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Jacksonville FL – Titusville FL
Sat Mar 8, 2025
(~905 miles)

The rally start is scheduled for 07:00, when we’ll be released from the Whataburger parking lot across the main boulevard from the hotel. That would provide us all easy direct access to the interstate ramps with a minimum of traffic hassle. We were instructed to be there standing by our bikes between 06:00 and 06:30 for final odometer readings.

I was up around 05:00 and pulled in to the lot just before six, where a good number of motorcycles were already lined up as directed by Wolfe and volunteer Al Greenwood. The bike spacing was a little too close for my comfort, being a multiple first-hand witness to motorcycles toppling over at rally starting lines, so I gave myself an extra foot on either side. 😬

The odo reading and final check went smoothly, then I hung out a bit with the other riders, meeting a few new people as the sky lightened to a pretty tropical periwinkle color as dawn approached. Perfect Florida setting!

As everyone had arrived on time and the general consensus seemed to be “let’s get going”, we had the final rider’s meeting 15 minutes early at 06:30, gathered around Wolfe to receive any last minute changes or bits of wisdom. A wildcard bonus sheet was passed out at this time. Wow, I haven’t done a rally with wildcard/BOLO bonuses in a few years! After scanning the sheet briefly, I took a quick photo of it so I could review it more easily once on the road. There were five bonuses listed, in brief:

1. Sea Shells – collect a shell on a beach and take a selfie with it there.
2. Beach Ride – photo of your bike on the sand of a beach (where legal to do so).
3. Gatorade – buy a Gatorade with a receipt.
4. Shark Nose Harley – photo of your bike next to a Harley-Davidson Road Glide with a “shark nose” fairing.
5. Live Pelican – photo of a live pelican.

At first glance, I figured the last three were the most likely I’d encounter, based on my route plan.

After everyone made their last pit stops and got geared up on their bikes with engines running, we were released to the wild at around 06:40, giving us an extra 20 minutes on the roads of the Sunshine State.

My first bonus is indeed the only one right here in Jacksonville, just a few miles north by the crow. Having taken local roads north through the city in the past, I knew it was nothing but stoplights, so I hopped onto the interstate along with most other riders, heading south on the loop to get over to I-95 heading north into the city center.

My Garmin GPS was doing its Garmin things, trying to take me straight through the city and recalculate for no reason at all, as I tried to navigate the confusing series of exits off 95 to figure out the right one to cross the St. Johns River to my destination. I finally got the waypoint set in Google Maps (which I should have done from the beginning — already feeling a bit rusty!) and managed to finally cross the river after one more wrong turn and pulling a u-ey. Jeez, this short jaunt to the first bonus had seemed simple enough when planning!

Crossing the water via the US 1 bridge, I proceeded sedately through several blocks of low-speed urban blocks and stoplights paralleling the river to Metropolitan Park, across the street from Everbank Stadium. There was some construction going on preventing access to the main park entrances, so I pulled over for a minute to scope the area out and zoom in on Google to try and see how I could get close to the bonus.

Finally, turning into a curb cut that looked like a maintenance entrance due to some orange cones, I realized this must be a temporary visitor access when I saw a small gravel lot and the bonus itself sitting there across the grass. I quickly pulled in, hopped off the bike and got my photo of bonus GSTATU.

As I submitted my first bonus email and messed with the GPS/Google to pull up the next bonus waypoint, rider Lionel Ramos and his son Jacob pulled in. They quickly handled their business and moved on. At this point, I realized how long I was taking and how disorganized and out of practice I was feeling! In a 24-hour rally, time is extremely limited when you are striving for a competitive finish. It’s more a sprint, rather than a marathon like the longer rallies I’ve been riding more recently. I should have been able to roll up to this statue, get the photo from my saddle and been on my way in under 3 minutes. I need to dig in mentally for a higher sense of urgency and get my shit single-socked ASAP!

I beelined back west along the river to I-95 and re-entered the interstate system, exiting immediately to head west on I-10. Clearing out of the greater Jax area, I reached Sanderson and exited on US 90 to cut down to Lake City and my next bonus. I may have shaved off time staying longer on the interstate, but that was local knowledge I didn’t have. In the meanwhile, I enjoyed the agricultural scenery along 90, which was still a pretty quick road for two lanes, without much traffic this early.

The GALLIG bonus is a historical marker located right in the center of Lake City on the town common. A farmer’s market setup was underway, with vendor booths already blocking the curbside by the sign. I was able to park across the street  and nodded to one of the vendors as I leaned around their canopy to get the photo. Apparently, ‘Alligator’ was the former name of this bustling little burg. This is a required bonus for the GATORS combo — two down and eight to go!

