Ridin' to a Support Our Troops Benefit

On Saturday, September 9th I rode to Titusville and American Legion Post 1 for a Support Our Troops benefit. It was a beautiful day for a ride, mid eighties and sunny. I headed outta the driveway a little after 11 o'clock and stopped along A1A to watch the much delayed launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. Cape Caneveral is about fifty-five miles south of us (Ormond Beach) and we get a good view of the launches from the beach. It's good to see them on their way safely. The event was pretty good and we had a chance to meet lotsa good folks supportin' our brave young men and women fightin' for our freedom overseas. We also met up with a couple, Russ and Kathy, that we'd first met last month (August '06) and talkin' with them made me come up with a new idea: a seperate page at DixieBiker.com where our troops, or families of our troops, could send pictures, thoughts, etc. You can check out the page here: http://www.dixiebiker.com/troops.html

Ridin' down I rode A1A through Daytona Beach and Daytona Beach Shores - normally a place to AVOID if you're on a bike - over the Dunlawton Bridge and down US Hwy 1 through New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater, Oak Hill, Scottsmoor and Mims. That used to be a nice ride but, like most of the rest of the State, it's gettin' built up. The twenty miles from Oak Hill to Mims are still pretty nice ridin', but the rest is addin' traffic lights, traffic and construction zones. Ridin' back I took Hwy 46 in Mims towards Sanford. Stopped at the Jolly Gator for a quick, cold one, checked out the gators sunnin' on the shores of the St. John's River and then rode through Geneva and hung a right on Hwy 415 back towards Osteen and on to Daytona Beach. Jeez, that's another road and area buildin' up quickly. I swear Deltona is gonna swallow Osteen. They even have a humongous new Wal Mark Super Center goin' up in the middle of nowhere. Another nice ridin' road is fixin' to become history. Bummer. Another nice day of ridin' - 161 miles round trip - with some sunburn and wind burn to show for it. And no close calls with cages.