. If you are afraid of heights that one will get you. Plus it was windy! But what a beautiful view off the top.

As we approached the Florida state line on Hwy 17 I saw the old 2 lane blue steel span bridge and forgot it has steel grate deck. There was oncoming traffic and we were rolling pretty hot. Got slowed to 60 mph and rolled across into Florida and there was a highway patrol car on the other side that waved at us!

Welcome to the Sunshine State!

Going to have to keep rolling South to stay dry and find those 80 degree temps. Hitting the road early tomorrow riding A1A at least to Titusville then turning west, southwest.

Stay tuned for day #2 update!

A few photos. We only stopped twice the entire ride so not many pictures.

 

Wild Hogs Ride - Day 2 (Wed 12-27-2017)

Dedicated to our riding brothers and sisters up North that are snowed in. Wish you were here!

What a beautiful day the Lord gave us. Praise to him for excellent weather, beautiful scenery and a good friend to share with. Ralph and I have been riding together now for 10 years. We have ridden 12 states together and probably 20k miles together at least. He is a man of few words. I sent him a text about three weeks ago to say the Wild Hogs Ride is "on". His reply was "ok" and nothing else. He will NOT lead but like me loves to just ride! And of course my lovely wife that likes to get rid of me for a few days every year!

Our second days ride has been FANTASTIC. We left Amelia Island at 8am with 47 degree temperature. We saw 50 degrees Quickly and the mercury continued to rise even thought the skies were overcast.

But we found it! Yes we saw 73 degrees and Sunshine inland as we neared Leesburg, FL.

Today's mileage count was a low 219 miles making the trip total so far 661 enjoyable miles.

The first picture was a beautiful sun rise shot at 7:30 am this morning. We put the full face helmets away and rode with our half helmets. Yeah I know you don't have to wear one down here. I pulled the liner out of my jacket, lost the Under Armor fleece lined base layer and it felt like summer again!

We stayed just a few miles from where A1A begins and were at the Mayport Ferry by 8:45 am and loving life!

A1A is one of my favorite roads. It is like the Blue Ridge Parkway to me. I could ride it every day and not tire of it. The damage from the hurricane over a year ago is still visible at Flagler Beach.

We turned off right onto High Bridge Road and immediately got stopped at the draw bridge over the inter coastal waterway. My buddy said I knew you were going to turn there! It is the entrance to the world famous "Loop" which you have to experience to appreciate. Sadly there is a lot of tree damage there from the last storm also.

We popped out in Ormond Beach, hit Highway 1 and made a stop at Destination Daytona. The wind really picked up and it was cloudy at the coast. So since we have no official destination or time table we turned right out of the dealership and ran up highway 1 North about 15 miles and then turned left South on Hwy 11. That was a nice ride especially if you like straight flat rural two lanes. We came up on three vehicles running about 5 under the posted 60 mph speed limit. I saw that no one was going to pass and I twisted the throttle and was up to 90 and by all three cars quickly. My buddy was wishing at this point that he had a 114! That was my performance excitement for the day! We slowed back to 65 and came upon a deputy Sheriff going our direction about two miles ahead of us. Yeah got lucky on that one!

Then we get to Hwy 40. The deputy was going straight so we made a right onto Hwy 40 West and then made a left onto Hwy 17 South. There are a few really pretty towns through there with one of the prettiest being DeLand.

Next we stopped at Seminole Harley Davidson in Sanford. Man they have more bikes then four dealers in my area combined. However we were almost attacked by two salespeople before we even got our helments off. Bought a few poker chips and kept riding. I get a chip at every HD stop for my collection and one for my Pastor who really appreciates them! He rides but a 200 mile ride in one day is maybe a once a year event! What we do totally blows his mind!

Then we caught Hwy 46 west over to Mt. Dora which a lot of folks here on the forum recommended as a staging point. The lakes there in that area are beautiful!

We got to our hotel just before dark and enjoyed nice dinner at the Outback. Prime Rib tonight! chilling right now.

