I wasn’t too sure my plans after that Friday, but before leaving I knew that I wanted to hit Key West and this might be my only chance for some time. I knew it would add a lot to the trip, but I’m so stubborn that once I got the thought of going there, I was going. It’s about 180 miles from Hollywood to Key West, and most of that is pretty much 45 mph and when not on bridges you’re at the mercy of traffic and stop lights. Fortunately doing this on a Saturday meant I had plenty of time to get home even if I needed to stop for a room for the night.

The plan is to head over to Winterville Thursday night and stay over at Jared's place so we can head out without much effort that Friday morning. I've been pretty lucky with weather so far in most of my rides, but unfortunately it was raining pretty good Thursday. According to the weather forecast, it didn't look like it would be stopping any time soon. Time to get wet!

All packed and ready to go:

I head over after work Thursday and get to Jared's, admittedly a bit soaked. My rain gear held up pretty well but it's impossible to stay completely dry. I thought I was pretty bad about waiting until the last minute to pack, but I saw Jared was in the same boat:

Finishing up the install of the rear tire:

It's about 800 miles down to south Florida and we both needed new rear tires for the trip.

Still a bit dark when we woke up, and still pouring:

We head down 129 until we meet up with I-75 in Macon, GA. Still pouring:

We were both starving by this point so we head to the Waffle House next door. We immediately get comments on why the hell we're riding in the rain. Then they ask us where we were going... They laugh......

There was no time to even take a "before" picture, the moment the plate hit the table my grease-injected cheese steak sandwich was gone!

The bikes were getting soaked. I had huge puddles on top of my saddlebags so I was starting to think how much water was collecting inside them! You can't help but have fun on a road trip like this!

Get back on the road and between Macon and Valdosta it got incredibly foggy. We could see a decent distance in front of us but you couldn't see the top of billboard signs and cell phone towers. I knew when we hit this that warm weather was soon to greet us. It stopped raining and I saw my temp gauge go from 55 up to 75 in a matter of 10-15 minutes. Before I knew it the sun was shining on me and it felt good! We finished off the tank and stopped in north of Valdosta. This was surely the last of the good gas prices...

...but the weather was looking to be worth it!

It seriously was 55 degrees not but 20 minutes earlier:

Florida border:

A quick break at one of the many service plazas on the Florida Turnpike:

I put on my clear visor at this point (which was clean), and at the very next stop, was blown away at the amount of bugs I killed. Florida has a serious bug problem!

We keep the pace up and after a couple more gas stops, we finally make it to the destination, Moonlite Diner in Hollywood, FL:

We went straight to the bike night as it was already about 8:30. The guys down there were really cool and the turnout seemed pretty good. Some of the guys said it was actually a pretty tame night and normally there are way more bikes. With 40-50 bikes there the night we were there, they must have some good turnouts!

After some good times hanging out, we closed down the party as we were the last of the stragglers, roughly 12:30am at this point:

We make it down the road to Jared's dads place to crash for the night. Man did I sleep good that night! Between the miles and the awesome burger I had at the Diner, I just straight passed out!

Wake up pretty early at 6:30 to head to the final destination at the southern most part of the continental United States: Key West, FL. I knew the trip would not be a completely pleasant one as everyone I mentioned Key West to said it was a day trip. Considering they were from south Florida, I figured I had one hell of a journey ahead of me! Cause I was heading back to Woodstock, GA after I was done there.

The bikes chilling out in the backyard:

Ready for another day of riding!

Head down and gas up in Florida City before entering the Keys, since I wasn't sure what to expect as far as gas stations down there. I also took a few minutes and lubed the chain, although I took care of it before I left, it still looked pretty rough. I did put on 850 miles so far after all!

I make it down and WOW there is some pretty scenery there! I can't even describe it, it was just very relaxing to ride through some of the area leading to Key Largo. The Keys were great too, basically just a constant chain of islands that doesn't seem to stop.

I had some frustrations early on in Islamorada as apparently there was some sort of yacht market thing going on and with all the people going to it it took me about 45 minutes to go about 3 miles. I was almost tempted to turn around but I couldn't give up being so close!

If that wasn't bad enough, there are some stores in the keys that have "Key West" in their names even though they weren't located on Key West, so a few times I mistakenly thought I finally made it to Key West when in fact I had a distance more to go.

But I finally make it to the last Key and find a good stop to hang out and get some food and drinks:

A guy was hanging out waiting for his buddy to get some stuff from the gas station there. They came in on some scooters that seem to be EVERYWHERE on Key West. There was a weird silence while I was finishing up my water so I asked him "so what's good to do here", and he immediately without hesitation says "Drink. Or you can watch some of the chicks at the beach while you have a beer. Or just have a drink at the port bar just down the way here." I think he's been drinking a lot! I talk to him a little more and I guess he was there for some wedding. He then asks me where I'm from, I tell him, and he kinda pauses with a puzzled look on his face, and says "you rode that fuckin thing all the way down here? Fuck man you need a drink!" HAHAHAH Awesome!

