Orlando Day Fifteen: unexpected layover

Still in Statesboro. Scooter refused to do more than idle. At least one problem solved, spark plug tip vibrated itself off. Thanks to Custom Marine of Statesboro for yanking the tip out. 

Scooter still not running well, going to look for SeaFoam. 

Here we are in the parking lot of St Pauls Lutheran Church. Note the truck in the background. That person scooted right inside, deliberately avoiding any eye contact or offer of help. 

Orlando Day Fifteen: Leaving Statesboro

On my way, outrunning the rain hopefully...

Orlando Day Fourteen: No Florida road pictures

You may wonder why there are no stops in Florida to take road pictures?  Simple... It is hot. Stopping only results in further cooking. Additionally, these roads are just about all straight, flat and have solid trees on each side of the road. 

Now I was curious about the Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway I was on. I saw no black bears driving. 

Orlando Day Fourteen: Packing up for home

Ugh. Even at 8am it is hot and muggy outside. Delay as we wait for the GPS and my helmet to defog from being in the nice air conditioning for a week. 

Blogger app crashes, losing my first draft of this post. Damn software people. 

First time without a tag around my neck for a week!  Feel strangely naked...

Okay, time to shove off. 

Orlando Day Twelve: Epcot

Spending the weekend with Bonnie at Epcot. 

Orlando Day Ten: Inside Spaceship Earth

On the Spaceship Earth ride/tour. They highlight the first Hash Bash!

Orlando Day Ten: In case you thought this was a pleasure trip...

Mickey and Goofy enforcing the work ethic...

Orlando Day 10: Inside Spaceship Earth

Rulestream Users Group meeting today in the Siemens space inside Soaceship Earth. Eerie to walk into Epcot with no one in the park!

Orlando Day Six: Conference Hotel

The goal (well, the stated goal) of the scooter trek to Orlando was to attend and present at PLM Connection 2014. First step, check into the Hyatt Regency by the Orlando Convention Center. One is forced to adapt to strange environments, I have not had to deal with such an issue yet on this trip. 

For example, here is the view from my room:

To illustrate the hardship level required to transition to such an environment, I leave you with one of the primary features of my simple hotel room bathroom, the Electric Mirror:

Sigh. So difficult to take. 

Orlando Day Seven: PLM Connection starts!

See Mom, I really am here!  Or I paid someone to send me a picture of Chuck's keynote. :)

Orlando Day Six: Moving

While the Hampton here off Tourist Trap Row has been a good place to recover, it is time to move down the street to the real action of the convention center. PLM Connection here we come!

Orlando Day Five: it's a Vespa Party!

Orlando Day Five: Grilled Cheese to Bind Them

Or something like that... Dinner tonight is at Toasted in Winter Park. This place was founded on the premise that everybody loves grilled cheese. They also have a well regarded burger menu but I had to try the grilled cheese.  I had planned to get the braided brisket grilled cheese (the top rated sandwich) but today they introduced a new sandwich, the Smokehouse Melt, that includes cheddar, pulled pork and their homemade mac and cheese (using Jarlsberg, sharp Cheddar and Gruyere) with bread and butter pickles on the side.  I can definitely recommend this place!

Orlando Day Four: Almost...

Ten miles to go... if it blows up now, I could push it to the goal.

Orlando Day Three: Aiming for Jacksonville

So every day has a target and today the goal is to finally cross the Florida state line and spend the night in Jacksonville.  Very ambitious as that would be over 400 miles across some very twisty mountains roads and then the wilderness of Georgia.  We will see...

Orlando Day Two: Done! (Asheville, NC)

Surprisingly, Day Two finished with the rider not totally sopping wet, not injured in any way and the intrepid Vespa running not too badly.  To top it off, a hotel was procured the old fashioned way, no cell phone, no computer involved (just driving and cursing where are the damn hotels in this town).

First some technical notes... the tracking software I am using gives up if a data connection is missing for too long.  I don't know if there is some way to make it be more Zen and just keep collecting points without sending them, but it makes it difficult to have a single track that shows the day.  Luckily today the biggest chunk of tracking I have is also the prettiest/coolest/best part of today's ride.  I'd love to come back and do that again.