Well we do have plans for tomorrow. My riding buddy has a younger brother here in Florida. He just bought a new home in Palm Bay and invit d us to come and see him. So we are going to see him tomorrow. We may spend the night there and start our journey back home on Friday with plans to be back in NC on Saturday.

Stay tuned for day 3 God willing.

 

More pictures from Day 2

 

More pictures from Day2

 

Wild Hogs Ride - Day 3 (Thursday 12-28-2017)

Dedicated to our riding brothers and sisters up North that are snowed in. Wish you were here!

Woo Hoo!!!!
Jeans and tee shirt day!

What a Spectacular day the Lord gave us. Praise to him for beautiful weather and safe travels.

Our 3rd days ride has been FANTASTIC. We left Leesburg at 9am with 57 degree temperature. We saw 70 degrees By 11 am and saw 79 degrees at Palm Bay at 1pm. It was 76 degrees at 6:27 pm when we arrived at our hotel in Jupiter!

Today's mileage count was a low 229 miles making the trip total so far 890 enjoyable miles.

I can recommend the Hampton in Leesburg. It has an Outback and a Speedway gas station right next door. We left at 8:45 am and our first stop was five miles away at Gator Harley Davidson. Mike and the folks there's were very pleasant. Bought a few poker chips and hit the road.

We went down to Hwy 27 South and caught Hwy 192 East. It was nice to go through the orange groves. We saw the Citrus Tower and traffic became extremely heavy and slow as we neared Orlando. We passed Orlando HD at about 1.7 mph in bumper to bumper three lane traffic. When we finally got past Kissimmee the last 44 miles on Hwy 192 were wonderful. Divided four lane, flat with slight curves to make it interesting. The speed limit was 65 and we cruised at 70 loving life. The sun was bright and there is absolutely NOTHING out there. We did finally see a small herd of about 15 long horn steers in a field of yucca plants and palm trees. Shows how hardy that breed is!

We got to I-95 and jumped on south bound to Palm Bay and stopped and visited Ralph's brother that just moved i Tom a new home there this year. They were expecting us and had lunch ready. My first time meeting them and they rolled out the red carpet for us. Funny but they all had shorts on, had three Christmas trees indoors and tons of decorations along with laser lights shining on the ceiling and walls. And it was 79 degrees! Just did not feel like Christmas!

We spent three enjoyable hours with his family which took away from our mileage total but it was worth it.

Once we left we stopped at Space Coast HD and I finally found a shirt that I knew my wife would like. Then we made a quick decision that we would definately ride Hwy 41 Alligator Alley tomorrow. So we looked at how far south we could safely make it before dark and booked a room 88 miles down in Jupiter. We jumped back on I-95 and cruised at 80 mph while being pasted on both sides
By everyone doing 90 mph.

We plan to hit the road early tomorrow and expect to have a more exciting day to report on.

Looks like 50 degrees in NC on Saturday so we plan to roll back home on Saturday.

 

Wild Hogs Ride - Day 4 (Friday December 29, 2017)

Dedicated to our riding brothers and sisters up North that are snowed in.

Thank you Lord for a really enjoyable ride and for your blessing of safety.

Sorry this report is a day late and when you read you will understand why! The day was FUN, Enjoyable, Long and Challenging with a curve ball!

The mileage total for the day was 536 which is a good considering we did a lot of two lane highways! Total for the trip is up to 1,429 miles.

Day 4 started at 5am. I woke right up and we were ready and leaving our hotel in Jupiter Florida at 6:30am sharp. It was 62 degrees with some area fog and the promise of higher temps ahead. We jumps on I-95 south for 13 miles to Palm Beach which had the closest Cracker Barrel. We enjoy d a big breakfast and were back on the bikes by 7:30am. We hit the Florida Turnpike south to make time and ran down to the famous Hwy 41, AKA "Tamiami Trail". Now if you are like me I have always thought that 41 was the Alligator Alley. However the locals told me that I-75 across the Everglades was actually the Alley. Oh well I went to ride Hwy 41 and see the Everglades regardless of what it is called! We had 70 degree temps before 11am and saw a high of 73 degrees for the day. The sun was bright the scenery was beautiful. If you want an air boat ride, no problem. There is only about 20 places with probably 60 + total boats and they were busy. You could hear those big block motors roaring out in the glades. At times it sounded like monsters in the weeds coming for you. We saw two dead road kill gators in the 4 to 5 foot range and one smelled really bad! It was no problem at all to see gators sunning on the side of the canal to our right heading west. For the most part the road is straight and there are many LONG passing zones. The speed limit during the day is 60 mph and 45 mph at night. We had a great stop at Everglades City. That is a pretty area with a lot of air boat traffic. The roar is almost deafening! As we road out I felt we had enough of 41 and crossed 41 and ran north on Hwy 29 north.