A time check tells me I’m running pretty much right on time so far, despite my overall state of disorganization. Since I’m planning to partake in the noon group photo bonus in Daytona, I can’t let up at all. I start rolling and by the time I get my next bonus locked into Google, Garmin is trying to lead me west out of town, rather than my planned path south to avoid some busier traffic areas and pick up I-75 further down. The GPS actually rebooted itself a couple times while recalculating as I tried to get back on FL 47 south via dead reckoning.

About 20 miles south on I-75, I exited onto CR 236 northeast of High Springs, heading east into the rural Florida countryside. I moved along quite quickly, passing slower vehicles on the long straightaways next to creeks and large farm fields. At FL 121, I turned south through the town of La Crosse. A mile or so later, on the far outskirts of Gainesville, I turned down a small gravel driveway of smallish Cellon Oak Park, home of the largest live oak tree in Florida.

The sign we need to photograph is pretty small and wasn’t immediately obvious amongst a few other signs scattered around. But in just a couple minutes, after squinting hard at the sample photo in the rally book, I identified and captured the OLVOAK bonus, plus a an extra shot of the magnificent tree itself, off across the field.

Another rider rode up as I was finishing up my email submission, so I pointed him to the correct sign to save him a minute of searching.

I motored back out to the highway and continued south into the heart of collegetown, U.S.A — Gainesville, Florida. There are four alligator bonuses here, within a single square mile on the University of Florida campus. While none of them were in the seven mandatory locations for the combo, it seemed an easy way to knock out the non-mandatory GATORS bonuses, as well as just gather some quick points within a short span of time.

Having ridden through this congested city at midday during the 2018 Rock n Ride Rally, I had paid particular attention to my timing and exact pathway through this area while routing. I’d hoped that the traffic earlier in the morning would be easier to deal with and that seemed to be the case, though the place was still bustling with cars around 09:00! My approach from the north led me straight down to the university via US 441.

The first bonus in my sequence is located along a campus footpath set back from the busy intersection of West University Ave and 13th Street. According to Street View, there was no parking at all on either of those streets anywhere near the intersection, nor any shoulders — just solid four-lane traffic plus turning lanes! Luckily, I’d spotted a small one-way side street just across the road from the footpath and figured I’d be able to leave the bike running there by the corner for a couple minutes while I ran to get the bonus.

That plan worked a treat, and I was able to snag bonus GUBIQT after just a short jog across the busy road and around one of the campus buildings.

Then I headed west on University Ave for a few blocks. The next bonus GALALB, is right next to this busy boulevard, near another intersection and again, with no shoulder to speak of. I’d planned for this by turning right on another small side street (19th) to a quiet back alley. I parked by a curb and jogged over to snap my photo of the university’s sports mascots, Albert and Alberta. Easy peasy.

Back out to University and immediately turned south towards the stadium. I pulled up by another rally rider getting a photo of the historical marker for the Birthplace of Gatorade, bonus GBIRTH. I took a terrible, blurry photo of this sign, but couldn’t tell that at the time. I guess it was just legible enough to count — have I mentioned before how nice Canadians are? 😅

Just a few hundred feet further up the road, at the corner with Stadium Road, lay the fourth and final bonus in Gainesville. The GBULLG bonus is a life-size sculpture of a bull alligator.

Now I had to get out of this city and head back to the northeast. University Ave seemed the most direct route, but it’s a very main road and traffic was already backed up at the MANY stoplights in the just the small distance I’d already traversed. Zooming around on the GPS, I spotted a parallel road just a few blocks to the north and went for that, forcing Garmin and Google to recalc a few times as I executed my manual override. Still encountered traffic and plenty of stop signs, but I think the detour probably saved me several minutes plus avoided the heat from just sitting in traffic on the larger boulevards.

FL 24 took me northeast about 15 miles to the small railroad town of Waldo (found him!). A historical marker for the town in a small veteran’s park next to the tracks served as bonus OWALDO. A time check told me I’d lost a little bit of time with all the running around in Gainesville, but was still ahead of my original schedule thanks to the early start.

I began seeing more motorcycles on the road as I left south from Waldo on US 301 and took state routes 20 and 100 back east over to Palatka. Joining US 17 and re-crossing the St. Johns River I shortly pulled in to snag my first restaurant bonus of the rally.

This category is a bit of a sleeper, as many of the restaurant bonuses have low-to-medium point values for getting a photo of the location. However, if you ordered food and got a selfie (helmet off!) eating said vittles AND got a receipt to submit, it was worth an extra 500 points, making each one a high value stop. The big BUT here is that Wolfe had chosen several small, local hole-in-the-walls and iconic Florida biker-friendly eateries that would make earning those extra points very expensive time-wise.

