Avon Park Florida Winter Get Together! (2/17 - 2/20 2011)

[bagobones]

Ouch! I had my pinky finger surgically pinned more than 20 years ago. One minute, I'm crashing into a racketball wall, two hours later, I'm on an operating table feeling the vibrations from the drill going into my finger buzzing up my arm. I can still feel that sensation all these years later. The pins don't hurt....unless you forget that you can't bend your finger. Once in a while you forget.....And then.....well.....good times.  

[Zarticus]

I was mapping out my route last night & was able to get pictures of the hotel & surrounding area from a street view. the building next to the motel is a cvs, across from cvs is a Walgreen's. So a 45 second walk can get any supplies anyone wants. The rooms all have small refrigerators, cvs & Walgreen's sell beer , I don't drink much but my arm can be twisted after a long day of riding in almost 80 degree weather      

[Zarticus]

  I'm ready

[dt]

I was mapping out my route last night & was able to get pictures of the hotel & surrounding area from a street view.

Was it "glowing" in any of the pictures you saw? 



^ Off their website.

[Zarticus]

I was mapping out my route last night & was able to get pictures of the hotel & surrounding area from a street view.

Was it "glowing" in any of the pictures you saw? 



^ Off their website.

No, the picture was in the daylight but I'm glowing with excitment

[mrbones]

Have a good trip!

[v65infla]

0 DAYS UNTIL THE FGT! 

Packed and ready to roll out.

[dt]

^^ Wow! That stuff must be heavy if you needed a hand cart. 

Have a good trip!

Thank you sir...we will. 

0 DAYS UNTIL THE FGT! 

I am OFF......................

[v65infla]

Are u lost?   

[dt]

Now, I am BACK………………

Great trip…made a lot of new friends…had some terrific rides. I’ll let Jamie fill you in on all the details, but I’d like to THANK him for organizing this awesome get together. 

[v65infla]

It was an AWESOME time with 9 attendee's which tripled the first years numbers.    I am glad Bill was able to come; a great guy and a very good rider to boot.  I know for a fact this site earned at least one new member, even if he is from Maine.  

I am very much looking forward to riding with you again in NC, in May Bill if not before.  Sorry we missed you the last evening and this morning.  After we returned from Charlotte's last night, we have decided to attempt a short weekend camping trip there in approx. six weeks if you are game??  Maybe meet up there on a late Friday afternoon, pull out Sunday??  The usual MO of drinking beer and telling lies at night.  

It would be really sweet if we could get this board a bit more active both in terms of post's and events as now you have seen a very small sample of what an active board can be about.  I really do hope you decide to join us over in Waynseville for the remainder of the week in May so you can meet the rest of the nut cases on the v4 site.  

Here is my photo album;

http://s1133.photobucket.com/albums/m586/v65infla/?albumview=slideshow

[bagobones]

Looks like a good time. How many miles did you guys ride?

I need to make a countdown calendar for the NC trip. Thinking about that trip is about the only thing keeping me sane through the stress of my job right now.

[dt]

Here are my photos from the FGT:
http://s746.photobucket.com/albums/xx103/lscgroup/FGT%202011%20Avon%20Park/?albumview=slideshow

We all rode together on Thursday afternoon and Friday, then split into two groups on Saturday. I led the Lake Okeechobee loop down to the locks on the east side. Then I took a right (wrong way on 27/98) and Ron comes flying up and turned us around. Then he took over at the locks for about 15 miles, at which time Ken had a different idea to get us back over to Avon Park ‘cuz we’d already been out for like six hours and they didn’t want to go up to Yeehaw, so anyway Ken takes the lead. We got totally lost on this long gravely road and wound up at the Kissimmee Prairie Reserve State Park out in the middle of freaking nowhere. LOL! I’m still laughing my ass off. So Ron takes over again and backtracked us back on that gravely road all the way back to 98. Hahahaha…Ron’s the man!

If Mike joined here, then we had five bikerflorida subscribers on this ride. I found out from Larry that he’s a member here too (magnaone).

Enjoy the photos! I got a great big bug in the face. Would have wiped it off but it was gross.  

Looks like a good time. How many miles did you guys ride?

Including the ride down and back from Tampa, I clocked a total of 625 miles.  

[Zarticus]

Bill,
It was a pleasure to meet & ride with you!. We are going to have a great time in NC. That bug was nasty, I'm glad it got you instead of me You should try to make it to the V4 SGT with Jamie & I, You got to see how cool us V4 guy's are & It would be great to have you a part of it.
    Gary

[dcameras]

I got a great big bug in the face. Would have wiped it off but it was gross.  

This is another reason I like wearing a full face helmet......

[danh600]

Looks like you guys had a great time. I sure hope it works out for me to get to the next one.
I recognize lots of the places you guys rode. Been to Cherry Pocket, but never to Charlottes.

