Conch
Tales
I’m going where the sun keep shining , going
where the weather suits my clothes.
Banking off of the northeast wind, sailing on
a summer breeze.
Skipping over the ocean like a stone
Harry Nillson/Everybodys Talking
Riding out of Key Largo, early on a Thursday morning In January and you could not have asked for much nicer riding weather with the temperature in the mid 70’s, Blue skies, a few fleecy clouds…………mostly a bright sunny day. A great day for a bike ride! Heading south on the Overseas Highway, it is also known as US1, some of the locals call it the Conch Road. It runs 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West, Florida. Connecting the small islands known as keys: Windley, Matecumbe, Long, Conch, Duck, Grassy, Bahia Honda, Big Pine, Little Torch, Ramrod, Summerland, Cudjoe, Sugarloaf and Coppit Keys to name a few before before finally crossing the bridge on to Stock Island and Key West.
It had been some time since my last good bike ride and when the wife tells you that you need to get away on the bike, you know that it is time to pack things up and go. There was one slight problem though. Although it had been a mild winter for us in North Florida, not far north the temperatures were dipping into the teens. Not exactly the kind of riding weather I look for. But being in the northern part of Florida there was still some south for me to go. So with really only one direction to travel as an option, I got out my well-worn Florida map.
A week later, the bike packed up for a 4-5 day ride I was on RT19 heading south through the Ocala National Forest. This is a nice ride with very little traffic. A good portion of RT19 runs along the edge of Lake George, a large lake in central Florida. However you rarely ever see the lake because of all the trees. Exiting the Park, you enter Florida’s, Hill and Lake Country. Somewhere nearby, is one of Florida’s higher peaks, Sugarloaf Mountain, which tops out at and astounding 312’. There are many lakes, so rarely do you find a straight line ride as is so common in the rest of Florida, as the roads wind between the lakes. There are a few larger lakes: Mt Dora, Apopka, Eustis and Yale with literally hundreds of smaller ones, some not much more than sinkholes.
Just after Groveland, RT19 takes a bit of a jog east and becomes RT33 before heading due south. I rode into Polk City Just as the sun was setting; it was time to look for a place to spend the night. Polk City is just off of Interstate 4. There were several motels at the Interstate exit; however motels along the interstate always seem to be the most expensive so I generally try to find a place located on the edge of town after passing through. The danger with this is that there may not be one available in which case I either get to turn around and go back or ride on to the next town in the dark. At Polk City, I did get lucky though and found a nice small place just outside of town. Nothing fancy, but clean at a decent rate and a place to spend the night. I was able to park the bike right outside the front door of the motel room. After a quick meal from the Quick Stop next door to the motel, I was to bed early and up early the next morning.
There was a bit of a chill in the air as I packed up the bike. Some mist in the trees and not a breath of a breeze or a cloud in the sky as I pulled out from the motel onto RT33 heading south. It was one of those days that you could just tell would be warming up pretty soon and a fine day for a bike ride. Not far out of town I came across a truck stop so stopped to top off the gas and get some breakfast. While on the road, breakfast is usually my big meal and I generally take my time about it, enjoying a couple of cups of coffee after the meal and reading a local newspaper. For some reason though, this morning, I wanted to get moving on. So I finished up my biscuits and gravy, had one cup of excellent coffee and was back on the bike riding through the small towns of south central Florida: Frost Proof, Crooked Lake Park, , Sebring, Lake Placid. After Sebring the road gradually turns to the west heading towards Fort Myers. Before reaching Ft Myers though you come across Interstate 75 which runs along the west coast of Florida between Tampa and Naples before heading back east across the state to Miami. I got onto I-75 and took it some 30 miles into Naples, my first Interstate ride of the trip. 75mph, feet up on the highway pegs 4 lanes and not a whole lot of traffic. It seemed like a short ride to the exit at County Road 951 just west of Naples. I got off onto the county road and let me you, when I came through here some 40 years ago, it was not much more than mosquitoes and alligators and an occasional car. Now it is four lanes of almost bumper to bumper traffic, fast food restaurants and strip malls. It was a relief to finally see signs for Hwy41, also known as the Tamiami trail.