The Cheyenne Saloon was my first lesson in this matter, and it was a doozy! After first nabbing my photo of the building and signage, I pulled my bike around back to park, as I had read that they do outdoor food service. Seems like only alcohol is being served outside at the moment (!), so inside I went and stepped up to the mostly empty bar (it being around 10:30). It was a cool little joint, sleepy at the moment, but you could just tell from the worn out floor and space clear of furniture that the barroom has a lot of history and probably gets hopping in the evenings.

One of the friendly-yet-battle-weary hostess/bartenders told me to take a seat, but I told her I was hoping for something simple and fast, maybe a quick egg-cheese breakfast sandwich to-go? When I asked if I could please get a receipt with that, she paused and asked if I was part of a scavenger hunt? After confirming I was indeed, she then proceeded to give me a firm talking-to, the general gist of which was making sure that I was going to eat the food I ordered and wasn’t going to just throw it away.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, lady! What’s going on here? Apparently, another rider had been through earlier and made a comment to the affect that they only needed a receipt and weren’t that bothered about the food itself.  While I know that’s a typical sentiment from a rally rider on the clock, apparently the crew here found it mildly insulting and unappreciative of their cook’s effort, despite the face that they’re getting paid one way or the other. Quite taken aback, but understanding her sentiment, I assured her that while I needed to get back on the move quickly, I was actually hungry and hadn’t eaten any breakfast yet. I certainly would be eating the sandwich they made for me!

She seemed to believe me and took it down a notch, putting in my order with the kitchen. They are cash only and don’t have DBRs here, so I asked if i could have a copy of the order ticket. The answer was a flat “no” to that since they need to keep them, but I could take a photo of it, along with one with her, which we did once my order was ready. Wolfe said to get proof we were there, so — anything for points!

I left one of the Lobo Loco tokens that Wolfe had given us to pass out to interested bystanders, as well as a good tip. With my hot sammich in hand, I headed back to the bike and quickly wolfed down my simple fare for the camera, being sure to include my rally flag of course.

I hit the road about 20 minutes after my arrival, though of course it felt much longer. The photo bonus in Daytona was next up and time was now very tight, though doable as long as I didn’t hit many delays. I realized now that I hadn’t built in enough time for these restaurant stops when ordering food. I’d blown what was left of the extra minutes from this morning’s early start and was running a few minutes behind now.

Continuing southeast on route 100 where it split from US 17, my mind was so occupied now with getting to Daytona that I forgot to monitor my fuel mileage. After joining US 1 in Bunnell, the ST began to sputter in a familiar fashion. Doh, I hadn’t yet cracked open the auxiliary tank valve. I quickly did so, but it was too late now to avoid coasting to a stop.

With parades of cruisers roaring by amidst lots of other traffic now, I had to pull to the narrow shoulder in an awkward spot near a rotary and wait for enough fuel to transfer before the bike would start. The late morning sun was heating  things up now, and my nerves amped up a notch while I just sat there baking and waiting on the roadside in plumes of exhaust, while the minutes ticked off and my ETA for Stavros approached the noon deadline.

Finally, after several premature attempt to crank it, enough fuel transferred and the engine finally caught. I began carefully motoring down route 1 again, not wanting to burn the gas at a faster rate then it could refill. Not that I could really go that fast with all this traffic, but I started dodging and weaving a bit between the stoplights, to get around a lot of the bike week folks (2 or 4 wheels) just out for a chill Saturday cruise.

As I neared I-95, I decided to stick with route 1 as Google indicated OK timing through Ormond Beach, rather than cutting down the interstate directly to the Daytona exit. It worked out well, and I made good time despite the many speed traps that kept pinging my radar detector and reminding me to keep things at a reasonable speed.

Pulling up to the curb in front of Stavro’s around 11:51, I was just five minutes off my planned arrival — plenty of time for the group photo bonus! Several Snowbirds riders were there waiting already and I spotted one guy re-routing on a laptop.

Wolfe had admonished the field of riders not to go inside Stavro’s unless we were actually IBR finishers, as it is a private party just for that group. Luckily, I have earned that privilege and ran in quickly to shake a few hands and say hello to a couple folks I hadn’t seen in a bit. Wolfe asked any finishers who felt willing, to come outside and pose in the group photo with the Snowbirds riders. A few good-humored low-digit souls followed us out there to participate. Snap!

