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Went on my first mission with the PGR today. It will not be my last.
I was a part of the arrival of Lance Corporal Richards from Trenton, Georgia who was killed in action in Afghanistan.
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Georgia will be ONE YEAR OLD tomorrow! She is quite the spirited girl, and LOVES to play with her mom in the yard all day. Just don’t leave any shoes, cups, plants, or ANYTHING for that matter out - for it sure won’t be there when you return.
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It looks pretty in this pic, but you should see it now! 7 cats have made it a play thing!
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We arose this morning about 9:30am after late night talks with Grady, and got the bike packed up for the last leg of our vacation ride. Spent the morning chatting with Grady more, discussing the “lost Predators”, Denny singing Karaoke, and both singing “Rollin’ with the Flow”, which I found on YouTube.
Around 12pm, it was time to head North, so hugs and kisses all around, and we were on the road. Made a quick stop in Valdosta to refuel (both the bike, and my beer cup, LOL), then off again.
Around Forsyth, GA the skys opened up and began to pour a HUGE storm so we pulled over under a bridge where another biker was already hiding from the weather. We spent a good bit of time here waiting out the storm, drank a few beers, and kept checking the Weather Channel’s “Weather in Motion” to see what was in store for the rest of the trek north. Did not look too promising.
So, when the rains died enough to mount back up, we headed to Hooters of McDonah, along with our new friend Dale (the other biker hiding from the rain) for a cold beer and some lunch. Dale is from Chicago, and owns the “Inn Zone Bar & Grill” there, and also owns “Lone Star Motorcycle Tech Center” in Daytona. Great times, great guy, and great food!
After lunch we headed north again, and made a quick stop in at ZMoms again for some dinner, and a recap of the trip. Then it was time to head toward homebase.
Arriving home, the ending mileage for our trip was just under 1,800 miles. Long, exhilarating, and makes me miss the road already, we are so excited to do this again next year!
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Sadly, today is the day I have to send the kiddos back off to Shannon, but only for two weeks. We got the bike all packed up, and hung outside the hotel, where both kids found a little sand area, and a lizard. My little fearless one, of course, catches the lizard, and had to have a photo taken!
We met Shannon at Cracker Barrel, where we had our breakfast and made the exchange, then it was off to return the rental car. We were taken back to the hotel, mounted up and were off.
Hwy 60 is just a beautiful trek across the state, and though it was extremely hot, and the gas station we stopped at was packed, it made for a great ride. It was also very quick to get across.
We headed down Hwy 60 toward Lithia to make a stop at Grady’ and Ernestine’s. We went four wheeling, I got to ride Maddie’s new horse, Trigger, and then spent the evening chatting with Gray, drinking and having a ball. This was our final stop for the day, and we set ourselves to leave out early tomorrow.
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Today we started off the morning with breakfast from the cafe and X-box games, and then an hour or so at the pool. We had to go back to Treasure Coast Harley-Davidson to get the bike because they finished it yesterday afternoon. Reluctant, the kids got dressed and out the door we went.
We told them how cool this Harley store was so they began to get excited about seeing the big pirate ship, and new motorcycles. They had a blast! They got t-shirts and a few other little things while DeDe got the bike out of service. Not only did we have a new tire now, but they had to change the breaks as well, which Denny was happy about - said it rode SOO much better now!
After Harley, we popped into Game Stop where both kids picked out games for the X-Box, and the Gameboy Advance. I love Game Stop - so much to choose from, and great prices too!
We headed back over to the hotel, and decided that the rest of the day would be spent at the pool and beach, though the beach turned out to be the lesser of the time due to the rough seas. Shannon, Fred and Elva all came to hang out, and we drank at the Tiki Bar, played four hours with the kids, and had ice cream birthday cake!
Such a fun day 
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Today I woke in my beautiful hotel room, excited as ever because today I get to pickup the kiddos! But first we needed to make a few stops. We hung out in our room until around noon, when Brian, from Enterprise Rent-A-Car came to pick us up. We headed back with him to the store, and got our Dodge Calibur, which would be our ride for the next three days.
At first we thought this would be a great car to drive (even though Denny really dislikes Dodge), but it turned out to be a very hard car to see out of when backing up, and did not drive well at all. It did get us around so I guess we won’t complain.
After getting the car, we were headed back to the hotel. On the suggestion of Brian we stopped at J.B Pips Tiki Grille for some lunch. I ordered the Corn & Black Bean Quesadillas and Denny had the Fish Tacos. We did wait more than 15 minutes for our first beer to be served after we ordered it, so we were not impressed with the service, but were overly impressed with the food! GREAT place to eat, but make sure you sit at the bar instead of a table so that you get good service.
When we finished our lunch, we started back again for the hotel where we quickly grabbed the Harley, and headed south to Treasure Coast Harley-Davidson to have the back tire replaced. It was pretty worn, so we thought it would be a good time to get it done since we had the car, and we still had a long road ahead. This shop was one of my favorites, and I have been in ALOT of Harley stores! Argh mateys - pirates are everywhere. Check out the photos from here cause’ it was too cool!
We got the bike all checked in, and grabbed a few t-shirts, then headed toward Port St. Lucie to get the kiddos. On the way we made a stop at Game Stop to pick up a power cord and adapter for Niko’s birthday present, and grabbed a Nascar game too!
It was the best feeling in the world to see my kids after so long… and BOY are they TAN and BLONDE (just like Mommy’s hair - turns blonde in the sun). We hung at Shannon’s house for a few hours watching the kids ride bikes, looking at seashell collections, played a little baseball with Niko, and visited with Elva and Fred. Had a good time, so good we decided that we would hang out a while longer in St. Lucie, so headed over to Superplay USA where we ate at Duffy’s before a few games of bowling.