The Tamiami Trail, completed in 1928 is one of the older highways in Florida; it actually runs from Tampa to Miami hence its name. But most people know it for the portion from Naples to Miami. It is also known as Alligator Alley. The trail from Naples to the outskirts of Miami has not really changed all that much in the past 75 years. It is 2 lanes wide with a canal running along both sides of the road. It runs through the Everglades and Big Cypress National parks. There is not much along the trail in the way of amenities. There are several stops where one can take and airboat ride into the Everglades for $10. A few Miccosukee Indian Reservation stops and not really a whole lot else as it primarily all swamp and low land, not much development has been done, although it is creeping in from both Naples and Miami. As it is mostly all a national park now, there is not much that the developers can do. I’m sure that if they had their way, there would be Condos from Naples to Miami by now.
I enjoyed the ride across the trail. The speed limit of 55 mph is supposedly strictly enforced although I don’t think I saw a law enforcement officer on the whole trail, everyone seemed to be obeying the speed limit and as a result I got the best MPG of my whole trip there. Arriving near Miami, I did not want to get involved with the big city traffic so got off of the trail onto Krome Ave which is about 20 miles west of Miami proper. South on Krome Ave is still pretty crowded but not bad. I have never seen so many plant nurseries though; this must be the plant capital of the world. Mile after mile: one nursey after another. I bet if you want to buy any kind of Florida plant, you can find it on Krome Ave. At Homestead, Krome becomes US1 and takes you all the way to Key West.
When I rode into Key Largo, It had been a long day on the bike. All the way from central Florida to Naples, across the state to Miami and down into the Keys. One thing about the Keys, I was not going to have any luck finding a reasonably priced place to spend the night. As I had all of the gear on the bike, I considered camping but there did not seem to be any campgrounds around. So I stopped at the Sea Lion Inn and got a decent room for an outrageous price, walked across the street and had an OK seafood meal for a similarly ridiculous price. Welcome to the Keys.
The next day, after a delightful ride through the Keys, I arrived in Key West a bit after noon and soon realized that I should have probably picked another time to come. Or, perhaps just stayed away all together, with the fine memories of Key West as I remembered it from so many years ago: as little more than a fishing village where some artists lived, opening shops and galleries along Duval Street with more than a few bars and good seafood restaurants. I did ride all the way down to the southernmost point which you can drive to in the United States which really is not the southernmost point as that distinction belongs to the military base from there I rode on over to Duval Street which runs across the island and is sort of the main drag through the town. Now it is filled with souvenir shops that sell the same stuff everywhere. You can buy the same thing in Sausalito California or Bar harbor Maine. It just says Key West on it here. T-shirt shops with the same sign that you see at t-shirt shops all up and down the coast “4 shirts for $20”. The first time you wash one of these t-shirts , one of 2 things will happen, the shirt will either fall apart in the washing machine or shrink 3 sizes…but you can get 4 for $20.
There was not a parking place to be found along Duval Street, the place was crowded. I found out later that while I was there 3 things were happening: it was race week so all of the big race boats, their owners and fans were in town for that, there were 3 cruise ships in port, each of them dropping off 3-4,000 passengers who all wanted to get into Jimmy Buffet’s Margaretville Restaurant/Bar on Duval and there was also an annual gardening convention in town. So, with all that going on, I rode on over to Smathers Beach, which was relatively quiet. I found a nice place down by the water and watched the sailboat races off in the distance. After a drink and a bite to eat from a kiosk on the beach I got back on the bike and rode on down South Street looking for the place we lived and the elementary school I attended way back in the 50's when I was just 6 years old. I wasn’t sure where either of them were located and after some riding through the back streets of Key West, I finally gave up, figuring that both places had probably long since been torn down and headed back out of the city.
After another nice ride through the Keys, I arrived back in Homestead, just after dark. Not very good planning on my part. I was at the entrance to the Florida Turnpike which would take me north through Miami. The Turnpike is a toll highway that gets you through the Miami/Ft Lauderdale metropolitan complex. In places it is 8 lanes wide….The last time I had ridden through here was over 30 years ago so it might as well have been like riding through a strange city. It was just not the best or wisest thing to be doing on a motorcycle at night. However I did and made through without any mishaps but it was pretty tense. In South Florida, you don’t need to have a Sun Pass to ride through the toll gates or pay at the gate (of which there are many) a camera takes a picture of your license tag as you pass thru and a bill is supposedly mailed to your home. Well, it either was not working or the camera just could not pick up the small tag on the motorcycle as I never got a bill.
