January 12th, 2010

Once again we were blessed with fair weather in the morning.  Extremely cold for Florida standards though.  I guess it could be worse.  Another layer of clothing should do the trick.  After we said our goodbyes to Cord and his wife, they asked us to look them up when we get to Los Angeles.  Being that we don’t know anyone in Los Angeles, we’re probably gonna take them up on their offer.  It’s always nice to reconnect with a familiar face, especially after travelling a long ways to get there. 

Our destination for today was to get to Apalachicola National Forest by sundown and camp at Mack Landing Recreation Area.  We rode mostly on route 98 to avoid traffic and enjoyed the country side. 

We arrived at our destination just before sundown and picked out a nice place to camp.  There were a few other people camping in the area, which was reassuring in case we had another run-in with midnight hunters.  We started gathering wood for campfire.  By this time it was pitch black.  2 hunters, a father and son team, came over from where they had set up camp to let us borrow their lamp.  Amanda worked on the fire while I was in charge of chow.  Boil-in-the-bag is on the menu for tonight; Backpacker’s Pantry Louisiana Beans to be exact. 

After we had our fill, we went over to the hunter’s camp to return their lamp and chit chatted for a bit.  They mentioned that if we had ridden deeper into the recreation area, we would come across a few squatters.  I think he was insinuating “rednecks”.  The way how National Forests works is you have up to 14 consecutive days to camp in one area.  After that you have to relocate a few hundred yards or so; I can’t remember.  So there are people who just bounce around in the area when 14 days are up.  Well I guess it beats paying increasing property taxes.  Or maybe they want to be away from people.  Running from the law maybe?  Who knows?  All I know is, in the morning, we’re outta here!

The morning after…Amanda posing with her jacket and pant liners.  She says she looks like a spacewoman or something…hence the robot dance?

Bye Bye Mack Landing!

The magical fruit. 

More you eat, the more you toot.

Put a plug in it!

January 11th, 2010

North; seems odd to be travelling in this direction in the middle of January.  Not much more to go before we veer westward for the first time on our journey.  Panhandle is coming up.  Being a visible minority, I’m a little apprehensive of what lies ahead in Alabama and Mississippi.  I’m sure there are a lot of nice folks there, but where there’s good; there’s also the bad.  I just hope I don’t end up being the ugly.  Gotta stay sharp…sheesh I watch too many movies. 

Amanda’s steed has been a lazy bone as of late.  Just doesn’t want to get up and go first thing in the morning.  Cold starts has been a pain in the buttocks.  We stopped at Advance Auto to pick up a new spark plug to see if that would rectify the problem.  It was here that we met Cord Newman.  I usually like to keep everyone anonymous in the ride report and use their handle names on ADV for privacy concerns.  Cord was an exception.  1.) He’s not on ADV and 2.) He’s a stunt actor.  Any publicity is good publicity as far as actors are concerned.  Cord has taken time off from work for the past little while to spend quality time with his family in Ocala.  Today, Cord and his wife are getting ready to make the move back to Hollywood and get right back in on the action.  Cord was actually making some final adjustments to a beater truck he was going to use for a stunt in New Orleans.  We all got talking and the next thing we know; we’re invited over to his place to spend the night.

We arrived at Cord’s house late afternoon and it was here where we were introduced to Cord’s wife.  She had put out this wonderful spread for dinner and I don’t know how this happened, but it did; we started on a deep discussion about religion.  I’ve been told there are two things you DO NOT talk about in the US:  politics & religion.  Someone had a brilliant idea for all of us to go out and grab milkshakes at Sonic.  This helped lighten things up a bit.  When we got back to the house, we watched movies Cord has been in.  It was a real treat to see him on the big screen.  Cord was the first random person we met and had the pleasure to stay with.

Cord in "There's Something About Mary"

Hello there stranger.

Behold!  Fire and brimstone!

Milkshake anyone?

January 7th-10th, 2010 pt.4

JackDaniel outdid himself once again.  We wake up in the morning and who do we find?  JackDaniel cooking up a storm in the kitchen.  Shrimp gumbo and grits for breakfast!  I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing so I grabbed a couple of oranges and used the juicer to make orange juice to go with our breakfast.

JackDaniel wanted to take us out to see some of the local sites around Weeki Wachee before we depart for our journey.  Of course we obliged. 

Some of the local wildlife in Weeki Wachee

Amanda trying to get inside this artificial reef

We went up this tall wooden lookout tower and this is the view from our perspective.  If you look close enough, you might be able to spot a US flag in the distance…

…here we are at that very same US flagpole.

JackDaniel and Amanda walking out on the pier during low tide.  Do you think a lot of birds frequent here?

Here we are at the local park near the Swamp.  You need a key to get in here.  Sorry. VIP’s only.

Master Chef at work.

The South; in all its glory.

