18 months and exploring Plant City

I received an email the other night from the dealership I bought Kimmie off of, according to the email I owned her for 18 months now.  I actually had to go back and do the math, using all my fingers and part of my toes during the process.

In some ways it feels longer than that.  In other ways, shorter.  I started this blog on August 22,2011.  I recently upgraded from a little Yamaha Zuma 125 to a Suzuki Burgman 400.  I made my first post about Kimmie way back on February 2, 2013.

In just under four years I've managed to go down twice, hurting myself pretty badly on the second one.  Travel countless miles, see lots of things that I would have never of seen otherwise, met new and interesting people.  I even got to take a brief cruise to the Bahama's and ride in a foreign country.  All of this opportunity may have been open to me in a car...but you actually need to go.

On the bike...I didn't want to stop for the longest time.  Then it took me a long time to get back on the beast, to put away demons and just fall in love all over again with the idea of riding.

So with that in mind I decided to take a Saturday morning and ride up to Plant City.  This little burg is sort of a Tardis...it's bigger on the inside.  It has a reputation of being a bit backward and agricultural, despite being in the same county as Tampa.  Frankly, it is.  The area surrounding the town is largely flat and the roads straight.  Farmland stretches for miles.

It's been called the Strawberry Capital of the World, a distinction shared by many cities, for a reason and is home to the Florida Strawberry Festival.  The town even has a dedicated fairground just for that event.  The strawberry's are wonderful and the festival is a lot of fun, although it involves mostly country musical acts and traditional country crafts like quilting displays.

The downtown area is like any small city in America, the population is over 34 thousand after all.  What interests me about a place is the odd, the unusual...what gives the place its soul?

To be honest other than strawberries, I'm not sure what gives this town it's soul.  It has a few beautiful homes in the historic district, a train depot and museum and....what?  .

Certainly not Dinosaur World!  I suppose if I was 5 or 6 years old this would be a neat place to be with life size statues of long dead fantastic creatures.    It sits just off the I-4 highway and you can't miss it's big mascot sitting at the gates.


There is also a small winery in town which doubles as a craft brewery.  I've not had the beer but I've tried the wine before.  Frankly I was not impressed but was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I've always been a hard cider fan as well.  I stopped at their tasting room, only to find it closed.  Considering I was riding on the bike, it was probably for the best.  Perhaps when I'm up this way next.

I just might pass that Franchise opportunity to a friend of mine that sells Chocolates.

All told, it was a good day out, a nice satisfying 75 miles (120.7 KM) where I was not rushing to work or had a particular destination in mind.  I'll take it.

There's a ghost in the glass!

This Blogging Life

I try to come up with a topic every week, it's sometimes a challenge.  After all, most of my riding is commuting over the same 35 miles every day with a little variation.  Sometimes it's fun to go off and do something different or take a group ride, these however are few and far between mostly due to my weird work schedule and secondary self-employed income.  So I don't feel weird telling you that this blog post is a little different, a little off topic but I think important enough to read and talk about.  This post was inspired by my second job in a way.

My little company supplies and stocks various magazines into the local grocery stores.  I don't deliver Ride Now, Full Throttle or Go Far magazines.  These are delivered by the publisher and each of these magazines in geared to the "Motorcycle Lifestyle" and are free publications.  I'll pick them up and often just browse through the pages.  With the exception of Go Far (the magazine withe the Map) most of these fine publications end up in my trash can.

They just don't apply to me.

Maybe if I had a Harley, maybe if I wore a lot of leather, maybe if I had a beard...OK, I do have a beard.

The blogger in his natural state.

Frankly there is no content in these magazines.  Nearly 50 to 75% of them are advertisements and what often passes for content is light or non-sensible.   One of them offers the ramblings of old man where he uses nicknames, slang and lingo.  Great if you're part of the inter circle but  horrible writing if you're actually looking for content.  Another offers safety tips but their lifted directly from the MSF website.

Go Far at least provides you with a map of a route (which is how I learned about the Green Swamp) which is great for riding, but even that magazine is mostly advertisements.  Still though, they offer content.  Perhaps not content directly related to me, but some content.

Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not knocking one magazine or another.  The point I'm trying to make is that if you want a review of a particular bike, a particular jacket or helmet...your not going to find it in the pages of a magazine anymore.  Your going to find it in the hands of a blogger.

