Yesterday we went to a Tiki Bar in the downtown Sarasota area.  The bar tender looked a little like Ron Bly and had some of the same mannerisms and a very similar way of talking, they could be twin brothers.  And remember Tropical Storm Colin, with the 50 mph winds – two days ago?  Well, the guy who owns this boat is going to remember it for a long time……

Today was a short day so I did something I almost never do – – I slept in.  I didn’t get up until almost 8:00; which was just in time for breakfast.  My buddy Phil made scrambled eggs and biscuits & gravy.  It was wonderful and I was plenty full when it was time to get back on the road.  I knew that there was almost no way to get across the state or Florida in this area without getting rained on, so I had everything packed for the wet weather.  But hey – I’ve been pretty good at dodging the rain showers so far, maybe I’ll be able to pick my way across the state and stay as dry as possible.  I’m not putting on my rain suit though for lots of reasons.  The cost of hubris is often very high, and today was wrath of the rain god day.  Here is the view leaving Sarasota – Behind & Ahead.

I was trying to ride toward lighter sky since I’ve been so successful with that tactic in the past, but there was no running from this thing.  I have never ridden is such strong rain and if I’m ever faced with it again, I will not ride in it, like Green Eggs & Ham.  I’ll be happy to share the details with you sometime but for now, I’ll just tell you that by the time I got to West Palm Beach, I was literally as wet as I would have been if I had fallen into a swimming pool.  Today, I lost.  What was really nice though is that my bike ran just fine even though it was raining HARD and the wind was blowing hard from the right as well.

Early in the ride, I was in a small area where it wasn’t raining anymore and got this shot of the bike with a live oak tree complete with all the Spanish Moss hanging from it.  Something you see fairly often here in the south.  Spanish Moss is similar to an air plant in that it absorbs it’s nutrients and water from the air, not the earth.

Before I go I would like to thank Phil and Shelly for their hospitality and being such good friends.  You may very well be hearing about Phil again, he is going to Detroit to buy a BMW GS 1200 and ride it back to Florida.  We may very well meet somewhere between here and there.  Ride safe my friend, I’ll be looking for you somewhere in Georgia maybe – get a good rain suit….. Ha ha