I think we had about a dozen bikes show for the photo, about half the field, which felt like a pretty good showing. It was indicative that at least half of us agreed that going down the Keys on a Saturday afternoon would be a Bad Idea. 😀

There was the typical scurrying to our bikes after the photo was taken, as we all parted ways again, back to our individual ride plans. For me, my northern loop was done and it was time to head south across the middle of the state. Rather than head out to the interstate exit by the speedway which I thought was likely to be snared in traffic, I decided to pick my way down on local streets to the next I-95 access point at FL 400. Around the block from Stavros, I toodled along a cool little wooded residential street with lots of old-looking bungalows running south parallel to Beach Street for 3/4 mile or so, before cutting over to route 1 and down to 400.

My friend Sjef caught up with me along this stretch towards the interstate, and we rode the next several miles together through some heavy stoplight traffic. At I-95, route 400 becomes the I-4, spanning the state’s midsection at a slant, down through Orlando and over to Tampa.

As I opened up the throttle for higher speeds, I began to feel a bit of sputtering again and loss of power, almost like when I’m running out of fuel. It was very quick, but happened a couple of times when I tried to get in the fast lane and set a good rally pace. This was puzzling, since the aux tank had been transferring fuel for a while now, and there should be plenty in the bike’s tank. I had left the motorcycle running the entire time we were at Stavro’s, so maybe that burned more fuel than I was thinking? Or might be possible the flow wasn’t keeping up for some reason in the heat, perhaps? Never been a problem before.

Sjef was on my tail and came alongside when I pulled back into the center lanes where my motor seemed to be happier with a bit less throttle applied. He slowed down, looking questioningly over at me as I pointed to my tank and gave a hand signal for something’s not right. I continued to focus on the feedback I was feeling from the engine and throttle, while he pulled in back in behind me.

Right around that moment, as my bike was chugging and bucking amidst the four lanes of traffic, and I could feel the flow of my rally eking away from me, another rally rider ran by us on a rail, with barely a sideways glance. I recognized Nicole Meuse, and though it was just a brief glimpse, I could clearly see that she was in the zone. I’ve spotted this before during rallies, observing a rider so totally in their game that you immediately realize that you are not. It’s impressive and disheartening at the same time, but I silently wished her well, suspecting just from that glimpse that she had something special going on today.

As that elongated moment in time passed, the bike’s hirks and jerks continued, demanding my immediate attention. I pulled into the far right lane to be prepared for the motor to cut out. When I realized I couldn’t keep up steadily with traffic, I finally I just pulled into the breakdown lane and came to a stop, so as to reassess my options. The bike did keep idling, so I started to pull up gas stations on Google. My fuel gauge for the lower tank is still busted, so I have to go by tank mileage for fill-ups. Maybe the fuel level was just really low and the fuel pump couldn’t reach it all while underway? I could be on the last dregs in the tank.

Then I saw that Sjef had also pulled to the should up ahead. Though I greatly appreciated the thought, I didn’t want him wasting any of his precious rally time waiting on me for a non-critical issue like this. I pulled back out into traffic slowly motored on by so he could pull back out behind me. He pulled alongside once more and with arm motions I signaled that I was having fuel problems and that he should go on ahead. He waved and got back into the faster flow at that point, so it was the last I saw of him for the rally.

I should have exited before the express lanes started, but I hadn’t realized how few exits there would be. I pulled over again and waypointed the very next gas station I could get to, which was a couple miles farther. Proceeding at a reduced pace, barely with the flow of traffic, I made it to the exit and crossed back over the interstate to the station. I was only able to squeeze about nine gallons of high-test, which told me I still had 1-2 gallons left. My diagnosis now is that I’d probably gotten some bad gas at my last fill-up, which had been at the station across from the Ramada hotel in Jax.

The issue never reared its ugly head again after this fill-up, though it took me the next hour or so to fully trust it again. I was grateful to continue, but now I’d blown seven minutes on this unplanned extra fuel stop, plus whatever time I’d lost sputtering along the highway for the last several miles. Once again, it is critical to keep moving and quickly mitigate issues and delays on these shorter sprint rallies. On a 4+ day rally, 20 minutes is recoverable, but in a day-rally like this, it’s huge opportunity cost. All I could hope for was better luck ahead and trying to make up some time.

There are two bonuses coming up in the Orlando area appearing close to I-4 on the map, which I’d marked as optional. I should have dropped one or both of them after this fuel issue, but I’d already had my mind set, since there were very few optional bonuses near the latter portion of my route. I just didn’t have the time to think through things in real time, so I stuck with the plan. This is a good example of when small mistakes begin to multiply like fractals, that will eventually overwhelm a well-ordered system… or rally plan.

