Thought I would share my 2100 mile ride with you guys. This was my first long ride of any sort, and been planned for quite awhile. There were 11 of us, 10 of which were coming from Indiana. I was coming from Tennessee. We met on I-65 in Birmingham Thursday March 20th, and continued on down to Gulf Shores on trailer. We had 2 small kids to drop off at Grandma's house. Friday morning, at 7am, we started out with air temps at 46 degrees. Nobody but me had been in Fla much and they wanted to ride the coast, Hwy 98. I knew it would be a long day. We were scheduled to stop every 120 miles for gas and a stretch. Our goal was a small town, near Orlando, Fla. We reached our destination at 10:30 pm , tired and hungry. The next morning we awoke to rain showers. We ate breakfast and put on the rain gear. We got down in south Fla, about noon on Hwy 27 about Miami level, and the bottom fell out. I have never ridden in those kinds of conditions. You had to ride the centerline of the road, because the lanes were flooded. As oncoming cars approached you had to drift back in the lane hitting puddles sometimes several inches deep making hard riding. We found a place to pull off and waiting for the storm to pass. We finally made it to Key Largo and that’s where we ran completely out of the rain. We had a condo rented on Marathon Key just a few more miles. We made the return trip back this past weekend, using a bit more interstate. All in all it was a great trip. My cousin and I were the only ones with touring bikes, and found them to be the ticket. I had satellite radio, helping to pass the time. A few tips for those fixing to try this are, get highway pegs, pack your bike so that it is balanced, make frequent stops, don’t ride tired, stay hydrated, and drive defensively.

 

That was a great trip there. I did most of it about a month ago. I flew down to Lakeland where my buddy had our bikes ready and waiting. We spent 10 days doing it and the first weekend of Daytona bike week.

 

Nice! The Key West trip is a great ride!

 

Other then the rain sounds like y'all had a great time!!! If you can post some pics..."D"

 

hey wheres 98 at???? and what small town near orlando????????????

 

I was in that same rain storm. It was nasty.

 

Sounds like tipycal South Florida weather beautiful in the morning, nasty rain in the afternoon, during the spring and summer

 

should have gone the week earlier like I did, weather was beautifull.

Hwy 98 is in the panhandle running the gulf

 

I think the little town we stayed in was Dundee.

Hwy 98 is the the road going east/west in the Panhandle.

 

That ride into the Keys is pretty incredible. I'm fortunate enough to get to do it several times a year. The storms down here can get pretty brutal but once you get used to them, they don't seem like such a big deal. Sounds like you had a great time. Come back soon!