Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Thanks T... 14 days to go!

We'll im packed and ready to go for my first solo trip. I'm excited as heck!

I'm leaving at 10:30 this morning for a Ladies only weekend in Brandon, Florida. I'm meeting 3 other Ladies in Lake Wales and were riding together into Brandon to stay with a friend for the weekend. Nothing major planed just some girl time around the pool.

I've got my route planed out, my cell phone with contact numbers for the Ladies im meeting up there, my rain gear and my IPod. We gave my bike a lookover last night checked everything out to make sure it was in good working condition, all I have to do is gas up and head out.

I'm returning on Sunday i'll be back in town in the afternoon, i'll let you guys know how it went!

Ride safe Blues, and have fun

MetricRider wrote:Ride safe Blues, and have fun

ermmmm, wrong person me thinks...

D'oh... Ride safe and have a good time Sweet...

Have fun! You better blog the trip later.

Sorry this took so long to post. As soon as I got home on Sunday I had to start preparing for Tropical Storm Ernesto which is headed our way. They expected it to turn into a Hurricane but it looks like it's maintaining it's tropical storm status....

Anyways here it goes...


Destination: Brandon, Florida

Mission: Confidential…What happens in Tampa stays in Tampa.

The excuse we gave in order to get away: Mini BBR rally with fellow VROC Ladies.

The plan: To ride North to Lake Wales to meet up with Zmean1, Margot and Lisa, from there we would ride together to Thrillseekers house.

This was supposed to be a solo ride, but it turned out that I had some company half way up there. My husband and brother in law couldn’t resist the temptation and rode up with me half way. What is it with these people they can’t resist a ride, don’t these people work?!

I packed my rain gear, gassed up and headed out. We took Krome Avenue up to 27 and headed North. 27 North bound was great, we danced around the semis and dirt trucks that frequent that interstate. I’m convinced that some of those truck drivers love making our lives (bikers) impossible. They would speed up and pass, then get back into the right lane and slow down, then everyone would pass them again and they speed up and pass….I don’t get it. It was a nice long stretch of highway and gave me the opportunity to really open up my bike and clear out some of that carbon build up!

We were expecting rain, but didn’t get any until we passed Lake Okeechobee. The huge storm clouds kept harassing us, but just about when we decide to pull over and put the rain gear on the road would curve the opposite way and we’d be saved. We finally did have to stop and get geared up because it was just too unpredictable. The showers and traffic finally got me in Sebring but I made it through okay, it was when I finally got to Lake Wales that it just opened up. Luckily the meeting place was just down the street so I got there parked the bike and ran into the IHOP.

30 minutes later Zmean1, Margot and Lisa arrive, they got some nasty rain on the way as well. We sat inside for a little bit got some coffee, made some small talk, and we headed off.

It wasn’t soon after our departure that we ran across a train blocking the intersection. The train just HAPPENS to stop blocking only the west bound lanes…just precious. We tried getting the guy to toot his horn but he ignored us or so we thought, just as the traffic got going he toots his horn unexpectedly and scares the crap out of us. Brandon is a cute little town but it should be nick-named the railroad crossing capital of the world! Good grief those things were everywhere and not in the best condition either, it made for some interesting rail road crossings.

We finally get to Thrillseekers house and she greets us with a big ole warm welcome and some appetizers ready to go. We settled in and hung out by the pool just having some cocktails, good ole harmless girl talk and planning the next day.

Saturday morning came around and we headed to the supermarket to buy some stuff for the day and we take two pool rafts to get inflated at the gas station. When pool time was over we got ready for a night on the town VROC ladies style whoop whoop!

We got on our bikes and head out the HOG PEN!! We were supposed to meet Joker (a fellow VROCer) there…..but when we called him to let him know we were there he was out ANTIQUING?! WTF… antiquing? Um ok… I’m sorry you didn’t get to go Joker, would have loved to meet you. We did have a great time Hog Pen though, met some interesting characters most of whom were amazed that 5 biker ladies just walked through the doors. You’d figured they’ve never seen that before… We met a nice young man that had a beautiful black and chrome chopper. It’s was just as loud as it was beautiful!

