Daytona Run (part 4)

Woke up early Sunday morning, ready to start our adventure, first stop Destination Daytona We road in somewhere around 9:00am found a parking spot right up front…just in time, this place soon filled up. Vendors, vendors everywhere, everything was here, tattoos, tire stores, audio, biker patches, leather, food, food and food. Everything was set up under large tents, in between the major building like J&P Cycle, Bruce Rossmeyer Harley Davison, WyoTech. The best way to describe this place is a huge outdoor mall for everything motorcycle.

Around 3:00pm we headed to Daytona International Speedway….I was shocked when we got there it was huge!!! Truth be known we had the place almost to ourselves…we road all over the place. Then we went and looked at the vendor’s that were set up under tents.

This is where I found this t-shirt…the design looked a lot like my buddy Matt's R2W Cycling design…looks like a little plagiarism going on to me…Hmmm, I’m sure my buddy Matt will say the T-Shirt company copied him not the other way around. Ha-ha.

We left at dark, stopped and got a bite to eat, then went back to the room for some much needed sleep, long day.


Next morning we headed back to Jacksonville…

to another Diner, Drive-in’s and Dives…

Stay tuned.
Big Al

Daytona Run (part 3)

Hmmm where was I…oh yea my bike started to sput and sputter then it died, I reached down and turn my gas tank to the reserved tank and it fired back up, yea I was out of gas at 112 miles.

Something was wrong, I normally go around 140 miles till empty not counting the reserve. Anyway stopped at the next exit and got gas, luckily I had been keeping up with my mileage on an App on my Iphone; I was only getting a little over 30 mpg? What the heck? Oh well, so off we went. (more on this later)

We made it to the next two or three gas stops ok but each time I was running out of gas around 112 miles. The stalker

that had joined our group also started to complain about the speed and

the 100 plus miles we were going between stops.

I have to admit David and I found this funny, I don’t remember asking him to come alone in the first place, and it’s a free county, he could have pull off anytime he wanted to. Truth is we normally keep our speeds down; we were just trying to out run the rain.

Then we found out over lunch

that the stalker did not have a room to stay at in Daytona…hmmm where would he sleep once we get there? With a tag like this,

 he sure was not going to sleep with me. Ha-ha. These are thoughts that started going through my head. Anyway we made it to Daytona just before dark,

we said goodbye to the stalker (I call him the stalker mainly because I can’t remember his name. ha-ha)

so if you see this tag someday, tell the stalker the boys from Hattiesburg said hello. Oh yea, the stalker also road a Yamaha

So we checked into the room

got a bite to eat and then went to sleep, so we would be ready for our big day in Daytona tomorrow.


Sorry for the delay on this post, the next one will be faster.


Till next time


Big Al

Daytona run (part 2)

Ok on with it trip, woke up around 4:30am threw some clothes in my bike luggage, quick shower and off I went to meet Dave. We were planning on meeting around 5:30am at a store about 30 miles from both of our houses but due to the morning rain we decided to meet up around 6:00am, so we would have some day light to see by. Both of us showed up on time gassed up and our adventure was on.

Slight mist of rain was in the air, not bad. Everything was going well until we hit Mobile, Alabama

about an hour and half from the house. Instead of taking our normal route through mobile, we decided to go through the old part of town and the old tunnel (short cut)

this would have been a great idea except it started to rain hard. We stopped at one of the downtown lights, I was fiddling with my goggles

as they had now fogged over and all I could see was the taillight on the back of his bike. Then I heard it, the roar

of what sounded like another motorcycle behind me, I guess my first thought was who in the heck would be out riding a motorcycle in the rain?

I looked in my rear view mirror through my fogged goggles and due to all the light on the vehicle behind me I thought it was a trike. Then it happened, I looked up and saw Dave heading to a busy intersection with a red light,

to my surprise Dave rolls right through it…well being blind from the fogged goggles I just closed my eyes and went through the light too…wow I just made it! Then I heard that roar again and the bike-trike behind me zigzaging

through the intersection too, it was at that time I realized we had picked up a stalker…it was at the next stop the bike-trike behind me reveiled itself, the guy pulled up beside David and asked “where we were going?” Dave said “Daytona” then the biker asked “Can I ride with you?” Dave’s answer you ask? “SURE” seemed like a good idea at the time. Well the next thing I knew we were back on the interstate cruising between 80 and 85 mph with our new friend following in the rear.

Then something strange happened, my bike started to sput and sputter and the engine cut off at 80 mph…


Well sorry for the cliff hanger,

but the wife just walked in with donuts, got to go for the day.


Tune in next time, Ill be back.

Big Al


PS: I’m really not sorry; I just like messing with my readers sometime…Ha-ha.

Daytona Run!!

Was trying to think of how I wanted to start my big adventure story

about last weekend's Daytona run. After much thinking,

I decided to start at the beginning. Well as you may recall from a couple of posts back, the Daytona trip was more just to see how David and I could handle long hauls in one day on our bikes, first I must say we passed with flying colors.

A 600 miles in a day ride turned out to be no big deal at all, even in the rain for the first 4 hours of the trip.

Ok I’m getting ahead of myself, I said I was going to start at the beginning, the Thursday before the trip Dave and I noticed my rear tire was getting a little bald

so I put it in the shop Hattiesburg Cycles

to get a new one put on, with the understanding I could get it out Friday (the day before the trip) when I went to pick up my bike Friday I decided to get a cruise control for my bike, after hearing the shop wanted 65 dollars to install it I decided to install it myself after work Friday night. (Cheap, cheap)

Anyway the funny part was I had not packed, washed the bike, adjusted my batwing fairing and now I had to install a cruise control and be ready to go Saturday by 5:00am. (Pressure, pressure)

As luck would have it, I could not get off work Friday till around 7:00pm.  I went home, had a quick bite, then had to get the wife to drive me to the cycle shop to pick up my bike…and yep you guessed it, it was raining. On with the rain suit and a quick ride home into my shop I went.

First line of business, adjust my batwing fairing down a little so it would fit closer to my headlight (check) then came the cruise control, VISTA CRUISE THROTTLE LOCK

it’s a very simple set up, only took me around 20 minutes to install. (Check) I got to say it was one of the best things I ever put on my bike and for around 30 dollars it’s a steal (more on it later). I bought a cup holder

while in Daytona for 20 dollars so I figured I might as well show it to you now while we were on the subject of bike add-ons. The good news about the cup holder is it has a quick release so I can remove it with ease, I swore I would never have one of them on my bike, but after guzzling water

and Mountain Dews

all the way home from Daytona, I’m sold on this add on too. Then I went inside and did what every good man does, went to bed and put off packing until the morning of the trip. Ha-ha.

Lots more to come

Big Al

Daytona...Stories from Main street

Well we made it back from Daytona yesterday, just before the hard rain.

Lots of things to talk about, everything from a trip stalker, new add-on’s to the bike, a new dinner drive-in and dives plus Daytona bike week itself.

Wish I had the time to get into the stories tonight but I got to catch up on my sleep. Stay tuned, the stories are about to come.



Big Al