Key West Rally 2017

[JeffH]

Home

NASCAR Race today at AMS so Mike & I needed to get to the north side of Atlanta before the race ended and 200,000 people hit I- 75 or out to I-85.

Went by AMS Hampton exit about 4:30pm so we made it. As usual downtown ATL was a little unpredictable. Some stop & go in all six northbound lanes. Dozen LOUD PIPE urban riders on sport bikes lane splitting at 20mph over SLOW crawl cars at low speed with cars changing lanes. Surprised the dozen riders didn't get hit.

Road Kill major Metro vs Rural
Saw a road kill while riding on Florida's Big Bend Scenic byway. An Armadillo. Saw a road kill on 6 lane (each way) interstate in metro Atlanta. A Sofa. Gotta say the Armadillo faired better than the sofa.

Sure was a great ride and a great rally with Xsive friends.

Jeff

[motoman]

Good to hear the riding experience was all good and all got back to home base.

[thumperjsa]

It was great riding with everyone as well as making it my longest rally to date. Just over 450 miles each way from home in an 8 hour trip plus all the riding around was great. First time my XS got to cross into Georgia although it was rather brief.

Hit some smoke delays south of Jupiter seemed because of a fire near the highway, and a couple other spots. Never figured out why there were so many cop cars blocking the exit to Glades road causing a few mile backup.

My daughter got in about 45 minutes behind me. Next time I have to remember to put some sun screen on my face as I ended up a bit red except for where the sunglasses were. Phil got home shortly after me.

Again, had a lot of fun and thanks to Don for the farm fresh eggs and the bacon as well as putting up with my moderate/liberal politics while staying at his place.

[JeffH]

Great Ride - Great Food - a few laughs

We rode Florida's Big Bend Scenic Highway along the Gulf of Mexico


















weather was cooperating

Jeff

[JeffH]

Saturday Ride - Group had another memorable day of FLA Panhandle riding


Stopped at Ochlockonee Bay




Steve's wonderful Bob Jones 11



Yup, YAMAHA



Wonder where everybody went?



Living up the Bandito Biker reputation sure keeps the tourists away



Don riding his 84' Honda today



Jeff

[JeffH]

Wakulla Springs

A couple last pictures:

Anxious to get on the Wakulla Springs tour boat (Creature of the Black Lagoon filmed here)




Only to have our hopes dashed - the ship has sailed

Actually short staffed by one boat captain, so one boat unavailable - close but no cigar - disappointing
We didn't get our boat tour of the lagoon so later for dinner we hit the Chinese Buffet instead (eating always makes things seem better)

I think we all had a fun 4 days of Panhandling, I sure did


Jeff

[3Phase]

Right on!

Thanks, Jeff, it's good to 'see' everyone again!

[jetmechmarty]

as well as putting up with my moderate/liberal politics while staying at his place.

You didn't!

[MaximPhil]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for the pictures and report certainly looks like a good time was had by all.
Phil

[dbbrian]

Great looking Rally

That sure looks like a nice place to ride!

Thanks for posting those pictures Jeff.

Glad everyone had a good time

[bikerphil]

Had a great time, good seeing everyone again and meeting Steve Scott and seeing his Bob Jones bike.

[thumperjsa]

You didn't!

Don't worry, I kept it calm. Respected my elders. Too much "Fake News" to talk about.

[thumperjsa]

It was also great meeting Mike and Steve and seeing some XS1100's I haven't seen before.

[thumperjsa]

Some pics I took on the ride.

[MPittma100]

North Florida

It was fun! Always good to see friends twice instead of once a year. I calculated 984 miles round trip for Jeff and I. Saw mostly rural/agricultural south Georgia all the way down and back. When people there go to lunch, they talk about what they are planting instead of how bad the traffic is in downtown Atlanta.

Learned some interesting history about the area speaking with some of the locals in those small towns.

Ours was a diverse group. We had Americans and Canadians, Yamahas, a Triumph, A Harley, and 2 Honda's. Everyone had a good time. All of the bikes and the riders performed flawlessly regardless of their age.

Let's do this again sooner than later.