From the Spanish-American war to the Space Age in three days

[gearheadfla]

Last Monday Lori and I loaded up the Nomad and headed out on a "Mini-vacation", we headed north on A1A along the beach with no real plans or times to be anywhere, just like we like it. The only planned stop was to see Carl Leo and buy him lunch. We rode A1A as far north as we could then hit US1 the rest of the way to Carl's, it is always easy to find his house, just look for the XII's in the driveway,lol there was two there that had stopped to see him also. After he had taking care of them we had a little cool down break then he lead us to on of his fav. places to eat on the beach, we talked about everything from motorcycles, him racing on the beach back in the day to George Zimmerman, then he lead us for a ride on the famous Daytona Loop, alone the Loop he pulled into a park to show us a 2000 year old Oak tree, think about that for a bit, this tree could be B.C. and has seen everything.


Carl has done a lot of exploring sense he has moved down here and knows a lot of nice places now. We stopped buy is house for a cool drink before heading north again stopping at J.P. Cycles to pick up a couple new shineys for the Nomad.
We ended up landing in St. Augustine for the first night at a Hampton Inn on the beach, the room had a hot tub in it and that really came in handy after 12 hours of riding.
The next morning we headed into Historic St. Augustine, came up on this Fort,

As we walked around it, I got to thinking about having to live here back in in this heat, OUCH


The sleeping quarters alone would kill me, lol

[gearheadfla]

After melting at the Fort for awhile we headed back south along A1A to Daytona again

Stopped on Main Street for a bit. If you ever wondered what happens on Main St when it not Bike Week

Well,,,,,,,,,,Nothing lol Dodge City, only two places was open.
Then we headed to the Speedway and took a nice tour, got to see it at a different angle.



After the tour we found another Hampton Inn next to the Speedway and called it a day, found the pool and relaxed.
The next morning we headed to the Kennedy Space Center, got a nice surprise to find out motorcycles pay half ($5.00) to park and motorcycle parking in right up front by the main gate, SCORE lol We was the only bike there too. All I can say about the Space Shuttles is WOW, what a big bird. The Atlantis display just open last week. VERY IMPRESSIVE, you start off walking under the external fuel tank and boosters

Then you go into a movie on the history of the shuttle program from start to the last flight of Atlantis, at the end of the movie the screen opens up to this

and it will send chills up your spine, what a piece of American history right there in front of you.

[gearheadfla]

Here are some more pics that speak for themselves.




Like I said, from the Spanish-American war, to the Space Age in three day, with a little NASCAR in there too
We had a great 3 days on the road, had lunch with the nicest man anyone can talk too, got the new to us Nomad out on the road for the first time, it ran like a top. All in all, good trip and good to get away from the rat race we call life for a bit.

[jre258 in SoDak]

When I visited the space center a few years ago, the shuttles were still flying but they did have a mockup of one that a person could look at. I best remember the Apollo mission exhibit. They took you into a reproduction of the launch center and simulated the take-off of the first Saturn 5 rocket. The whole room shook. Then you entered the main exhibit hall directly under the five massive rocket engines of the Saturn 5's first stage. Wow!!! Glad you enjoyed your first trip on the Nomad.
Jim

[David (N. Alabama)]

Thanks for the writeup and pics from my old teenage stomping grounds. Used to ride the loop before it was ever called the loop. Tomoka State Park is where we rented canoes for some fun on the backwater with the gators, snakes and banana spiders.

We used to ride up to St. Augustine and hang out at the Milltop Tavern and listen to the folk music.

Riding up and down the beach on our bikes was always fun and the best way to bikini watch.

[biggersm]

Hi Jim

Thanks for posting. What we lack in curvy roads (although I plan to showcase a few curves in early in August during our Ring Around Orlando Ride) our state certainly makes up for it in 365 days a year of scenic rides, historic locations and other aspects. Marcia and I are better for the fact that we have been to all the places you mentioned.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station has two different museums. Both are free; one is outside the gate and the other is inside the gate (and certainly the more interesting of the two). I lead a Harley Owners Group to the "inside" museum late last year by being appointed one time only escort privileges. I have badge to get me into CCAFS (where I often have to go to work when my job does not have me working at Patrick AFB) but my badge does not ordinarily have escort privileges. When HOG made it's visit it was still rather limited compared to what I'm allowed to visit and ironically the HOG local chapter president is a retired Navy Captain (O-6) and former commander of the Naval Ordnance Test Unit in Port Canaveral (part of CCAFS) and even he had to be escorted (after that ride he was later appointed as a museum docent at the Cape Canaveral Light House). I wish I could have take our HOG brethren to the Apollo 1 accident site, the Mercury monument and a few other locations that I'm fortunate to know about but rules are pretty strict (helpful hint, most info is in Google Earth).

BTW don't get the CCAFS locations confused with anything at Kennedy Space Center.

Perhaps the SSV can do something in conjunction with a launch. There is nothing more powerful to watch than a rocket launch! I have ben part of the team that is just outside of the exclusion zone during launches and the sound, the feel and the sight are truly amazing (if you see it or smell a launch than you might have problems later on). The USAF still launches on a regular basis and some of our rockets have the same thrust as as a Shuttle.

If CCAFS security is tight on a a day-to-day basis it is particularly cumbersome on a launch day. I guess we could decide on whether watching a launch and visiting the outside museum is worth while or working on special access for the inside museum.

Is anyone interested in any pictures (unclassified) of the CCAFS inside museum? I can put together a collage tomorrow.