Can you guys match up some names,faces and bikes for us that missed the fun? That is unless there are warrants out for all of you after this weekend. 

[dt]

^^ Yeah, good idea on the name-to-faces. I'll take a shot at that a little latter...probably early evening, though.

[v65infla]

^^ Yeah, good idea on the name-to-faces. I'll take a shot at that a little latter...probably early evening, though.

I did it on the v4 site if u want to use that as a pattern, otherwise I will try to get to it later also.

[dt]

Here's the rundown of the riders at the FGT.

In order...JAMIE, DAN, RON, GARY, MICHAEL, KEN, GEORGE, LARRY, BILL.


Jamie, Boyton Beach, 84 V65Magna (v65infla)

Left to right: Ron, Michael, Dan, Jamie and Gary looking over Michael’s awesome 87 VFR Interceptor 700. Seriously, of all the cool bikes, Michael's Interceptor was sweet!  



Here’s Jamie workin’ the GPS to get us out of the orange grove. Heck, I thought it was actually kind of nice back there. Gotta say…I was bringing up second to the rear on a nice long sweeper back in those groves. It was so cool to see all the bikes roll through there one after the other. Wish I had a go-pro.



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Dan, V4Sabre Jax

Dan…what a funny guy…owns a Harley too…see! So for about a day I watched Dan bump the rear tire of whomever the dude happened to be in front of him when we all stopped at a light. Then Friday night we’re heading down to Sebring for dinner and I’m sitting waiting for the light…bump. LOL!



Dan and Larry on Saturday...the fast group…I’ll let it go at that.  



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Ron, Michigan, 83 V65Magna

Ron...annoyed at dt for making everyone stand for photos...LOL! Dang, thank God Ron was there to keep us all in order. Troubleshooter, map wizard, we'd still be in the Kissimmee Prairie Reserve right now if he'd gone with the fast group.





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Gary, Wild Wood, 86 V65Magna (Zaticus)



So I’m following about two or three back from Gary on a sweeper right and he goes literally rear wheel hopping to the left over into the oncoming traffic lane. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic. It took the better part of the day to figure out that his freaking shocks froze up and caused wheel hop on bumpy spots. btw, Ron figured it out. Needless to say, Gary took it easy after that. Anyway, look at ‘em here ‘cuz I’m sure they’re getting tossed soooon! Right Gary?





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Michael, Maine, 87 Interceptor (FromMaine)

Here’s Michael with our good natured, poor English-speaking hosts at the Guarapo Spanish Restaurant in Clewiston. Let’s see how’d this go…

Michael, looking at the menu asks, “What’s a Cuban?”
George *points at our hosts, Carlos and Consuela*
Sweeeeet!





Here’s Mike kicking back at the Kissimmee Prairie Reserve State Park waiting with the rest of us for Ron and Ken to figure out where the freak we were.



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Ken, Merritt Island, VF750

Ken < and George > gazing on beautiful Lake Okeechobee…or was it Ron taking a leak on the shore? I didn’t say anything, but I thought doo-rags were reserved for Harley dudes.  



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George, Palmetto, ‘86 VF700C

George was only there on Saturday and did the Okeechobee Loop with us…then he and Jamie went back to Charlotte’s Web.  



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Larry, Rockledge, 85 V65Magna (magnaone)

Hey, ya know Larry’s been a member of BF since 2008!

Left to right: Larry, Ken, Michael, Charlie Chaplin wearing Michael’s gear, Jamie, and Dan. Okay, Charlie was just a statue.  



Dan, Larry and George posing for annoying group photo.



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Bill, Tampa, 09 XR1200 (dt)

Bringing up the rear…me, at Charlotte’s Web. You do note the “non-alcoholic” beverage…right?



Michael < …  me > So I dragged my ass into Avon Park late and we head right out…didn’t even get my bags off. LOL!  

[v65infla]

Here are some more pics, courtesy of Ken.

http://s1133.photobucket.com/albums/m586/v65infla/FGT%202011%202/?albumview=slideshow

[Zarticus]

HEY,
You guy's have to admit I hung in there pretty good considering my shocks were junk . By the way they are now up to par with a complete disassemble, cleaning & changing of fluid today. Here is a link to my pictures of the FGT.
 http://www.photoshop.com/users/zarticus/albums/8b10f8123fa44b349aae44b538457b96?wf=slideshow
 

[dt]

Ah…good deal…you saved them. That was really weird. I’ve seen shocks lose all their compression from a leak or something but never a lockup like that. I was thinking it was going to be something mechanical. I saw on the other board you had to concoct a spring compressor. I know what a pain it is getting them apart. I have a cool set of spring compressors that I picked up at Pit Possee over in St. Petersburg (through their online store). They work good on both twins and monos. You could of stopped in on your way back and borrowed them.