Ron Hewitt picked us at the Orlando Airport around 7am on Friday 27 February and took us to our car (and truck) stored at his business in New Smyrna Beach. Then on to Daytona Beach.
An hour after we dropped our bags in the living room, our first guest for Bike Week arrived! We had Frank, Galen (Guzzi Club Rep from Maine) and Jimmy there the first night.
Joe and Michele arrived on Saturday in the truck. Joe couldn’t get a load to Florida, so came from Buffalo with just his and Jimmy’s bike on.
The weekend was cold and windy. Jim and I had stuff to get organized after being away for 7 1/2 months. Heaps of mail and magazines! During the week we worked through most of it - as well as checking over the truck and trailer. There was a stuck air governor that had to be replaced on the truck, it was corroded from the salt air. Had to clean the rust off all the chains - a lot of little things to do.
Saturday night we went to Tim and Helena’s place at New Smyrna Beach for a party - caught up with a lot of the guzzi crowd.
The men went to the Vintage Races at the Speedway on the Monday to see Ed Milich from Guzzitech ride his V65 moto guzzi to victory in the Middleweight Superbike Class. He has won this four times now and twice on the V65 Guzzi.
Monday night was the Pantheon Pizza dinner with Guzzi friends - still very cold and windy! Ed had the V65 there for everyone to enjoy.
Frank flew back to Buffalo on Tuesday. He rode down from Buffalo on his recently acquired 1976 moto guzzi convert and the transmission fluid was very black when he got to Florida (it started out red). He rode it around Daytona Beach while he was there but didn’t chance riding it back to Buffalo.It was extremely cold and windy on Tuesday when we met guzzi friends at Buckie’s Crab House on the Tomoka River for lunch. We stopped at the Tradeshow area at the Speedway to check out the new bikes, motorcycle gear, clothes, etc. We met Jason Britton, the Kawasaki stunt rider and he autographed a poster for each of us and posed for photos.
Galen bought his friendship cup - an Italian design bowl with seven spouts. Galen made a concoction of strong and hot espresso coffee, lemon slices, and Grappa alcohol and passed around the group. This happened on three evenings at our place. Whew ... Quite the nightcap!
Our group took a ride along the Atlantic Ocean north to Flagler Beach, Galen was the only newbe this year. We rode back along the Intracoastal waterway ,‘the loop’ back to Daytona. The weather started to warm up. ‘The loop’ is a little of the ‘south’ for people to experience as a contrast to the Main Street mayhem.That evening was the AMA Flat Track at the Municipal Stadium, a large group of guzzi people attended and we party in the parking lot afterwards until the exiting traffic has cleared up. A young man Joe knows from Attica, New York won his division, so everyone was excited about that. Also, two Australians competed for the first time ever. One won his division, the other bloke was very competitive.
Friday afternoon we went out to ‘Camp Carlo’ about 70 kms from Daytona where a large group of Guzzi friends camp during Bike Week. One member, Charlie has a restaurant in Massachusetts and he cooks awesome meals most evenings for everyone for a ’donation’ to cover ingredients. The day we were there -- lots of oysters and clams, then spaghetti with either red sauce or clam sauce. I had two plates of the spaghetti and clam sauce ... Awesome!
Michele and I were the only ones who really liked oysters, so Mark and Joe were kept busy shucking them for us!
A bunch of others met us there in the evening. Joe, Michele, Derek, Cindy, Jim and I headed back to Daytona Beach to watch the Delta II rocket launch. Derek and Cindy live in Pittsburgh and had never seen a launch of any kind, neither had Michele. We left the bikes at our place and walked to the beach to watch at 10.50pm. Then came the cart wheel competition in the sand... Then the night caps at Mai Tai’s Bar...
Internet News : NASA’S planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler blasted off aboard a rocket from Cap Canaveral on March 7. Rocketing into the night sky last Friday, Kepler, the space agency’s long-awaited $591 million space telescope opens a new era in planet detection.
In its four-year mission, planetary scientists expect the spacecraft to discover roughly 1,200 planets, more than quadrupling the number of worlds spotted orbiting nearby stars since 1995.
After thundering out of Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta II rocket, Kepler will follow an Earth-trailing orbit and turn its 3-foot-wide telescope towards the constellation Cygnus, the Swan, to begin four years of viewing of roughly 100,000 stars.
All launches are spectacular at night and even though Cape Canaveral is approx. 120 kms south of Daytona Beach it is still spectacular especially at night.
Jimmy left early Friday morning to load north of Jacksonville. Michele flew back to Buffalo Saturday evening, and Joe left Sunday afternoon to be ready to load Monday morning in Lake City. Joe, Jimmy and Frank left their bikes in Daytona. Galen left Monday morning and rode back to Maine.
Jim was still getting qualified for Landstar trucking company. Even though he was with them last year, he had to go through the whole pre-employment process again. He had not been released by his doctor to go back to work after his knee operation last year, so had to go back to the doctor for that. Also, a physical and drug test.
We had to have taxes ready to go to the Accountant, get new Medical Insurance as we cancelled the previous one before we went to Australia. We stayed busy.The Saturday after Bike Week we spent with Ron and Gina at the Native American Festival near Daytona Beach. It was an awesome display of leather, hides, jewellery, dancing, etc. and native life. Very enjoyable. The local animal rescue agency had displays of native Florida wildlife: a bald eagle, owl, hawks, a two week old squirrel that I got to hold, two three week old raccoons, a large lizard. All a highlight for me.
Jim’s Landstar orientation was Monday and Tuesday (March 16 and 17) in Jacksonville.
On Monday evening Jim and I walked to the Daytona Beach Pier to watch the Shuttle Discovery launch. Very spectacular at sunset. The vapour trail changed colours with the sunset as it headed into space.
Internet News: Sunday 16 March. Cape Canaveral (ANP) - Space Shuttle Discovery launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida for a mission of thirteen days. The crew of the Space Shuttle - six Americans and one Japanese - bring the latest solar panels to the international space station.
Jim still had more paperwork to do on Wednesday and Thursday he found a load picking up on Monday 23 March on the west coast of Florida near Tampa Bay. We were startled at how low paying the freight was since we had been gone. Fuel had dropped, but rates had dropped considerably lower. Yikes!In a bit of spare time after Bike Week Jim started work on the 1974 moto guzzi eldorado he has apart in the garage. He painted the tank, side covers, swing arm, tool box, mudguards, etc. robin egg blue. Now it has to be put back together... Next trip to the house... Don’t know how many years it has been apart... Hopefully he can find all the bits and pieces required to get it back together.
We left Daytona early Monday morning 23 March and loaded crane parts used to maintain television towers.- it was raining. Had an easy run north and delivered mid-Wednesday morning near Boston, Massachusetts to another tower crew. Woke up Wednesday morning and it was -5 degrees C, a bit cooler than we had been used to. It was sunny and evolved into a beautiful day.I had been scanning the Internet for two days looking for a reload. There are loads but they don’t pay anything and mostly short hauls. Eventually got one that loaded on Friday 27 March, but when Jim called Thursday morning for directions they told us it was ready, to come and load it.
We had planned to swing by Buffalo on our way to Indianapolis, Indiana, so that gave us a little more time there for Jim to see his family. Thursday morning we were notified that Jim’s sister’s mother-in-law had passed away and the funeral was Saturday. Nanny Hawley was a dear, dear lady and she will be missed.
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