The next couple of hours was really good riding. We went right smack through the Panther preserve and stayed on Hwy 29 to LaBelle where we had lunch on a picnic table outside the Handy Citgo station! The produce being grown down in this area is incredible. There were school buses that had been converted. The cut the roof of behind the drivers seat and below the windows and made BIG El Camino's. There were several loaded down with what looked like round melons. We stayed on 29 until it deadened at Hwy 27 and made a left heading North. At this point you are in the heart of Orange country! There are groves everywhere, canneries and processing plants and even another Citrus Tower. In case you are wondering the Citrus Towers are 226 feet tall and built in the 50's to allow visitors/tourists to observe miles and miles of orange groves! It was actually VERY popular until Disney came to town!

Our next stop was at beautiful Placid Lake. Again in the heart of the Orange groves, a beautiful lake and a town known as "The Caladium Capital of the World".

We pulled into a shopping complex to switch helmets and gloves and WoW there was the most beautiful large mural on the side of a wall that we had to check out. It was a good tribute to the local cattlemen and while we were there at least six other cars stopped to take pictures!

Well by the time we got to Lake Wales we had seen enough oranges. Reality set in and we needed to get as far north as possible. We set Jacksonville as a destination, reserved a room at Jacksonville Beach near I-295 for easy escape the following morning, set my WAZE app and twists the throttles hoping to be in our hotel room by 7:30pm.

All was going as planned until we prepared to turn onto the I-4 ramp off Hwy 27. My riding buddy Ralph yelled to me on the CB to pull over that he has a problem with the bike. We are on the shoulder of the I-4 on ramp. The bike is running and sounds fine, all looks okay. But he says that when he lets the clutch out that it is making a really bad noise and bucking and jerking like crazy. At this time it is 4:45pm. We punch in the nearest dealer with is Orlando HD. We were 12 minutes away and he made a decision to go for it. We hit I-4 at 40 mph with our flashers on me riding behind him. We were moving steady and I really could not tell what was going on. He said on he Radicon that he thought the compensator or the clutch was going bad. We got over to Hwy192 about five blocks from the dealership and had to stop at a red light. The bike never move again under it's own power. Engine running, in gear, clutch out and no forward movement!

Well we are right in the middle of three lanes of heavy traffic nearing 5pm on the Friday in Orlando just two miles from Mickey Mouse! It is crazy. Ralph looked at me like what do I do? I said we are burning daylight and you need to get on the phone right now to the dealer and see if they can come and pick up your bike. Hats off to Orlando HD. Without hesitation they said they are on the way and we're there in 15 minutes! They loaded the bike, told Ralph they had a room reserved for him and would take him to the hotel after dropping off the bike. After 4 days we parted ways and I continued on to Jacksonville where I had a room I could not cancel and was where I needed to be for the final leg home on Saturday. Ralph's brother lives two hours away and said he would come and pick him up Saturday if it turned out to be a major issue with the bike.

So I braved the totally chaotic packed bumper to bumper traffic on I-4 now being after 6pm and dark! I rolled on over to I-95 and north to the Holiday Inn near Jacksonville. I arrive at 9:30 pm and was BEAT! After 15 hours and 536 miles I was tired. I stood in a hot shower for 30 minutes with the water on my back and shoulders and crashed having eaten a very light lunch and no dinner. Ralph called me to say his hotel was right across the street from the dealership and was $189.00 plus tax which he was not happy about and he had enjoyed a very nice dinner! Thanks buddy!!!!

