The morning was beautiful as best as I could tell through the helmet. The sun rose against my back while I rode into town. Ok, so it was actually my left side - but I couldn't exactly watch the sunrise and stay on the road.
Starting at a donut place, Six Sandies rode to Navarre Beach for breakfast. We ended up riding 159 miles on some of the most iconic scenic roads in the western most end of Florida.
To All of the Local Riders
Yes, we rode some of the most boring, straight, and traffic ridden roadways in the area. The views were amazing, and it is nice to take a moment to enjoy what others come to visit to see.
George and Sam E lead the way to Navarre Beach. George tried everything within the confines of traffic code to shake Munchkin off the trail but he kept up. Munchkin's white shirt (with a club patch affixed to the rear) flapping gloriously in the wind. We dodged the legendary potholes of Racetrack, hit the slow sweepers of Martin Luther King Jr BLVD, slalomed through two roundabouts, and descended the trench between Doolittle BLVD and HWY 98. With no sideroads remaining, George headed due west. A few miles down the road, our band of five became six as we heard JoeJoe's "Howdy" on the open mesh intercom.
We stopped at Andy D's and had a pretty good breakfast. Both Munchkin and JoeJoe had the "Kitchen Sink", which apparently has everything you can think of thrown into it. Munchkin ordered his sans fromage (French for cheese, my words not his). Neither Munchkin NOR JoeJoe were able to finish their plates. It's a rare sight to see JoeJoe, la menace pour la cuisine - the menace of the kitchen, too full to finish his plate. It's the first time I've seen both Munchkin and JoeJoe tap out in the near 12 years that I've been riding with this crazy bunch.
As we waited for the checks, George mentions that he and Sam are riding out to Opal Beach, then turning back around and getting out of dodge before the heat index ticks 100. I had no idea where Opal beach was, but I used context clues to determine it was somewhere on shade-less Santa Rosa Island. It helped that he said they were taking a left from the parking lot... So, having consumed my mental faculties deducing the location of the aforementioned Opal Beach, I say that I realized yesterday that I have never ridden the HWY 90 Scenic Bluffs of Pensacola. I think I'll press on a little further and hit the touristy roads people drive down when they visit the area.
As we head for the door I overhear George telling folks again that he plans to turn around shortly, but that I had a ride planned if they were interested. Greg L chimes in with if there's a ride, he's down for it. By the time I got out of the restroom it had been decided that I'm leading since I have a ride planned. Me having a ride planed was news to me, but I still walked past the group like I knew what I was doing. I had that sinking feeling like there was a lesson in there somewhere that I should be learning. Instead, I donned helmet and took off. For those not familiar with the Garmin XT2, it is fantastic for displaying and navigating your planed route, it is not fantastic at routing on the fly.
We headed west, and rode along the barren land of sun scorched earth known as the Santa Rosa Island. Having avoided this road since the almost a no shirt tri, I did not know that they had recently repaved with the darkest of blacktops. They have also reduced the speed limit for your photographing pleasure...
This ensures motorcyclist have the opportunity fully enjoy the day's UV index. Today it was 10.7.
Crossing the bridge back into Gulf Breeze, Sam and George say their farewells and turn back east. Greg, Munchkin, JoeJoe and I continue north through Gulf Breeze across the three mile bridge until we see the new exchange that takes us to Graffiti Bridge. JoeJoe notes that the bridge is always more colorful each time he sees it. We head along the Bluffs, and I check this off my list of things I have no intention of ever doing again.
Now I find myself on HWY 90, headed into Milton just before noon. I knew there were some roads to the northeast I wanted to check out. I also knew I didn't want to go through Milton. The night before I had mapped out a general route in REVER for a tourist to ride without getting lost. Not knowing I would be leading that ride the next day, I had not uploaded said route to the Garmin.
I was left to 'wing it', which I now understand is far less cool when you aren't on an actual goldwing.
So I turned left on Chumuckla Hwy just as we reached Pace. I couldn't remember if I wanted to take Berryhill Rd or if I meant to avoid it. When I realized we were about to pass it, I panic turned to keep from missing the opportunity. Nine seconds later I realize this was not the direction I needed to be going as it was leading us straight for Milton. A zigzag of seven later, and I eventually made our way over to 87 to cut further north away from Milton. At this point, JoeJoe and Munchkin knew I was making it up as I went and they cut back towards Milton, Navarre, then their respective homes. Greg either felt sorry for me, was lost in his thoughts, or just wanted to make sure I didn't disappear in Alabama. Either way, I made the Neal Kennington Road turn by dumb luck.
I still wasn't 100% sure which way I wanted to go, but I knew I needed to come into Sweet Southern Farms from the north to get where I had intended to go. I touched on the map about where the Farms were, and the Garmin plotted a course for me. Awesome, we are back on track and headed where I had intended to go. Now I only have Greg left to call me out for wandering aimlessly around west-northwest Florida.
We finally get to Popular Head Church Road. I'm starting to feel like this might be salvageable. We get a few miles down the road, and I spot our next turn on the map: Lighthouse Church Rd. Just then, Greg comes over the intercom and comments that this is a pretty nice road. He says he's never ridden it before. At this point, I lose the never to take what would likely be another wild goose chase down unfruitful roads. So I call it; we enjoy what was left of Popular and make our way back to 90. The rest of the ride home was pretty standard, and boring for NWFL. However, we are always thankful that it was a safe ride and there were no unplanned stops. Nothing about it was planed, you get the idea.
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