The first one was in Winter Park and looked so simple and direct on the map. Two miles straight east to the bonus and then straight back to the interstate to continue south. Taking the exit on FL 426, I immediately exclaimed “oh shit!” as I came down off the ramp and saw a complete traffic backup in front of me, jamming up this entire four-lane boulevard, running right through the middle of a commercial district full of strip-malls and traffic lights.

The line of cars to the first stoplight (of many) was long and it took at least 2-3 cycles for me to get through it. Rinse and repeat for the next few lights, as I sat agonizingly impatient in the midday sun, watching my ETA tick away. A Bob Ross mural on the side of a barbershop provided a moment of distraction, but his positive attitude wasn’t infectious at the moment. I recalled seeing another bonus on the west side of Orlando at Mr. Ross’ gravesite, but I’d already dismissed it as too far off-route.

Twenty minutes and two miles later, I finally turned off into the small but picturesque and well-groomed campus of Rollins College. I was able to find some curb space close to the bonus coordinates. Just a short jog into a landscaped courtyard took me to bonus FROGER, a sculpture of Mr. (Fred) Rogers surrounded by a bunch of kids. Might be a little creepy with anybody else, but c’mon this is Mr. Rogers! Won’t you be my neighbor?

At the time, I felt stressed and waaaay behind schedule, still on adrenaline from the fuel issue. But looking back at my track, I was only running right about 20 minutes behind at this point. Still not great.

Zipping back out to 426, I managed to turn left while dodging the constant flow of traffic and tried to pick out possible alternate routes back to the interstate or even down to the next bonus in central Orlando without going back along this entire two-mile stretch of torturous traffic! Google suggested FL 527, so when I reached that intersection, I took it heading southwest, cutting the corner towards downtown Orlando. Traffic opened up a bit, so while it was still urban riding, I was moving and decided to just stick to Google rather than trying to deal with the interstate for just a few miles.

Downtown was pretty empty at this hour on a Saturday, and I’d thoroughly Street View’d the little municipal park containing bonus GWREST. I found some available curb space on one of the side streets to leave the bike running and hoofed it into the park and directly over to the statue of an alligator wrestler. S’up homie!

Now running about 30 minutes behind schedule at 13:40, I found my way directly to I-4, clearing the rest of the city center pretty quickly. Carefully watching the exits, I took the ramp to the Florida Turnpike south towards Kissimmee, then over to US 441. Though I had just filled my tanks, I made my planned fuel stop at the Speedway station here to stay on track for my refueling schedule. I would be riding through the rural southern swamps tonight, so had planned out my precise stops to ensure I wouldn’t end up in East Bumfuck with no stations open.

As I was feeling quite parched and needed the restroom, it seemed a good time to buy a Gatorade and claim that HYDRAT wildcard bonus. Rider Avi Azrieli pulled in to a nearby pump while I was documenting and emailing my bonus pic — we exchanged grins and a quick greeting before I hopped back on and motored out.

The next bonus at Gatorland is a big-pointer and just down the street about a mile. It’s also a mandatory stop for the GATORS bonus. I’ve never really done the whole tourist circuit down in Florida, so I wasn’t previously aware of this well-known alligator preserve and theme park. I got the feeling it would be an historic staple on the Griswold family vacation punchlist.

The parking areas seemed to be quite a distance from the bonus location at the walk-in entrance. With the heat bearing down, I pulled directly up to the big gator mouth former entranceway, which is now just a photo prop, and left the bike running, parked on the edge of the curb ramp there.

The bonus required that I be in the photo, which meant helmet off, per rally rules. That allowed me to offer a disarming smile to a couple of tourists standing handily by and ask them to take my photo in the gator’s mouth, just like several other folks were doing. Easy peasy for bonus GTRLND!

As I was packing back up, I was accosted by a grumpy security “oldfella” in a compact car who came rolling up next to the bike, who didn’t want me “parking” there. I explained politely that the bike was still running and on the curb ramp out of traffic. I’d just stopped for a quick pic, and was leaving now. He didn’t seem entirely pacified by my casual response to such a serious offense, so I just apologized for the inconvenience, gave him a smile and wave, and got on my way before he could get wound up any further. I should have given him a rally token as a troll toll!

Now 44 min behind schedule (!) after those two stops in quick succession, I rode back up to 417 and headed west again towards I-4. And traffic. Was. Horrendous. Four to five lanes of superhighway parking lot in places. I mean, I’ve never been in anything quite this bad, except in California where you can lane-split if you’re lucky enough to be on two wheels. I simply couldn’t believe the volume of cars surrounding me at any given point, all reflecting the considerable heat of the Florida sun straight at me when I wasn’t moving, which was often. It started to get inside my head along with the downer I was feeling after my earlier adrenaline kick.