After the fun, we headed back to the hotel with the kids, and could not believe that Niko made it back awake! He never stays up so late… but he was excited. We told him we had surprises galore at the room, and he really wanted to see what they were.
When we arrived at the hotel, the kids grilled me on what was upstairs and I made them sweat it out until we got in. Once in the room, they looked all over for what they got and Ty immediately saw presents above the TV, which is where hers were, but Niko kept looking for the big thing… then he saw it! The HUGEST smile came across his face as he slyly said “Mom, you got me an Xbox… awesome”.
Not enough just to SEE it, he had to play… so Denny and him sat a while playing Star Wars and then we all settled down to rest.
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We got up today and thought that we would make a stop at the Castillo de San Marcos to check that out. We began reading and looking at information on the internet - so much that we opted to skip the visit because we felt that we had already taken a full tour online. We did take photos as we passed by!
On down the road, we decided to stop at the “World Famous” Oasis - which we found just ‘okay’. I guess it is famous for the ambiance and spirits, but the food was not what I expected. It did however, make me tired enough to take a siesta on the back of the bike for about 45 minutes down A1A!
We ran into a good deal of rain today, which did not make the ride very fun, but we eventually dried out and made it to Jensen Beach - a day early - so we went ahead and got a room at our final destination for a few days, the The Marriott Courtyard Hutchinson Island Oceanside. We absolutely love this place! Right on the beach, Tiki Bar by the pool… this will be our abode on this trip for as long as we take it.
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We woke up pretty early this morning, and spent a bit more time with Kenny and Diane over excellent coffee before taking off today. Once on the road we headed south on 95 toward Jacksonville. The road was ROUGH due to construction, and for the first time on the trip, I was tense riding. We had a short stop where I could relax a bit, then back on smoother roads from there.
We decided to make a stop in Jacksonville to see my friend Ken, and had a bite to eat at Gene’s Seafood Restaurant - WOW! Now this was excellent food! Hanging out with Ken was awesome… it has been a long time since I have seen him, and it was great to introduce such an old friend to Denny.
Back on the road south, we headed to St. Augustine which would be our final destination for this day. After checking in to our hotel, we headed for the beach - AHH, the beach, and played some volleyball with a few locals which was the perfect way to end the day.
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We woke up to a warm, and humid and cloud covered Tybee, so we dawdled the morning along. We had some continental breakfast in the room and watched “Surviving the Game” before packing up and taking off about 10am.
We first went over to the Tybee Island Pier, and walked down. The beach was packed, and the surf was a bit rough, but that did not stop the surfers and skin boarders from hitting it. After our walk we stopped in Fannies to find that beer starts being served in the bars at 12:30pm, so we decided to head over to the Sugar Shack to meet up with Cody Boy for our ride today.
He arrived there about 11:30am, and we went over our ride plan. First stop, Fort Pulaski. We got real lucky with this visit today as the cannon firing was going on. We spent over an hour there walking through the fort, looking at the cannons, sleeping quarters, and even put Cody Boy and Denny in the prison. The re-enactors shot off two cannons for a mass of spectators and it was LOUD! This was an amazing place to visit for those who are interested in the history of the War Between the States. The Fort is huge and full of history that you can see, feel and still smell. Just amazing!
After our time at the Fort, we headed over to Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House for some lunch. We ordered a few beers and chatted about our visit to the Fort, and our plans for visiting the next two Forts in the area. I ordered the Crab Cakes, Cody Boy ordered a burger, and Denny had a half dozen Oysters, and a Fried Fish Po’Bubba. His oysters, from Galveston, TX, were not as fresh as the ones he had at Stingrays the night before, but he enjoyed them still. He did however rave about his Po’Boy. Cody Boy’s burger was just perfect, but I was not pleased with the Crab Cakes. They were a bit bland, and I found many shells in them. Overall, the service was excellent, but the food was just “OK”. I don’t think I would go back to eat here again.
During our stop, we all decided we would skip Fort Jackson and instead just head over to Keller’s Flea Market in Savannah to visit Gerald and Becky’s shop, The General Store. There are tons of great Confederate items in this store, so if you are in the area, and are interested in history, stop by and take a look. It started to rain lightly while we were there, so we walked around checking out other things - oh, and they serve beer at this Flea Market, a first for me. So of course I grabbed a few as we perused the wares.
After the rain died down, we mounted up again for our next stop, Fort McAllister. We really enjoyed this landmark, as it was a more natural Fort than Pulaski. Everything is build in massive dirt mounds, and surrounded by huge pointed stakes that would have you know that if an enemy were to attempt to jump in to the protected area, he would surely die by impalement.
There were deer everywhere, huge black squirrels, and plenty of deer flies looking to feast on you! So move quickly! Oh, and if you are boating out in that area, make sure you watch the time because when the tide goes out you will get stuck on the sandbar - trust me, we saw someone stuck, and we just knew it would be midnight before they got to go home.
Cody Boy took us through the camp ground there, and it was so very nice - and the cottages are amazing there! Huge and affordable, so we will be back to this campsite very soon.
Leaving Fort McAlister, it was a bit rainy again, but not too unpleasant. It was time for a dinner/beer stop, so we went to Perkins Restaurant to eat. Delicious food, and much better than our earlier meal. After that, as is customary for us, we took a shot of Savannah Harley-Davidson, and then we were back on the road again.
We chose to end our day off at Cody Boy’s house in Guyton, GA rather than going on down the road. He has a lovely home, full of history that makes for superb conversation. Our day has been more than enjoyable, full of education and fellowship. All of our SCV boys, here this - when in Savannah, take the time to look up Cody Boy - it will be a good time not to be missed.