Arriving in Jupiter, I was dead tired after the long day on the bike so pulled off at the Jupiter and got a room at a Days Inn, just off of the exit. I could not get a room on the first floor so had to carry all my stuff up to the third floor. At least they had an elevator. After getting all of the gear off of the bike and up to the room, I went back, locked it up and walked across the street to Sonny’s for a BBQ meal. After the long day and the tense ride through Miami, it did not take me long to get to sleep.
The next morning I carried all of my stuff back out to the bike, and checked out of the Hotel. I rode over to the nearby 7-11, topped up the gas and had a cold coffee before getting back on the turnpike. North of Jupiter the Turnpike turned into a pretty nice ride, a good road not a lot of traffic and you could tell it was going to be another fine day in Florida. The Turnpike heads inland near Ft Pierce so that is where I got off, riding over to US1 then across the intracoastal waterway, to A1A and north along the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the bridge at Sebastian Inlet and about 20 miles further to Indialantic, the town that I grew up in and where my Mom Sisters, Brothers in Law and Nephews all live now. I had a nice visit with them for a few days. It was a good place to spend some time and wind down from a somewhat stressful ride. Stressful, mainly because I had been places on this ride that I had been to so long ago and the memories of the way they used to be are so much better than the way they are now. There are just too many people and it seems like everything in South Florida has been turned in to a tourist trap, selling stuff that no one really wants at exorbitant prices that unfortunately people are willing to pay. Anyway it was good to be back with family in Indialantic; one square mile which really has not changed all that much in 50 years………Sort of an Oasis amid the chaotic stuff going on all around it.
After spending a few days, I was back on the bike for the final leg of my ride. About 4pm I headed north back on A1A to Cape Canaveral then took the bridge across the Banana and Indian rivers to US1 and north again to Mims where I got gas, I got on RT46 for about a mile to I-95. Once on I-95, I put the hammer down; 80 mph, cruise control and with one stop I was back in Jax, rolling into the driveway before the sun set
Phil Hughes
Jacksonville, Fl January 2012
I’m going where the sun keep shining , going
where the weather suits my clothes.
Banking off of the northeast wind, sailing on
a summer breeze.
Skipping over the ocean like a stone
Harry Nillson/Everybodys Talking
Riding out of Key Largo, early on a Thursday morning In January and you could not have asked for much nicer riding weather with the temperature in the mid 70’s, Blue skies, a few fleecy clouds…………mostly a bright sunny day. A great day for a bike ride! Heading south on the Overseas Highway, it is also known as US1, some of the locals call it the Conch Road. It runs 100 miles from Key Largo to Key West, Florida. Connecting the small islands known as keys: Windley, Matecumbe, Long, Conch, Duck, Grassy, Bahia Honda, Big Pine, Little Torch, Ramrod, Summerland, Cudjoe, Sugarloaf and Coppit Keys to name a few before before finally crossing the bridge on to Stock Island and Key West.
It had been some time since my last good bike ride and when the wife tells you that you need to get away on the bike, you know that it is time to pack things up and go. There was one slight problem though. Although it had been a mild winter for us in North Florida, not far north the temperatures were dipping into the teens. Not exactly the kind of riding weather I look for. But being in the northern part of Florida there was still some south for me to go. So with really only one direction to travel as an option, I got out my well-worn Florida map.
A week later, the bike packed up for a 4-5 day ride I was on RT19 heading south through the Ocala National Forest. This is a nice ride with very little traffic. A good portion of RT19 runs along the edge of Lake George, a large lake in central Florida. However you rarely ever see the lake because of all the trees. Exiting the Park, you enter Florida’s, Hill and Lake Country. Somewhere nearby, is one of Florida’s higher peaks, Sugarloaf Mountain, which tops out at and astounding 312’. There are many lakes, so rarely do you find a straight line ride as is so common in the rest of Florida, as the roads wind between the lakes. There are a few larger lakes: Mt Dora, Apopka, Eustis and Yale with literally hundreds of smaller ones, some not much more than sinkholes.
