Seen and OH God My Eyes!

Daytona’s Biketober Fest was last week. J and I rode over Saturday to meet up with our friends, Biker Boy, Biker Babe and The Puerto Rican (he’s the one we blame everything on ). They had been there since Thursday but there was no way J and I could take off work to join them. This trip was, eventful and expensive, to say the least.

We planned on heading out around 8ish. It’s about a 2 1/2 hour drive over straight on I4, so that would have put is in Daytona around 11ish. Instead I couldn’t get my bike to start. Now, for some reason it doesn’t like to start cold. And it had been sitting for a few days at least, so it was definitely cold. But honestly, not that cold. So starting really shouldn’t have been an issue. It would start, and then stop. Lather, rinse and repeat. Before long it wouldn’t even turn over. So I called J, he said he’d head my way and when he got to my place determined that the batter was dead or low. So, off we go to find a new battery. Walmart didn’t have what I needed. We called Batteries Plus and Barney’s. Both had what I need, a fully charged battery, for about the same price. We got the battery and J pulled out my bikes toolkit to replace it. Except my toolkit didn’t have the Allen wrench that was needed. Off to his house he went to get his Allen wrenches. By the time the battery got changed, we got gas and headed out it was 10:30.

My plan heading out was to wear the inner half of my Columbia jacket and switch to my Viking’s windbreaker later on. Well, the Columbia wasn’t needed (still brought it though) and I headed out in my windbreaker. We stopped in Sanford for a break and since I was warm, I packed my windbreaker into my backpack. A quick word about this jacket, I LOVED it! It was a gift a few years ago from my uncle and was perfect. It rolled up and fit into my backpack purse along with wallet, brush, lotion, etc with no problems. It tied around my waist with no problems. It wasn’t too heavy to wear at night in the summer when the lack of sun was pretty much a guarentee to make me cooler.

So jacket was packed into my backpack (big bag, not the purse) and we headed back out on the road. On I95  I looked to my left and suddenly noticed a lady in a car gestering to me, it took me a moment to understand what she meant, and I pulled over to the shoulder. Turns out my backpack had unzipped and I no longer have my windbreaker in my bag. Thankfully that’s the ONLY thing that was no longer in my bag. A sheriff’s truck pulled up and asked if everything was ok, turns out he saw a purple and yellow jacket about 4 miles back. So my jacket was lost.

We finally met up with Biker Boy, Babe and The PR and headed to Main Street. I ended up following The PR into a parking lot, J was around the corner in the same lot and the BB’s were across the street. The PR and I started heading across the street (didn’t know J was in our same lot) and when we were almost completely across I noticed my wallet was missing. I panicked! Headed back across this nice busy street (looking and holding up my hand as I did so) and thankfully found it under my bike. I almost made J carry my bag after that. The rest of the day was uneventful (except for the people watching of course). I did find a license plate frame I like, except I forgot to buy it (it was $20 at the stores on Main Street), and J and I got some t-shirts of course.

Sunday we headed for Destination Daytona before going home. This has a biiigggg Harley Store, as well as J&P (I forget the rest of the name). We stopped for gas first and J decided to leave his helmet on the passenger back rest while we went the maybe mile to the parking lot. Pulled into the lot, killed the motors and J realized his helmet disappeared. He headed back the way we came to find it, and it’s gone. No helmet. So he had to buy a new one, which he needed anyway, the old one was too big. I also found the same license plate frame at J&P for $14, score! We headed home and onto bowling (after showers and naps of course) where we won all three games and moved up 2 places in the standings.  Yay us! Here’s pictures from the weekend. Bikes and “Oh my! WHAT were they THINKING when they chose that outfit?” pictures of course.

First, my new license plate frame.

And the bikes…

 This hat was made out of a Miller Light Box.

And the “What were they thinking?” pictures

 What can’t be seen? Her eyes. She had in pink contacts.

Bike Week 2010

I attended my very first every Daytona Bike Week and totally picked the wrong year for it! Florida has been experiencing a very cold winter and this past weekend was no exception.  The days weren’t too bad, but as soon as the sun disappeared the temps dropped like a rock.  I own a Columbia that I bought in Minnesota before moving down here, it’s one that has the zip out liner.  Most winters I’m okay with wearing just the inner or outer portion of the jacket.  This winter I’ve had it put together several times.  But it’s a jacket I was definitely thankful to own this weekend. For the most part it definitely kept me warm.

I left home at 2:30 Friday afternoon.  I didn’t want to be riding after dark through Orlando, I’m not that fond of driving at night these days.  Plus, I really didn’t want to be on the freeway after the sun went down.  So I headed out to Daytona all by my lonesome, J’s work wouldn’t let anyone off last week due to a new computer system. He was stuck working all day and was going to meet up with us after work.  Friends were already there, they’d gone over on Thursday.  I figured I’d be there by 4:30, maybe 5.  By leaving when I did I should have been ahead of any major rush hour traffic in Orlando.  And afterall, when we went to Biketober Fest in October it only took us a couple of hours. 