The Hog Pen was great until the only bartender in the place got a phone call and started ignoring everyone…so we left. It was time to get some thing to eat so we headed out to the Wing House, similar establishment to Hooters. We had a nice dinner outside, chilled out for bit and headed back home because there was a storm rolling in, big nasty one with a lot of attitude!

Sunday morning rolled around quicker than we wanted it to and we made a nice hearty breakfast for the road. Some took a quick dip in the pool, then we cleaned up, packed up and headed out. We headed out to our original meeting point to meet my husband who would be riding home with me. Margot had a bit of a hairy situation turning into the IHOP, she slid over some oil in the road but quickly recovered and made it through. We went inside to grab some coffee and were talking about what had just happened to Margot. Lisa kept saying “When in doubt gas it out” that kind of stuck with me. We finished coffee, and said our good byes, we parted ways and I headed home with My husband.

A bit down the road we put our rain gear on and got a really good down pour. It stopped fairly fast but the roads were still wet. We were coming off of a good bit of highway when we were approaching a traffic light that turned yellow. I decided it was too risky to take it so I began to stop…then the fun began… As I started braking I felt my rear tire slip and the rear side of the bike started to swing right, I slowly eased off the brakes the tire caught traction again and I accelerated that bike clear across that intersection luckily before the other cars started crossing. There was a semi coming the opposite way ( I was going south he was going north) that also could not stop in time and took the red at the same time. Well of course My husband is behind me and witnessed the entire thing, but I wasn’t out of the clear yet. I had a car that had turned behind me and didn’t see me slowing down to pull over, he slammed his brakes and started skidding so I made a hard left and went on to the grassy median. I waited there while my husband made his way across, I cleaned the crap out of my pants, gave him a thumbs up and headed out again. When that bike started slipping I thought of what Lisa had said in the restaurant… “When in doubt gas it out” I think she saved me some serious road rash.

The rest of the trip was fine, except for some suicidal sparrows we got along the way. What was up with that? A bunch of little birds were swooping across the fields and the road, they were all over the place. I felt like Tippi Hedrin in the movie “Birds”. It wasn’t at just one location either, every once in a while there they were again…

In the end I was happy when we were on 27th heading south past the lake. We finally did get home safely in one piece…

That’s all folks, I’ve got some underwear bleaching to do!

In total I did about 540 miles round trip...


Here are some pictures, I didn't have any pictures along the way because of the miserable rain...

Good to hear that you had fun and survived. Nice pics too.

I just need to vent...I've officialy had the week from hell.

I've been in the hospital 3 diffrent times with the kids. ahhh the joys of parent hood, those of you that don't have kids should have some soon, it's really alot of fun. The middle one sprained her neck on the trampoline, she's fine now. The youngest one had a fever of 105, her Dr. told me to take her directly to the hosp for test just in case, then it turned out to be viral. THEN yesterday afternoon I get a call that my oldest son twised his ankle on the basketball court. I had to take him to the hospital also since it's the same ankle he broke 2 years ago. Thankfuly they're all fine but im exhausted and sick and tired of hospitals!

On the bright side, I did get to spend some time with my Mom today which is recovering from Chemo treatments. She's finally getting back to normal and sounding more like herself! I was really good to see her back in good spirits.

Anyways...im more than ready for this weekend. We're heading down to the Florida Keys tomorrow morning for the poker run weekend. We're not doing the actual poker run, but just heading down there for all the fun. Going are my husband and I, my brother with his wife and my sister with her boyfriend. I really love the ride down there, it's just miles and miles of bridge after bridge and ocean on both sides of the highway. I'll make sure to take plenty of pictures to share!!

Thanks for letting me vent...