Just after Groveland, RT19 takes a bit of a jog east and becomes RT33 before heading due south. I rode into Polk City Just as the sun was setting; it was time to look for a place to spend the night. Polk City is just off of Interstate 4. There were several motels at the Interstate exit; however motels along the interstate always seem to be the most expensive so I generally try to find a place located on the edge of town after passing through. The danger with this is that there may not be one available in which case I either get to turn around and go back or ride on to the next town in the dark. At Polk City, I did get lucky though and found a nice small place just outside of town. Nothing fancy, but clean at a decent rate and a place to spend the night. I was able to park the bike right outside the front door of the motel room. After a quick meal from the Quick Stop next door to the motel, I was to bed early and up early the next morning.
There was a bit of a chill in the air as I packed up the bike. Some mist in the trees and not a breath of a breeze or a cloud in the sky as I pulled out from the motel onto RT33 heading south. It was one of those days that you could just tell would be warming up pretty soon and a fine day for a bike ride. Not far out of town I came across a truck stop so stopped to top off the gas and get some breakfast. While on the road, breakfast is usually my big meal and I generally take my time about it, enjoying a couple of cups of coffee after the meal and reading a local newspaper. For some reason though, this morning, I wanted to get moving on. So I finished up my biscuits and gravy, had one cup of excellent coffee and was back on the bike riding through the small towns of south central Florida: Frost Proof, Crooked Lake Park, , Sebring, Lake Placid. After Sebring the road gradually turns to the west heading towards Fort Myers. Before reaching Ft Myers though you come across Interstate 75 which runs along the west coast of Florida between Tampa and Naples before heading back east across the state to Miami. I got onto I-75 and took it some 30 miles into Naples, my first Interstate ride of the trip. 75mph, feet up on the highway pegs 4 lanes and not a whole lot of traffic. It seemed like a short ride to the exit at County Road 951 just west of Naples. I got off onto the county road and let me you, when I came through here some 40 years ago, it was not much more than mosquitoes and alligators and an occasional car. Now it is four lanes of almost bumper to bumper traffic, fast food restaurants and strip malls. It was a relief to finally see signs for Hwy41, also known as the Tamiami trail.
The Tamiami Trail, completed in 1928 is one of the older highways in Florida; it actually runs from Tampa to Miami hence its name. But most people know it for the portion from Naples to Miami. It is also known as Alligator Alley. The trail from Naples to the outskirts of Miami has not really changed all that much in the past 75 years. It is 2 lanes wide with a canal running along both sides of the road. It runs through the Everglades and Big Cypress National parks. There is not much along the trail in the way of amenities. There are several stops where one can take and airboat ride into the Everglades for $10. A few Miccosukee Indian Reservation stops and not really a whole lot else as it primarily all swamp and low land, not much development has been done, although it is creeping in from both Naples and Miami. As it is mostly all a national park now, there is not much that the developers can do. I’m sure that if they had their way, there would be Condos from Naples to Miami by now.
I enjoyed the ride across the trail. The speed limit of 55 mph is supposedly strictly enforced although I don’t think I saw a law enforcement officer on the whole trail, everyone seemed to be obeying the speed limit and as a result I got the best MPG of my whole trip there. Arriving near Miami, I did not want to get involved with the big city traffic so got off of the trail onto Krome Ave which is about 20 miles west of Miami proper. South on Krome Ave is still pretty crowded but not bad. I have never seen so many plant nurseries though; this must be the plant capital of the world. Mile after mile: one nursey after another. I bet if you want to buy any kind of Florida plant, you can find it on Krome Ave. At Homestead, Krome becomes US1 and takes you all the way to Key West.
When I rode into Key Largo, It had been a long day on the bike. All the way from central Florida to Naples, across the state to Miami and down into the Keys. One thing about the Keys, I was not going to have any luck finding a reasonably priced place to spend the night. As I had all of the gear on the bike, I considered camping but there did not seem to be any campgrounds around. So I stopped at the Sea Lion Inn and got a decent room for an outrageous price, walked across the street and had an OK seafood meal for a similarly ridiculous price. Welcome to the Keys.