Getting past the the Disney/Epcot area was particularly bad, of course. Not being familiar with central Florida and all it’s tourist attractions really hurt my rally here. Somehow, I ended up getting off the 417 (which bypasses much of that mess) to take FL 535 and 536 straight over to I-4, which put me right in the middle of it all. 😩

I’m not adverse to using “creative riding” solutions to get out of standstill jams, and I rode the shoulder here off/on at low speed with flashers for several miles at one point, just to stay moving in the heat and avoid getting rear-ended. But then traffic would get flowing just enough — maybe 25-30mph — that I felt obligated to rejoin the lines of cages in their collective stop-and-go death march southwest towards Tampa.

Getting past the I-75 interchange was another standstill mess. By the time I reached my exit to US 301 in eastern Tampa, I was worn out from the heat and heavy traffic. The next bonus was about two miles north on this smaller four-laner and traffic was flowing fine. I turned down a short side street and presented myself at the entrance to Croc Encounters for bonus GCROCN.

Back on I-4, I continued the few remaining miles to its terminus in downtown Tampa, where I veered north for a mile on I-275. Exit on MLK Boulevard with another quick turn north for a few blocks to reach the G2HEAD bonus. I snapped my photo of the two-headed alligator for my third of the seven mandatory GATORS combo bonuses.

Another time check and I’m now 1:15 behind schedule after that horrible I-4 traffic. As I start moving south on I-75, circling down along Tampa Bay, this was the most difficult part of the day mentally. I’m trying to come to terms with the reality of my situation — which is that I’m not going to have time to complete my route as planned, while still hoping in my heart there was still possibly a chance. With my furthest mandatory combo bonus way down past the Everglades in Homestead, cutting bait will mean no combo. That’s a kiss goodbye to any chance of a strong finish. It happens just that quickly in these short rallies!

It was hard to let it go! I kept trying route changes on my GPS as best I could, since traffic was now much lighter once past the city. There’s an optional bonus in Bradenton, which will serve as a key decision point. If I’m going to give up on my route and combo, I should really nab this bonus to maximize whatever points opportunities were still within my grasp. If I’m going to try and keep the plan alive, I really should bypass this one and focus only on the remaining mandatory combo bonuses.

Last minute, I made the call and exited in Bradenton on FL 70 west toward the bonus, essentially calling it quits. I was feeling mentally drained from the traffic and heat, and just needed to get off the bike for a minute to re-assess things. I might as well do that at the bonus. If I skipped this one, there were very few bonuses left that I could nab to minimize the damage. It was 17:00.

Five miles later on relatively easy four-lane boulevards, I pulled in to Edmunds Metal Works to find that the bikini-clad female Mufflerman statue designated as bonus OTOOTS was no longer gracing it’s front edifice. I took the photo as shown in the rally book and gave Wolfe a quick call to let him know the bonus was missing (he was already aware). I mentioned that I’d hit severe traffic and was just running in damage-control mode now, and he said a couple other riders had hit some super bad traffic as well.

Determined to keep my rally pace up regardless, I rode east on route 70 out of Bradenton, crossing back under the interstate back into the hinterlands of rural Florida. My greedy brain was still trying to hold out hope for the combo, so I humored it, continually checking ETAs on the GPS as the afternoon shadows grew longer over these rural tree-lined highways. I was tired and the road was too bumpy to multi-task, so I gave up on routing to focus on my riding.

From what I could tell, by dropping everything but the combo bonuses, my ETA at the finish still seemed close to the rally time limit. But I couldn’t trust that calculation on-the-fly, without verifying on my laptop. And there weren’t any good spots to pull over along this rural highway — just a two-lane ribbon of pavement into the lush countryside, with barely any shoulders.

About 30 miles and a half-hour later, I pulled up to my next stop, another restaurant bonus called the Fire’s Open Road Bar & Grill. Bonus ROROAD looked to be a nice little roadhouse, painted burnt orange, on the outskirts of a town named Arcadia.

After getting my photo of the building & signage, I quickly went in and sought out the grillman to make a to-go order. Through a back exit of the dining area, they have some patio dining by an open-air propane grill. I realized that I was pretty hungry actually, and looked forward to having a bite to eat on top of the extra 500 points. Another rally rider arrived here around the same time as me, and we both put in our orders – he ordered a porkchop which sounded so delicious right now.

But for speed, I opted for a grilled chicken sandwich, which I figured might be the quickest and least messy option. The cook asked me if I wanted any sides like coleslaw, potato salad, etc. but I declined. “Just the sandwich to-go please, as soon as you can grill it!”.