No sign of mermaids.

January 7th-10th, 2010 pt.3

This morning we had the privilege to meet Mrs. JackDaniel.  We sat outside and shot the breeze getting to know one another.  Nice lady.  Turns out that Mr. JackDaniel forgot to mention to Mrs. JackDaniel that we were staying at the Swamp and had bailed out of a previous engagement to spend time with us.  Mrs. JackDaniel wasn’t going to have any of it, so she snatched Mr. JackDaniel and brought him home.  I hope JackDaniel is not in too much trouble.  That left the rest of the afternoon to ourselves…time to explore!

Riding around on the backroads!  Feels so good with the bike unloaded.

We came across a sand dune along the side of the road.  I guess now's the time to get comfortable with riding in the sand.

A little soft in some spots, nothing I couldn't handle...

...Amanda on the other hand dug herself a big rut.

Ok, remember what everyone said...get up on the foot pegs, weight back, crank on the throttle.  This is gonna take some time getting used to.  Bike feels so squirrely. 

Alright, time to cowboy the fu*k up and get'er done!

Wait a minute...

...this is not so bad after all!  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Man, that felt so good!

Taking a break to soak it all in.

Ok Amanda!  Your turn!  You can do it!

...D'oh!

Initially Amanda wasn’t going to take part in riding in the sand that afternoon.  I’m so proud that she got over her fears on her own and tried it anyway.  Although she fell a few times, she has gained a ton of experience as did I. 

Riding in sand is tiring work.  Time to take a load off.

JackDaniel is the man!  He left us a pot-fried chicken in the oven.

Nothing beats ending the day with a nice cozy fire.  Amanda determined to get the fire started.

Success!

The Swamp to ourselves.

White sand as fine as sugar.

Didn’t lose my balls.

January 7th-10th, 2010 pt.2

Round 2 kicks off to a good start; managed to get enough sleep to shake off last nights’ festivities.  JackDaniel pulls in on his Goldwing with H riding pillion.  JackDaniel wastes no time introducing us to real grits, not like the stuff I had tasted at Denny’s way back in New Hampshire, this was the real deal.  That glass you see there is freshly squeezed orange juice.  Floridians wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

Few moments later it starts to rain.  JackDaniel decides to swap the Wing for his pickup.  Amanda, H, and I hang out at The Swamp waiting for JackDaniel’s return.  I guess this would be a good time to take a look around.

This here is the toilet to "The Love Shack", which is situated across from the trailer we had slept in.

Amanda going for a rear-naked choke hold on the bed of "The Love Shack".  Not so sure if that was a good idea.

With the crappy weather and all, JackDaniel thought we’d get a kick out of meeting his friend whom I will refer to as “J”.  JackDaniel and J go way back…that’s about the extent of what we know about J at this point.  When we arrived at J’s driveway, we couldn’t help not to notice the various “No Trespassing” signs as we were driving in.  It was almost comical, but at the same time, a tad bit creepy.  The trees became denser as we drove further in towards the house and that dang banjo music started to creep back inside my head again.  It can’t be all that bad.  Besides, little H is here with us. 

We walked inside to the living room to find J sitting in his recliner, clad in camouflage thermal underwear, watching a fishing show on the television.  We sat on the sofa next to him and introduced ourselves.  We immediately got into talking about hunting.  It was hard not to because the room must have had at least 6 trophy bucks mounted on the walls, one that was taxidermied halfway and made it look as if it was walking through the wall, a couple of ducks, fish, and one big wild turkey in its entirety.  At one point J was showing us how he calls for wild turkey, which is not as easy as you think, and a friend of J’s, who I will refer to as “T”, walked in and was wondering why a live turkey was in the house.  That’s how good J was. 

For lunch, J treated us to some smoked mullet him and T gigged the other day on their air boat.  For those of you don’t know, gigging is when you use a pole which has been tipped with a multi-pronged spear to fish.  It was gooooooooood eatin’. 

Pounding back a salty dog for the first time.  Vodka & freshly squeezed grapefruit juice served in a salted-rim glass.

Amanda picking some grapefruit off from the tree

Amanda carrying grapefruit back to the bar

J's outdoor bar decked with confederate memorabilia

Amanda adding a toonie to the collection.  The bar had various coins glued to the table.

Later on JackDaniel, J, and T were gutting coolers full of mullet out in the yard while we watched.  It was scary watching how fast they worked with a sharp blade.  Mullets are the only fish that have a gizzard which is normally found in birds.  These were saved as a delicacy. 

Going for a hike in the back yard

Amanda and H hiding in a hunting blind

I see one!  Hurry up and gig it!

We went back to The Swamp and had fried mullet and gizzards for dinner.  It was soooo good.

Southerner’s breakfast.

That’s a noose around a…whoa!

Mmm, deep fried goodness.