Magazines and websites count on there advertising dollars to keep publishing.  In order not to upset this "gravy train" you often get reviews that rave about a product or gloss over the rough points. Don't believe me?  When was the last time Rolling Stone gave any piece of music a rating under 3 stars?  Go and look, you'll be shocked.

This lack of content is self feeding.  A publication needs to advertise to pay it's costs.  Advertisements then become the majority of the magazine, pushing original content into a smaller and smaller space.  No one buys the publication since it lacks content.  To pay for the magazine you have to have more advertisements.  What little content may be in the magazine is supplied by giant companies that often provide bland or superficial material that provides no in depth analysis.  I am looking at you Associated Press!

Self feeding circles

Is it any wonder that publishing is dying?

So here I am, a (relatively young) scooterist.  I want to learn about the newest bikes, the newest farkles and get a honest opinion on them.  The only place I can turn is the internet.  The only place I can read something honest is the internet.  One of the original goals, which I believe I've  failed in. is to answer questions I had about riding, about the products, about the farkles.  I've learned a lot, but have I passed that knowledge on to other new riders?

I've been considering adding advertising to this blog.  Not that I expect to make much, but as a business man it only makes sense.  I've used Amazon with little success and I've considered adding a link to Bike Bandit or similar site.  What I worry about is writing a good review of a product because I want to deliver you to one of the websites that advertise with me.  So they will pay me.

I enjoy writing, I like having you, the gentle reader, provide feedback and support and even a slap upside the head when it's deserved.  It's been said that a writers job is to write.  I disagree, a writers job is to get you to think. If I do that then this is successful.   I have written for soccer publications and websites.  I've written about relationships and politics.  One year, I actually made $3000 from my writing for a now defunct soccer site (and have not got paid for my writing since).  That writing stopped being fun because I was getting pressure from the editors to stop being critical of the (then) new MLS as well as a well established minor league.  Who ever tells you advertising dollars don't matter is lying to you.

So yea, this blog is going to take a slightly different tack and offer product reviews in the future.  I'm still not sure if I'll accept advertising.   Time will tell.

Rollin' Robert's Smoothie (and Milk shake) Stand Search

Maybe it's been all the talk about blenders and smoothies lately.  Maybe it's because of the unending heat.  Maybe it was an article in the local paper about milk shakes.

I was thirsty.

Ice Cream runs in my family.  From my father's desire to have a small bowl every night before bed to the unspeakable horrors I've committed for a Klondike bar.  The idea of a "Milk shake run" held promise.

Although I really enjoy a shake from the Steak and Shake chain, I would rather support the small independent places.  I was married to a woman that loved to cook, Susan is a trained chef.  So the idea of trying new flavors or odd tastes does not scare me, in fact I seek them out.  Revolution Ice Cream - with it's "Chicken and Waffles" milk shake -  were going on the list for that very reason.  Another place that was listed as "best drinkable desert" by the Food Network was definitely on the list.  A place like Burger 21 and Evo's, although chains, are place's  I have never eaten at but were locally known for their shakes.  So they were "maybe's" for the list.  There were other places that intrigued me.  That little red barn place with the fresh picked farm fruit down the road from me offered promise of delicious smoothies for example.

I could already see a problem with this plan.  I am fat now.  I would break my poor Kimmy's back if I tried to do this all in one day.  Lucky for me there was even a low fat healthy option!  Nor did I want to grow so big that I knock poor Susan of the back seat.
Another problem is I didn't want this to become like my ill fated plan to follow Florida's wine trail.  I have simply not ridden to these places.  I'm not sure why not.

The Equinox to Equinox rally got me out and riding over hill and dale, but that to fell by the wayside of work, bad weather, home commitments and just a general lack of time.  So I am hoping something as simple as this will get me out of the house and on the road again.  A attempt to sample better milk shakes just may be the driving force I need to get out, and of course there is no time frame to any of it.  I can take my time and explore.  Of course if I happen to come across any rally items I'll be glad to take their photo.  It will give Susan and I an excuse to go out and ride, not that we should need one and with the promise of drier weather ahead we should have no reason not to go riding. 