I did good, I’m not sure how long it took me to actually get to the Disney exits, but I didn’t run into any traffic jams. Until I got to the outskirts of downtown Orlando. And then it was stop and go, not slow and go, STOP and go.  For at least 6 miles, probably closer to 10.  By the time I got through the mess and was able to pull off the freeway for a break and to fill up it was 5 already.  It took me another hour to get to Daytona and meet up with our friends. By the time J got there and I meet up with him at our hotel my legs felt like blocks of ice. He actually had the heat on in our room, and he doesn’t get cold!

My first bike week was fun, there was a lot of walking though.  My poor feet were sooo sore.  I did get saddle bags, which means once they get adjusted for my bike (the shortest option is still a bit long and the one side would be resting on my muffler) I won’t have to worry about hauling everything in a backpack all the time! 

And of course I took pictures.  For some reason I was amazed at the number of women who still decided to dress very skimpy even with the cooler weather.  And the poor bar girls had to be freezing their rear ends off!

Unlike other bars I’ve been to, the bar girls don’t wear bikinis.  Nope, they’re in underwear, usually wearing one pair as “shorts” and another pair underneath as, well I guess, underwear.

 Check out the hair!

And finally, some video.  Beware, this is probably NSFW.

Biketober Fest ’09

J and I went to Daytona Beach for the day on Saturday to attend the annual Biketober Fest.  I’ve never been to any of the bike events over there, it just hasn’t been possible with my work schedule.  This was the first and I’m really glad it was this and not Bike Week, which J said has a ton more people.

We finally got the promised cold front after a day full of rain on Friday.  So Saturday morning felt great, until I got on the bike anyway.  I left my place and headed over to J’s wearing a t-shirt, a windbreaker and my full face helmet.  Got to J’s and added the long sleeve t-shirt I had in my backpack and my 2 pairs of knit gloves.  We had overcast skys until around Orlando, then the sun started to show up and it warmed up a bit.  I got to discover just how many miles I can go on a tank of gas, we had just gotten onto I95 when my bike started to decelerate.  A couple of weeks ago we had gone to a local bike event and when we left to head home, I had forgotten to turn my fuel back on.  Turns out forgetting then was a good thing, because when my bike started to slow down, while going 80 mph on the freeway, I knew what the problem was. 

Heading into Daytona Beach I didn’t get to see a whole lot, I was too busy concentrating on driving.  It actually made me wish I’d ridden as a passenger on J’s bike for my first trip so I could look around.  Of course I wouldn’t have been able to make the 125ish miles on the back of his bike, because of the location of the foot pegs I would have ended up with some very sore leg/butt muscles.  On my bike though, ohh it was nice!  My hands got sore, mostly because even with the gloves they were a little chilled and thanks to my MS, my hands cramped a bit.  My back also got a little sore on the way over, but that was pretty much it.  And I have some pictures!  There is one that is not work/child safe, it’ll be the last one with a warning.  So, without further ado…

This was the first picture I took and I had to take it for Dad.  I know the lighting doesn’t really show it, but it’s purple and yellow.  It’s the Vikings bike

I’m wondering if I could train Ciera to ride with me.  I love the little doggie goggles the dog is wearing here.

Got a family of 3 but most bikes only carry two?  Well no problem with the super duper family hauler!  Hmmm, seats like that might work for Ciera.

This gives new meaning to the alternate term for motorcycles.

I just love the paint job on this one.

And this one.  The level of detail is stunning.

J asked “You don’t believe those are nuns and nuns ride?” My response was “Nuns on bikes, sure.  Nuns on bikes giving the finger?  Nope.”  The one on the scooter was flipping the bird to bystanders as they took her (his?) picture.

Part of the fun was just watching the people and the different costumes and outfits they wore.  If this couple was on a bike I’m not entirely sure who did the actual driving.  Or if she managed to avoid flashing everyone.

More people watching.

I’m still trying to figure out how she got this top on without ripping anything.  Maybe she put a top on that was whole and had someone shred it after?  I’m not entirely sure.

This bike was pretty cool as well.  Even J and his buddy couldn’t figure out how the blue was done.

 

And some eye candy.  He looked just as good from the front.  And see the girl “between” the two guys?  She’s one of the bar girls.  One of the things that surprised me was none of the bar girls wore bikinis.  Nope, they all wore lingerie.  For the most part nothing was actually showing though.  Anything that was lacy was usually worn over another pair of something else. But it was definitely an interesting sight.

This one was at the bike event we attended at the beginning of the month.  I got a kick out of all the pink on this one.

 

And finally, here’s your warning.  This next picture is not work/kid/innocent eyes safe.  So if you don’t want to see it, now is a good time to take off.

 

 

Still here?  Ok.  Here ya go!

Looks like one can buy pretty much anything at one of the Daytona bike events.  Including these play toys.