I don't have a map or anything (Actually, I don't have a map for the entire trip), but everyone said finding the southernmost point was pretty easy since Key West was so small. I went down to the end of the island, but at this point it is all one way roads and I'm forced to head north instead of south. This puts me in quite the poor area, and I felt pretty out of place here! It was kinda amazing really because within less than a 1/4 mile you went from poor area to a rich neighborhood and there was almost no transition.

Finally wind my way around the area and I find the spot everybody goes to, the official southern most point:

Some younger guy was asking me what I was riding and I got to talking to him about bikes. He said he just got a GS500 two weeks prior, which was a step up from his first bike, a Honda 250 of some sort. He actually had a 02 GS, which was the year of my first bike so we were talking about GS500's for a bit and how good bikes they are. He said he likes the bike but is really looking forward to getting a SV650 after a couple years of riding under his belt. He seemed like a really cool guy with a good head on his shoulders. His girlfriend was with him and she said she really liked his new 500 as it is much easier to ride as a passenger than his 250, so I guess they've been enjoying a lot of 2-up riding in the past two weeks.

I asked him if he could take my pic:

It's about 2:30 or so by now and it's time to head home!

I head back the way I came and I keep my eye open for cool places I saw on my way in. I see a pulloff and decide to take a few pics:

My riding boots were giving my feet some problems when one of them got a bit wet on Friday, and really got painful by the end of the day Friday. I decided I'd just wear my regular shoes since they were much more comfortable, and I decided I'd get a picture of my Florida squidliness:

I kept going and saw another spot that was just beautiful, so I pulled off for more pictures:

Finally make it back to Key Largo and I decide to get a quick bite to eat, the Wendy's look pretty tempting!

Head back to Florida City and I gas up again. My chain was starting to look rough again (400 miles), so time for more maintenance! By the time I'm done it's almost 8pm.

It was mostly an uneventful trip back so the first couple stops I did not take any pics. But here is a shot I took at 1am Sunday when I had to stop for a bite to eat and some coffee. I was doing pretty well so far about being tired but decided to drink a small amount of coffee to play it safe, as riding in the dark can get tiring quickly!

5am, I'm not sure where exactly this was taken at:

I do remember this picture as when I was filling up some SUV pulled up and some lady fell out of the back seat when she tried to get out. She was completely trashed. Her friend went to help her and get her back into the car. The drunk lady's talking about how she just wants to go to the bathroom. Her friend tells her, I kid you not, "well you've already embarrassed yourself so you might as well just piss in your fucking pants" I got the impression the drunk lady was getting on her friends' nerves. But I swear you hear the weirdest stuff in the middle of the night at gas stations!!!

I make it up to Ashburn and take some time to relax after filling up. Some guy was waiting on his friends to get some stuff at the gas station The guy waiting is just listening to music WAY too loud, he's kinda getting on my nerves actually cause just a few minutes ago I was kinda chilling out listening to some song birds start their morning. It really started sinking in how long my day was when I heard song birds while I was still awake.

He gets out of the car and walks around to where I was and asks me where I'm heading to. I say I'm heading home. He asks where that was and I say Atl. He then asks where I was coming from. I love these questions! As stoned as I think he was his look on his face was priceless. But the funniest part of this is while he's asking me these questions he turns around to face the wall... Yep... He starts taking a leak on the side of the convenience store. I swear! Now I know I've taken my fare share of public pisses but this was almost awkward!

They roll out and I decide I need to lube my chain again. This makes 3 times so far, holy crap this is a long ride! I finish up and some cop pulls in to get a cup of coffee. We talk for a quick second, I'm not sure if he was trying to sniff me out since I obviously looked out of place of if maybe he was just bored. He wishes me a good trip and we both head out.

I make a stop shortly after in Unadilla as I'm starting to feel a bit sick. I grabbed another cup of coffee at an earlier stop and it started to not settle so good in my stomach, which doesn't surprise me as coffee sometimes doesn't do my stomach so good. I hang around for about 20 minutes and I feel a bit better.

The next hour or so was pretty bad as it started getting REAL cold, ~34 degrees. Some of my cold gear was still wet from Friday being stuck in my saddlebags so I had to kinda ride through it. It was okay for the most part but an extra pair of socks and long sleeve shirt would have been really nice. I had all of that, but it was still damp and I decided damp clothes would probably make things worse. The cold would normally not have bothered me but after all those miles and being up for 24 hrs at this point the cold definitely sucked!

Make it to Hampton and I get some gas. The sun is now completely out and although still cold, I feel MUCH better as it is the last leg of my journey. On these long rides the easiest leg is typically the last one, for me.

Ride through downtown Atl and make it back up to Woodstock, roughly 10am.

My bike trip odometer reads 1,970 miles. I would have ridden around for another 30 miles but the only thing I could think about was how nice my bed would be! I give Tiff and Jared a call to let them know I made it back. Get a quick bite to eat and then I PASS OUT!

Saturday ended up being 26 hours non stop riding.

Definitely one of my most favorite rides so far, as well as the most challenging! One of the more significant destinations I can scratch off my list. The roads in Florida aren't much good, but the scenery more than makes up for it.