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Published: July 26th 2014
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Rosco and Sophie
Trying to beat the Fort Lauderdale mid day heat!! The long flight from Dublin ended in Miami and our reunion with long time friends John and Kathy picking us up at the airport and taking us back to their home in Fort Lauderdale for a few days. It was a welcome respite from the heat once we got indoors. We had a couple of most enjoyable days catching up over the past ten years or so, with Kathy whipping up some fantastic meals, which were enjoyed with copious amounts of wine and of course Southern Comfort.....
On our last night, John and Kathy invited a group of friends to a shared dinner at their home, where we met up with great people from around the world and chatted, ate and drank into the wee small hours.
The following day, John and Kathy drove us up to Lake Wales and met up with Trapper and Hobby. After a great meal that Hobby had cooked up, we bade them farewell as they headed South again to Fort Lauderdale.
It was really great to see our Yamaha Venture Midnight Special, in Florida, all polished up, serviced and ready to ride.....Thanks to Trapper for dragging it all the way down to
Florida - the last time we rode it we were up in South Dakota!
Trapper and Hobby had bought a home about 300m from the lake, moved in, built a garage/workshop then another house came up for sale another 500m up the road. A bigger home and nestled into some trees and plantings for shelter, so they moved into that house, leaving us the the original one, along with a quad bike to commute between their place and ours...what more could we ask for.
This was not the best time of the year to ride, as the temperatures were up in the 90-100 deg F (35-40 deg C) but ride we did! We rode out for lunch on one of the days and while we ate, there was a tremendous thunderstorm raging outside, so our lunch just lasted a little longer and we rode home in the dry.
Bones and I hatched a plan to ride North up to North Carolina, so we left at 7.00am to try and beat the heat and made a run up as far as Savannah, 7 hour ride, just over the state line in Georgia - as a tropical storm chased
Checkers Challenge
Rosco and John take up the challenge at Cracker Barrel after breakfast us up the coast, but we stayed dry all the way. Leaving Savannah the next day we made our way inland to meet up with my sister Colleen's penfriend, who lived at Alpharetta, just outside of Atlanta. Now this day was the 3rd of July, keep in mind that the next day was the National Independence Day holiday of the 4th July, so everyone from Atlanta was heading (well, parked on the freeway) East to the coast for the long weekend.
We negotiated our way through the labyrinth of motorways to try and avoid the centre of Atlanta - only returning up an 'On Ramp' the wrong way once! Fortunately, there were no people or animals injured in the execution of this illegal act!!
We finally found our way and met up with Gail and Mike - Gail has been a Pen Pal with Colleen since they were 15 years old, and Colleen is even older than me!! so that has really been a lifetime of contact. We were welcomed into their home and just spoilt rotten - enjoying some very nice Kentucky Bourbon and a great BBQ feast expertly cooked by Mike.
The following morning, they
The whole Gang is here
Trapper, Hobby, Kathy, John, Bones and Rosco escorted us outta town to make sure we headed off in the right direction....
We had a great ride north towards Asheville NC, taking as many of the bi ways that we could, even having to ask directions at one stage, as the road had narrowed down and wound up through wooded and overgrown unpopulated hills. As we approached Asheville, I made a wrong decision and started heading off to Knoxville in Tennessee, then we saw the sign post to Hot Springs. Aha! That was in our instructions that Charlie gave us to get to Marshall, so off we went. Well, that road turned out to be a bit of a challenge on Kiwi 1, as it was called the 'Serpent' and it certainly lived up to the name, with so many switchbacks and taking us about another half an hour longer than I would have thought, but great fun. We eventually got to Marshall and then found our way up the Mountain and finally to our friends, Ronnie and Vanessa's place to find a huge 'Welcome Home Rosco and Bones' sign attached to the front of their house, with the whole family waiting on the front porch.
The swamp Chellenge
Ready to negotiate the Florida swamp We were made so welcome at their home, with Autumn giving up her room and bed for us. The kids took off with friends that evening and came back with a huge box of the biggest fireworks we had ever seen and treated us to a spectacular display of 4th July pyrotechnics...........
We had a catch up day on the Saturday, as this was the first time that Bones had met these folk. I had stayed here in 2010 while the boys were doing the TAT. It was a great family time with their children, Jacie, Autumn and Case and Ronnie's Mother Wanda. Bones especially loved the fireflies in the evenings and the visits by hummingbirds to the nectar feeders on the porch, and shelling and eating boiled peanuts, and just visiting!
On the Saturday evening, Vanessa and Wanda cooked up a massive feed and invited Uncle Boyd, Arthur and Renee, and Charlie and Theresa over also.
Sunday morning, we had to reluctantly start moving South again, so we were escorted by Ronnie and Vanessa along with Boyd, Charlie and Theresa, and Arthur and Renee for the ride outta town. We rode some magnificent mountain roads, checking
out a couple of waterfalls on the way until we reached our lunch stop and our farewells - well sort of, as Charlie and Theresa rode further south with us into South Carolina, to be sure we were at least two states away and heading South!! It was sad to leave after just a couple of days with our 'Other Family'.... our thanks again for your great hospitality.
We finally made it back to Florida, via a couple of Harley dealers and into the extreme heat again, even though we managed to dodge all the thunderstorms that surrounded us all the way back to Lake Wales and our little house by the lake.
Over the next few days I washed Kiwi 1 and we repacked our bags for the long flight home, we took the Cobra out for a run and also went to lunch in the 1961 Black Beauty with Trapper and Hobby. They then took us to Orlando Airport for our return flight to Auckland, via Atlanta and LA. Now that was a long day....
On our arrival in Auckland, Radar and Nikki were there with my truck and the Harley that had returned from
South America on the back, we had a breakfast and a catch up on happenings while we were gone...one of those being the massive storm that had just swept through The Far North and Northland, with Radar advising we may not be able to get home, as many roads were closed through slips and flooding. A quick check with the AA and I was sure that a run up through the middle would work. We then went to the Moors for another catch up, as Geraldine was up from Hastings to pick up their 'New' car and of course to share lots of "Welcome home" hugs...We hit the road around mid day, took our care, and arrived home to find many trees had been blown down around the property - nothing that my new chain saw won't sort out!!
Our heartfelt thanks go out to our farm sitters Tom and Anne, and George and Dianne, who did a fabulous job for us over the 8 weeks we were away.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Priceless photo
Our dog loved to swim and we love these kind of photos.