Too late, it dawned on me a few minutes later that I could have just gotten an order of potato salad to go and would have been in and out of here with minimal time wasted! There were no rules in the rally book about what type of food we needed to order. But he’d already started prepping the chicken so I would have felt bad, plus I was just too worn out and hungry to care in that moment!

As a result, I ended up spending a full 30 minutes here that felt more like an hour, sealing my fate in terms of not completing my route. I chatted with the cook and the other rider (whose name escapes me) a bit. When I realized the sandwich was going to take a while to cook, I broke out my laptop to review my options and salvage whatever I could. If things hadn’t been over before I arrived here, this stop was definitely the final nail in the coffin for my ride. Again, no computer receipts here, but I did the necessary selfie to prove my visit to the rallymaster. The cook was a real nice guy about it all, and seemed interested in hearing a bit about the rally, so I gave him a Lobo Loco token.

As soon as that sandwich was done and photos taken, I left a good tip and hoofed back out to the bike to get my final face-stuffing selfie. That freshly grilled chicken was simple but hit the spot!

Feeling more human after eating, I got packed up and moving ASAP, continuing straight east on 70 to Lake Placid, then south on US 27. Another 20 miles in the Florida twilight, making good time to nowhere, a.k.a. Palmdale. The next stop is at another reptile attraction called Gatorama, also a mandatory bonus for the GATORS combo. This particular bonus is the only gator-category bonus that’s available to all the rally rider groups. I got there shortly after dark, right at 19:30 and got my photo of the entrance for bonus GTRAMA.

This was it. The absolute moment of truth where I had to accept my fate. A time check showed me some 2:20 behind original schedule now. I pulled out my laptop one final time to be sure I was making an informed decision in abandoning my plan. To continue my GATORS combo attempt would mean riding 75 miles due south from here on dark two-lane to the next huge bonus in the Everglades National Preserve and swampland. Then east across the ‘Glades to Homestead before turning back north for the long run up the entire length of Florida on I-95. With a four hour mandatory rest break still to complete, making the finish on time just wasn’t possible.  

That’s really it, I’m done. No matter how bedazzled my brain was with the thought of big points and riding through the Everglades in the dead of night, I was out-math’ed and outsmarted. And, quite frankly, out of steam, due to the fuel issue, bad traffic, and even worse decisions. I briefly considered making a run down and back for just the next combo bonus before turning north, but the points for it were cut in half after business hours so it wasn’t worth the time and mileage.

Retracing my last 20 miles north to FL 70, I continued east on that highway through the city of Okeechobee. Having made the big decision, now I wanted nothing more than to get back to a big interstate where I could put my feet up and relax from the intense concentration needed looking for deer and other obstacles while riding through the dark countryside. Unfortunately, Florida wasn’t quite done with me yet, and I hit a traffic jam due to a big county fair that was closing down for the night. The last couple miles to I-95 were 20 minutes of brutal stop and go on two-lane, with no alternate escape route that I could see when I scrolled around on the GPS map. 😩

Finally reaching the interstate at Fort Pierce around 21:10, I breathed a sigh of relief as the traffic opened way up. I put her in cruise and stretched out gratefully for the next 30 miles or so. With very limited options left to me for collecting bonuses towards the finish, I decided to pick up the restaurant bonus in Sebastian, a 20 minute side-trip from the slab, not counting stop time.

It was an easy five mile ride out to US 1 by the water, with light traffic along wide Sebastian Boulevard. I found Earl’s Hideaway Lounge right where it was supposed to be and pulled in around 21:40. Plenty of time before they stop serving food at midnight per the rally book! The place was doing good business, but not crowded by any stretch. I wandered in wearily and got the attention of a waitress, asking for a slice of their famous pizza to go.

Apparently, they actually cook each slice separately, so yet again I was sitting around waiting for food. I must have looked quite the sight, haggard and road-weary with strange decidedly non-beachwear clothing, but I’m sure shacks like this have seen it all. 15 minutes later, I was munching a delicious hot slice of pie for my extra 500 point photo. I wouldn’t have to worry about getting a bite to eat at my hotel now!

Sated, I remounted the bike and headed right back out to 95 to continue northbound. About an hour of empty interstate later, I reached my exit in Titusville. I skipped another medium-size bonus out on the barrier islands in Cocoa Beach as it was too long of a detour and I figured I could earn the same number of points by just extending my rest bonus. We are required to take at least four hours of rest before checking in at the finish, but can earn points per minute for up to six hours.

