[Kenneth_Moore]

Spring has sprung here in South Florida, which means in a few weeks it will be so unbearably hot nobody in their right mind will ride a motorcycle between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm. It's also Spring Vacation (the Holiday formerly known as Easter) for the kids; and my son's Mom decided to take him to Dinny Whirl for a few days. That left me with an open weekend, so I got with my pal Mike (who just purchased a brand new Electraglide Ultra Classic) and headed off to the Florida Keys. The weather was as good as it gets; 60s at night, low 80's during the day. We took the better part of the day to ride the 210 miles from Ft. Liquordale to Key West, putzing along in no hurry, taking in the fantastic views from the bikes. It's really cool to be riding a bike miles from shore, with nothing but water in every direction. Here are some snaps from along the way, and a few more in Key West. Key West is a very bike-friendly place; most of the traffic is scooters, so for once you get to be the bigger vehicle in the traffic-light matchups. We spent Saturday evening doing the Duvall Crawl, and then headed back up the islands this morning. And for once, in what must be a sign of the Apocalypse, the rain held off until the moment after I put the bike away in the garage. Many of the photos were taken with one hand whilst riding, so forgive their poor quality. MoFos are invited to take the same trip around 9/17, when Petersen Hardly Davidson sponsors the Key West Poker Run. It's a Micro Bike Week; about 30,000 bikes show up. They allow only motorcycles on Duvall St. Friday and Saturday night, and it's a hell of a good party.

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Oops

Ok, here's the photos in a size that you can actually see.

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Minimum message size is how big?

 

[sarnali2]

Looks like fun Ken, I've only ever been around Mayport. Not much going on there I'm afraid.

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Looks like fun Ken, I've only ever been around Mayport. Not much going on there I'm afraid.

That's the Naval base at Jax, right? There's surf there once in a blue moon, but otherwise the place is basically South Georgia. Not that there's anything wrongwith that.

 

[sarnali2]

Yeah we were there for a week or two getting a new screw after we bent one of ours. A buddy of mine was on the Saratoga so we just hung out partied when I wasn't on the ship. All I remember is it was hot and humid and stunk like a swamp, seemed to rain alot too, like 100 degrees and raining ...pretty nasty place as I recall..

 

[Kenneth_Moore]

Yeah we were there for a week or two getting a new screw after we bent one of ours. A buddy of mine was on the Saratoga so we just hung out partied when I wasn't on the ship. All I remember is it was hot and humid and stunk like a swamp, seemed to rain alot too, like 100 degrees and raining ...pretty nasty place as I recall..

That was during the days that Jax had a paper mill operating. The smell was enough to gag a maggot. They finally got rid of the mill in the late 80's, but the stink still lingers.

 

[mscuddy]

When the Indy got stuck in Mayport me and my good buddy AMS2 Allen hitched a ride to Ft. Lauderdale and got picked up by two heffers from Ohio in an Olds 98 full of dirty laundry. Ended up doin' doughnuts on the beach with that wale of a 98, and doughnuts on the heffers from Ohio in some roach infested motel back in Mayport. I still have the bite marks.

 

[sarnali2]

As I recall we were on 12 and 12 doing firesides and watersides while the yardbirds had to inspect all the bearings on #1 shaft. When we hit whatever it was you could see the foot thick solid steel shaft flexing and trying to rip itself out of the thrust blocks before they got it stopped and locked. Quite a sight....I imagine some Ruskie Akula Captain had a big ass dent in his submarine to explain, LOL.

My buddy Terry on the Saratoga had a trailor house in Mayport village so we just hung out there and drank beer. He used to be on the Indy but he shipped over, got 2nd class and transfered to the Sara. Turns out he wanted to live in FLA. for some reason.

 

[mscuddy]

WTF did we hit anyway? Rumor control central said it was a bunch of wood telephone polls that got washed off a barge. Others said it was a partially sunk channel bouy. I never heard the Submarine story, but we airdales up on the '03 never got good info from anything below the mess deck anyway...

 

[sarnali2]

That was "the word" however logs float and the screw is about 40 feet under water, logs are wood and the screw was solid knife edged steel or brass spinning at 40 or 50 rpm. What ever it was totally mangled the screw to the point where the shaft was almost ripped out of the thrust blocks. I was on watch when it happened, the shaft from 1 MMR passes through 4MMR above the feed pumps on the stbd side so me, the burnerman and the MM feedpump watch had a clear shot of it. The shaft looked like a pencil you hold in the middle and shake, pretty hard for me to imagine a few logs could do that........

 

[60571]

HEY!!! Only one picture of me and my ultra. Need more pics of the Harley.