Phil Petersons HD Poker Run/ Key West Bike Week


We departed on Friday morning at 10am as scheduled. Our group consisted of my husband and I, My brother and his wife, my sister and her boyfriend, 4 bikes in total. We took Krome Avenue South and headed towards US1. The second we hit US1 we were greeted by group after group of bikes headed south. The thunder from their bikes brought a grin from ear to ear, man I love that sound! It was at that point that we knew it was going to be a great weekend. We decided to avoid the masses at each poker run stop and just ride down for the Bike Week event in the Florida Keys

We made our way down US1 pretty uneventfully. There were a lot of bikes on the road but everyone was pretty organized and in formation for the most part. Traffic got a little thick along the poker run stops but law enforcement was directing traffic and that made for pretty smooth sailing. We stopped at one of the bars in Holiday Isle for a pit stop. After a couple of non alcoholic and hydrating beverages (who am I kidding?) and a quick lunch we were back on our way south.

The weather up to this point was glorious! It was hot and sunny yet a little overcast which was perfect because we got a break from the sun every once in a while. Then at one point in true South Florida weather, the storm clouds rolled in! One of my favorite parts of riding down to the keys is crossing all the bridges and luckily the weather held out until we crossed over the 7 mile bridge.

Crossing the 7 mile bridge on the motorcycles was like taking a clean deep breath of fresh air. It was awesome, I looked to each side and could see endless miles of beautiful ocean. Having grown up in South Florida, the ocean has become like an old friend to me. It’s a refuge for me in good times and in bad, it’s as much therapy for me as it is riding my motorcycle. I was one with the universe while crossing that bridge…..until I looked towards land again and it was like hearing a needle skip across a record ERK! RAIN, not just rain but holey crap it’s going to be really bad rain. We pulled over put our rain gear on and pressed forward. The rain came down hard for a few minutes and then was gone. The skies cleared up again and before we knew it we were in Key West!

We made our way to the Hotel, by this time it was already 3:30 pm. We settled in, got familiar with where the pool was and headed out to do some light grocery shopping for some essentials. Got back, dropped everything off and headed down towards Duval for some good times. Making our way towards Duval was not as bad as we had anticipated. There was traffic but nothing overwhelming, we found a parking spot fairly easily and began our walk down Duval.

There was a lot of everything on Duval, not a little of everything but a lot of everything…lol From the outrageous to the understand and I’m not talking about just bikes! The pictures will tell it all! We met up with some friends for some drinks and dinner later that night and I really can’t remember much else. It’s just kind of a blur right now…..

We spent most of the days hanging out by the pool because it was SO HOT!!! and at night time we would head down to Duval to check out the bikes and mingle with the crowd. By Sunday the crown had thinned out a lot but still a good number of bikers around chilling out at the bars. We took advantage of the thinned out crowds and did the tourist thing for the day visiting some land marks and did some shopping. The weather held out pretty good until Sunday night. We were having dinner when all of the sudden the sky just opened up and by the time we finished our espresso most of the streets were flooded. We got back to the bikes to find that the water had risen just above the bottom part of the rims. Nice eh? We managed to get the bikes out and called it an early night.

Monday morning was the pits. There really isn’t a better way to put it. We headed out in the rain and stopped for breakfast. We meet some nice bikers from Central Florida and we swapped a couple of stories. One of them was waiting for his bike to be repaired. The belt on his Harley snapped as soon as he got into town and had to rent a scooter to get around! Poor guy he was kind of embarrassed about it. We headed out after breakfast with our rain gear on because we knew that it would be a wet ride. A few miles down my brother noticed that Rick’s tire was low on air so we pulled over and sure enough he had a flat tire. It took about 20 minutes to repair and we were back on the road. As soon as we got on the 7 mile bridge the skies just opened up. It was raining so hard that we slowed down to a crawl, I don’t think I ever got out of second gear the entire time. I had so much water in my boots that I could feel the water slush around every time I changed gears. I think it’s time to look into water proof boots!

We made our way back North cautiously, it would rain then clear up and back again. It finally cleared up completely when we hit Islamorada, after that it was clear sailing. We took the Card Sound road short cut and were back in Florida City before we knew it. We all parted way at this point, Rick and I hit the Turnpike and headed home.

Total miles: 370

Pictures are here... http://tinyurl.com/p9d9v