The next day, after a delightful ride through the Keys, I arrived in Key West a bit after noon and soon realized that I should have probably picked another time to come. Or, perhaps just stayed away all together, with the fine memories of Key West as I remembered it from so many years ago: as little more than a fishing village where some artists lived, opening shops and galleries along Duval Street with more than a few bars and good seafood restaurants. I did ride all the way down to the southernmost point which you can drive to in the United States which really is not the southernmost point as that distinction belongs to the military base from there I rode on over to Duval Street which runs across the island and is sort of the main drag through the town. Now it is filled with souvenir shops that sell the same stuff everywhere. You can buy the same thing in Sausalito California or Bar harbor Maine. It just says Key West on it here. T-shirt shops with the same sign that you see at t-shirt shops all up and down the coast “4 shirts for $20”. The first time you wash one of these t-shirts , one of 2 things will happen, the shirt will either fall apart in the washing machine or shrink 3 sizes…but you can get 4 for $20.
There was not a parking place to be found along Duval Street, the place was crowded. I found out later that while I was there 3 things were happening: it was race week so all of the big race boats, their owners and fans were in town for that, there were 3 cruise ships in port, each of them dropping off 3-4,000 passengers who all wanted to get into Jimmy Buffet’s Margaretville Restaurant/Bar on Duval and there was also an annual gardening convention in town. So, with all that going on, I rode on over to Smathers Beach, which was relatively quiet. I found a nice place down by the water and watched the sailboat races off in the distance. After a drink and a bite to eat from a kiosk on the beach I got back on the bike and rode on down South Street looking for the place we lived and the elementary school I attended way back in the 50's when I was just 6 years old. I wasn’t sure where either of them were located and after some riding through the back streets of Key West, I finally gave up, figuring that both places had probably long since been torn down and headed back out of the city.
After another nice ride through the Keys, I arrived back in Homestead, just after dark. Not very good planning on my part. I was at the entrance to the Florida Turnpike which would take me north through Miami. The Turnpike is a toll highway that gets you through the Miami/Ft Lauderdale metropolitan complex. In places it is 8 lanes wide….The last time I had ridden through here was over 30 years ago so it might as well have been like riding through a strange city. It was just not the best or wisest thing to be doing on a motorcycle at night. However I did and made through without any mishaps but it was pretty tense. In South Florida, you don’t need to have a Sun Pass to ride through the toll gates or pay at the gate (of which there are many) a camera takes a picture of your license tag as you pass thru and a bill is supposedly mailed to your home. Well, it either was not working or the camera just could not pick up the small tag on the motorcycle as I never got a bill.
Arriving in Jupiter, I was dead tired after the long day on the bike so pulled off at the Jupiter and got a room at a Days Inn, just off of the exit. I could not get a room on the first floor so had to carry all my stuff up to the third floor. At least they had an elevator. After getting all of the gear off of the bike and up to the room, I went back, locked it up and walked across the street to Sonny’s for a BBQ meal. After the long day and the tense ride through Miami, it did not take me long to get to sleep.
The next morning I carried all of my stuff back out to the bike, and checked out of the Hotel. I rode over to the nearby 7-11, topped up the gas and had a cold coffee before getting back on the turnpike. North of Jupiter the Turnpike turned into a pretty nice ride, a good road not a lot of traffic and you could tell it was going to be another fine day in Florida. The Turnpike heads inland near Ft Pierce so that is where I got off, riding over to US1 then across the intracoastal waterway, to A1A and north along the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the bridge at Sebastian Inlet and about 20 miles further to Indialantic, the town that I grew up in and where my Mom Sisters, Brothers in Law and Nephews all live now. I had a nice visit with them for a few days. It was a good place to spend some time and wind down from a somewhat stressful ride. Stressful, mainly because I had been places on this ride that I had been to so long ago and the memories of the way they used to be are so much better than the way they are now. There are just too many people and it seems like everything in South Florida has been turned in to a tourist trap, selling stuff that no one really wants at exorbitant prices that unfortunately people are willing to pay. Anyway it was good to be back with family in Indialantic; one square mile which really has not changed all that much in 50 years………Sort of an Oasis amid the chaotic stuff going on all around it.
After spending a few days, I was back on the bike for the final leg of my ride. About 4pm I headed north back on A1A to Cape Canaveral then took the bridge across the Banana and Indian rivers to US1 and north again to Mims where I got gas, I got on RT46 for about a mile to I-95. Once on I-95, I put the hammer down; 80 mph, cruise control and with one stop I was back in Jax, rolling into the driveway before the sun set
Phil Hughes
Jacksonville, Fl January 2012