North Carolina to Florida Year End Christmas Ride 2019
Day 5
Christmas Day
Praise be to God for BEAUTIFUL day!
It’s hard to believe Christmas is in the rear-view mirror and day 5 of our ride has come to an end. But we are all smiles as this has been a spectacular day, and the best weather of the trip so far. I woke up to see the sunrise and the stars in the sky. Not a cloud to be seen. It was a bright and beautiful day up until maybe 3pm when the cloud cover rolled back in. We saw a high temperature of 70 degrees, sunglasses were needed, and we were comfortable in our like jackets over t-shirts.
I let the wife sleep in, had coffee ready when she woke, and we exchanged our Christmas cards to each other. We were lazy, and the maid knocked on the door and we decided we better get moving. I greeted her and handed her some Christmas cash which put a big smile on her face. The staff her have all been excellent! We loaded the bike with what we need for the day and went into the restaurant for breakfast. It was omelet, fruit, grits and bacon day!
In no time we were leaning left out of the parking garage heading west to Fort Pickens. I have to say that is a nice ride. The scenery is pretty, nice curving road and not too busy today. Enjoy the pictures. After about an hour we were rolling East with Destin being the destination. We came back by Margaritaville Resort and leaned right onto 399 toward Navarre Beach Pier where we stopped to enjoy the beautiful day and the awesome pier. Probably the finest pier I have ever been on. If you have not been to the Gulf Islands National Seashore you are missing out on one of the incredible parts of this great country. I rode through here about five years ago with a buddy on a Thanksgiving ride. My wife has been to Destin many times. However, we were always pulling our boat down and she only saw it from the water. She was really impressed with how beautiful this area is by land. After leaving the pier we crossed the bridge over to Hwy 98 and leaned right toward Fort Walton Beach and to Destin. Well guess what? Yeah once in Destin we ate at a favorite spot except this time not by boat. Yes Margaritaville, we are keeping Jimmy from going broke! Had a nice meal, visited memories of the boating events we enjoyed down here and much to our surprise three WWII prop plans stormed the beaches and put on a hell of a show for everyone. After a late lunch we headed back West on Hwy 98 and arrived at our hotel around 3:30pm. It was a wonderful day and hard to imagine that we did so much yet only covered 110 miles! Those 25 and 35 MPH speed limits along the coast line are very relaxing but make the trip feel longer which is not a bad thing.
Just an FYI. I started writing and recording by boating events and then our motorcycle adventures for my father’s enjoyment. He has been in bad health for some time now and loved to read and live through our travels. Now he cannot read do to poor eye sight, but I continue to document all travels for my own future reference when we can no longer do it. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.
Stay tuned for an exciting day tomorrow. It is LAUNDRY day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay let me introduce Terry Mason. I love meeting people and this was an interesting guy. I cannot remember his real last name. Mason is his professional name. He was the announcer at Talladega Motor Speedway I believe back in 2003 and 2004. He is a writer for Motorsports Magazine. He also has a local radio and television program. He said he was an avid rider owning about 25 bikes over the years and his wife of 30+ years also rode. Well his brother bought a Harley. His first ever and the very first day he was out on the road with just 34 miles on it a drunk driver rear ended him and killed him in Perdido Key while stopped at a pedestrion cross walk. Shortly afterwards he and his wife decided to give up the bikes and do street rods. He purchased a 65 Mustang for his wife and a 18 year old young man ran a stop sign, t-boned her and killed her. It was really interesting speaking with him. He was on the beach fishing and volunteered to take a picture of the wife and I.
12-25-2019 | 08:52 AM
Merry Christmas