Stay tuned for day 5 and the saga of Ralph's bike....

 

Day 4 Everglades

 

Last & Final Day – Day 5 (Saturday 12-30-2017)



Well it was an excellent trip and I am very happy to be home. I thank the good Lord for wonderful weather, a great riding buddy, safe travels & a really fun motorcycle. It was very nice to hug the wife and puppy dog. Our two cats even missed me!

Those that have followed this trip know that my friend Ralph broke down in Orlando and did not make this last leg home with me. I’ll give you an update on him.

I woke up in the Holiday Inn at Jacksonville Beach near I-295 wide awake at 5:15am. Was down stairs for breakfast at 6am when they started serving and was on the road heading for home just before 7am. It was 43 degrees and the street lights were brighter than the sunlight at that point. I jumped up on I-295 and shortly was at the top of the beautiful Butler Bridge. I have actually boated under this bridge more than I have ridden across it. From the top you get a bird’s eye view of downtown Jacksonville. Then quickly I rolled onto I-95 North toward Georgia. On the local weather I already knew there was some fog ahead and the temps were down in the 30’s in northeast Georgia. I hit the Georgia line and saw 37 degrees on the temp-o-meter. Not many cars out and I had the center lane to myself cruising at an easy 75 mph.

As I rolled up near Savannah the cell phone rang. It was my buddy Ralph calling to give an update on his bike. We had suspected clutch failure but never entertained what he was about to tell me. The drive belt had LOST 16 teeth!!!! WOW, that explains all the bucking and jerking he was experiencing. While he was moving there were enough teeth to keep him going put when he got to a slick spot there was slip, then he rolled to teeth and jerk, and you get the picture. When we stopped at the traffic light on Hwy 192 not far from the dealership there were no teeth on the drive sprocket so it was just slipping and NO GO! Well that was the good news considering it could have been much worse. I asked what they thought caused it to fail and he said “9 years and 140K miles”. The bad news is the dealer tells him they do NOT have a belt at any of their stores and with the holidays it will be Wednesday before they can get him back on the road. I was shocked by that. Even though this is a reliable part I cannot imagine a dealership not keeping at least one belt in stock. Then my next comment was I thought you changed the belt when you rebuilt your engine around 80K miles? He replied no that he never thought about changing it. I asked who all they called looking for a belt and he did not know. I told him I cannot believe a dealership within 75 miles would not have this and if I was him I would be on the phone right now calling Seminole, Space Coast and all others that I bet he could find a belt. His brother lives 10 miles from Space Coast and was going to come get him if he had to stay a few days anyway. He could grab one and bring it to them. He said he did not think about that and appreciate the suggestion.

Well I kept on trucking and surprisingly traffic remained light until I got up in to South Carolina when I saw two different accidents. About an hour later Ralph called to tell me they found a belt, it was on the way and they would have him back on the road today sure. That he planned to go and spend the night at his brothers and may ride home after New Year’s depending on weather. He really thanks me for making that suggestion. No problem that is why two heads are better than one! I was disappointed the dealership had not already done that to begin with. My suspicion was they really wanted to wear him down and sell him a NEW bike. They started on that before they ever loaded his on the trailer! But they took care of him and that is all that matters.

As I racked up miles the mercury rose all the way to a balmy 53 degrees and I stopped and lost the full face helmet and heated gloves. Actually the ride home was very enjoyable. I turned off the radio the last 100 miles and just listed to the sweet tune from the exhaust and rolled into home at 2:45pm. The wife had the wood stove going in the man cave and opened the garage door as I rolled in!

5 Days / 4 Nights
4 States (NC, SC, GA, FL)
1884 Total Miles
Low Temp: 37 Degrees / High Temp: 79 Degrees
Total Trip Cost - $579.00

It’s all about the ride!

What a way to end the year. I look forward to next year’s travels.

God bless & Happy New Year

P.S. Now I have a lot of bugs and road grime to get cleaned off the bike!

 

Ralph spent Saturday night at his brother house in Palm Bay and rode back to NC on Sunday.

It was a COLD ride.

 

Thanks for posting. Enjoyed reading about your trip.