A little bit of History at Munch's with your ice cream

For example, a ride to a home show (bathroom renovation time oh joy!) lead to an offer to buy lunch for Sue.  As we rode down the road my eye caught site of Munch's, one of the places listed in the article that inspired this little piece.  So, tires squealing, I did a quick turn and pulled in.  I'm glad we did, while my bucket of shrimp and fries was passable what I was really here for was the history.  On the walls were various photographs of elementary school classrooms.  Some of them dated back into the early 1950's.  Hair and dress styles changed in each photo, but it was not until the late 1960's before a black face was shown in the class photo's.  A sad comment on Florida's history in an unexpected place.  The milkshake however was cool and smooth and creamy.  While I'm not sure it was worth the $3 they wanted it, I was sure it was worth the stop.  

**NOTE**

This post is not "officially finished" but I see that it's all ready showing up on some blogs that link to mine.  This was due to an "oops" on my part.  So I post it now in its 95% completed status.  

Rally Season

Although I lived in North Carolina for years, the seasons here in Florida are different.   We still have four seasons of course.  Summer, "Snowbird Season" or Winter, "Love Bug Season" when we are surround by the mutant bugs from hell, and finally the Hurricane season.  Summer which by definition may be several 90 degree days in a row can occur at any time and can last three to nine months.

So a lot of "summertime" activities generally happen in the months traditionally occupied by "winter."  There is a logic to it of course, it's nicer to be outside when the temperatures are cooler and frankly; your taking advantage of the snowbirds as well.  Many of whom are looking for something to do.

Thus our state fair is in the middle of February for example.  With the lower temperatures come various biker and scooter rally's as well.  In a effort to get the word out I'm going to spend a few minutes talking about three upcoming rally's that I know of.  Why you should go to at least one of them, and finally introduce to a neat little smartphone app I found that might save your life.

 Sun, Sand and Scooters is the second annual rally held in St. Petersburg and is being held from November 9th through the 12th.  St. Pete is a very friendly city for scooters and motorcycles and is world famous for it's beaches.  What is really nice about this rally is that one of the sponsors is the Magnuson Hotel and Marina.  So you can literally stay at one of the nicer resorts, go riding, go swimming, go riding, sleep in comfort.  I may be mistaken but I think registration ends soon.
Sadly I did not get to attend this rally last year because I heard about it to late.  I do hope to get the time of of work for this year.

The second annual Snowbird Classic is November 16th through the 18th.  Last year I understand some 90 scooterists showed up for the event and this year promises to be even bigger.  Sadly, do to my job (I work for a GPS company so I am pretty much "on call"), I was not able to attend last year's rally.  However I am providing a special door prize for this rally (more on that below).  So I plan on taking at least two of those three days off and attending this rally come hell or high water.   Orlando is also home to various Florida institutions that are to numerous to name here.   So when not on your ride you can certainly take advantage of some magic.

Recently I learned about the Cocoa Beach Scooter Rally, which will be held from February 22nd through the 24th.  This appears to be less of a riding event and more of a social event, due to the fact that it attracts many British and other Europeans to the event.  However that means that you will have the chance to chat with people that clearly have a more defined "scooter" culture than we have in the states.  There is also a Tiki theme meaning that you will finally be able to wear that coconut bra that is taking up room in the back of your dresser drawer.  Also being this close to the Kennedy Space center it's a shame not to visit.

As some of you may know, in addition to my work in GPS, I am also self employed.  Recently my company became associated with Angelic Imports which is the exclusive importer for the wonderful Goufrais Chocolates from Germany.   I am giving the readers (all 10 or 15 of you) the chance to have this product at a discount, but only if you order through me.  If you desire to go through the website please be sure to mention Trade Specials LLC  although I can not offer you the discount then.   This would make a great door prize at rally's and with Christmas coming up....well need I say more?

OK, that was the plug.

Roughly two or three weeks ago I caved in and bought myself a smart phone.   I have been a fan of CRADAR since I first heard about it and frankly, it was one of the reasons I upgraded to a smartphone.  Riding at night and having deer running around, it just made sense to me to have something contact someone in case of an accident or injury.
Recently I found another application for a smart phone that I wanted to bring to your attention   This is also a free application and has a similar function to CRADAR.    Guardian Angel is an application designed to save your life.  If you have earphones, and who doesn't, you attach them to the phone and then to the bike; or wear them.  In case of a crash the earphones will most likely become unattached  the phone calls your contacts and uses the phone's GPS function to give your location.

Safe riding and I hope to see you at a rally!