Second... It seems that the road planning people in these parts (Kentucky, southwest Virginia, Tennessee) all must seriously subscribe to the "survival of the fittest" theory.  Tiny curvy little roads that go through the mountains and national forests all (well, 95%) are set with a speed limit of 55.  Obviously these planning people laugh uncontrollably when some idiot actually tries to stay on the road for some period of time going 55 and ends up sailing off the side of the road and splatting somewhere down the mountain.  Oh right, did I mention that guard rails were not always in places you would think they would be extremely helpful.  Perhaps this is part of the game plan to winnow out the idiots.  Nonetheless, I tip my hat to these planning people, wherever they are.

Having the speed limit set so high in the mountains means you really cannot get a speeding ticket attempting those roads.  The police have obviously figured this out, because speed traps seem to be extremely popular in these parts.  I noticed at least half a dozen in the second half of the day.  Luckily I am not going fast enough most of the time to be a target!

(On a side note you might notice that there are no picture of border crossing for Tennessee today.  I did enter Tennessee, but Tennesseans are shy and quiet beings and their signs announcing you are entering their state are tiny little green signs, highly uninteresting and not worth stopping to photograph.  Hmmph.)

Finally, some observations on Asheville from riding around downtown and various suburbs.  This is quite a cool place... lots of nice looking restaurants, coffee shops, wine bars and a lot of people out and about attending said establishments.  Makes me want to actually visit some time and get involved in attending.  Also, I saw a plethora of natural/organic/good for you food places (Whole Foods-like places like Fresh Market and others).  Asheville definitely seems like a good place to be.

So here is (most of) today's route.  I had a two hour break in the middle of the day for yucky rain (and a soaking incident later... but I recovered from both) but all in all a really nice riding day.

Orlando 2014 Day Two Route

Orlando Day Two: A Note From the Packing Committee

So who said you can't pack a ton of stuff on that cute little Vespa?  I got smart today and got a luggage cart to lug it all up the the room!

Orlando Day Two: North Carolina

Orlando Day Two: Another State Down!

Orlando Day Two: Kentucky back roads

Orlando Day Two: Lets go through the mountains

So the eventual target is Orlando, but since we are doing this without any other plan, I decided I should at least have interim targets. It helps when deciding which way to run away from the rain. 

Today's targets are Kingsport, Asheville and Augusta (Georgia not Maine silly). Augusta would be a stretch but it is good to have lofty ambitions, right?

Skies are cloudy and the pavement is wet. Not good signs. (Note the big truck Siemens sent as a support vehicle. Nice!)

Orlando Day One: Done! (Morehead, KY)

Wind and annoying rain early, with thunder and lightning and monsoon conditions late in the day. Not nearly the relaxing scenic ride I was hoping for but there were tasty hamburgers in the middle.

Morehead, Kentucky. Situated amongst some lovely (I suspect, it wasn't rain-drenched) scenery. I picked Morehead while hiding out at the gas station as the closest place with a hotel (lessening any chance of either being hit by a thunderbolt or having the bike slide out from under me due to the lack of traction from my rear tire). About 90 minutes to go 20 some miles. Ugh. 

But the front desk guy found me a room. And insisted I park right in front of the front door so he could keep an eye on the bike. Nice guy. 

Unpacked. Drying things out.

Done. For today.

(Track from today's ride.  Note there is a small gap between Urbana and Ripley.  Some technology teething pains.)

Orlando Day One: Storm event

Up to the minute status:  Rain. Lightning. Thunder. Luckily in the wilds of Kentucky they left an abandoned gas station. And interesting stuff to climb on!

Orlando Day One: Silver Lining

My original evil plan was to take US23 basically all the way to Florida from Ann Arbor. Looked like the fastest non-Interstate way to go. Unfortunately, there is a huge storm in the way and the wind and rain made even a four lane highway too treacherous and I bailed to back highways.

The GPS recommended falling back to US68. I cursed a bit as I rode 20 miles the wrong direction (I hate going backwards) but as I got off US30 to go south on US68, I realized I'd been here before. Several times. ;)

Crabill's Hamburger Shop in Urbana, OH. Possibly the tastiest sliders in the world (White Castle sliders are dull and tasteless compared to these guys.)

I would have taken MORE pictures but there were some power issues (and some successes!). 

Off to Orlando

A three week odyssey starts now!  Orlando here we come!