My booked hotel is right off the interstate, but I wanted to nab my final bonus of the rally before turning in for the night. So I rode the eight miles west on FL 50, back into the dark countryside. Swampy the Alligator is a 200′ long sculpture/building at a small theme park, and proved a somewhat difficult capture for bonus GSWMPY, requiring every lumen of light I could bring to bear on it, as well as repositioning the bike to show up against the darkness WITH my motorcycle in the photo.

Whew! I felt beat just about to death. I could tell how out of riding shape I was this early in the year, and was really feeling the disappointment of how the day had unfolded. I was more than ready to bunk down for a few hours of sleep after a good shower.

I rode back to a gas station by the interstate, got my starting receipt for the rest bonus, NAPTIM and proceeded to the local Quality Inn, which was a pretty good one, with multiple buildings, clean rooms, and room doors facing the outside, motel-style. I killed the ignition right around 23:20, deciding that I would max out my rest as much as possible, leaving just enough time to ride up to the finish in Jacksonville, with a small time cushion just in case. There were still a lot of miles to ride towards home tomorrow, after the rally was over.

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Titusville FL – Jacksonville FL
Sun Mar 9, 2025
(~128 miles)

So I ended up taking a rest of about 5:40 by the time I left the hotel and clocked out with the receipt for WOKEUP. There was one small bonus available along my route, in St. Augustine, had I taken a shorter rest break, but the extra rest points had seemed more worth it to me. I got a solid 3.5 hours of actual shut-eye, after a shower, filling out paperwork and doing a bit of route-planning for my trip home, which would start after the rally-ending luncheon and awards presentation. Daylight Savings Time had begun early this morning, so we weren’t due at the finish until 08:00 EDT.

The interstate travel was fast at this time of the morning, before most of the lingering Bike Week crowds had gotten moving yet. I pulled up to the Ramada at 07:33 and went inside to get checked in by Wolfe’s partner Karine. I spread out in the hotel lobby to prep for scoring, re-checking all my submitted bonus emails, etc. Lucky I did, as I found (& corrected) one fat-fingered subject line that would have cost me a few points.

Back in the scoring room, another rider was getting scored so I just sat to wait, staring blankly into the void. Apparently, all riders but us two had elected to keep their rooms here at the Ramada, taking their rest bonus at the end of their rides. Doing so meant you had to awaken at 0500 to come down and get scored, which hadn’t sounded all that great to me. Plus I hadn’t really wanted to spend another night in this hotel. In retrospect, it would have been much more comfortable and restful to have a room to lie down in for a few hours after scoring was done!

It was a relaxed scoring session with Wolfe and Karine, with me bitching about the I-4 traffic as he checked through my bonus submissions, made sure I still had my wristband and sealed “angel envelope” intact, etc. I think I ended up with a clean scorecard — no claimed points lost or penalties. That’s always a relief, but since I hadn’t completed the GATORS combo, I knew my score didn’t matter much at this point.

After scoring I retreated back to an armchair in the lobby to try dozing off (mostly unsuccessfully) and alternately reviewing the predicted weather patterns online, for along my route home today/tomorrow. Other riders began coming down to check out as 11:00 approached and we all headed in to the cafeteria for an informal rally brunch-eon.

The spread looked pretty good with trays of seafood along with more typical breakfast food options. I would have liked to try the crawfish, which I’ve never eaten, but was wary of trying anything unknown before embarking on the ride home. I stuck to eggs & bacon plus a little salmon, while chatting away with the other riders, hearing about some downright impressive riding down to the Keys and out the Panhandle.

At noon, we all headed back into our designated function room for ending ceremonies. There were a lot of laughs and stories told. Also some pretty big penalties had been handed out to a few riders, as per the rule book, bringing some otherwise epic scores down to just simply “jaw-dropping” levels.

2-up team Alex Alpert and Vicki Hill won the rally, with a stunning ride down through the Keys that showed incredible toughness and restraint in securing the SHARKS combo, but not being lured by the big points in Key West. They focused on what was possible and using a special points modifier available to the Shark Hunters group. And they’d even received a big penalty for incorrect math on their claim form, one of Wolfe’s pet peeves! More proof that a great 2-up team can work to great advantage on these short rallies, as I’ve seen and experienced in the past!

Canadian Greg Camp (Alligator Wrestler) put in a bewildering second place ride while not collecting any combos NOR the group photo. He must have simply hoovered up every bonus he could get to in a very workmanlike fashion. Really impressive routing and only just barely cracking 1000 miles to boot.

Eric Buskell, the Crazy One-Eyed Biker himself, took third with a hard impressive ride out the panhandle (his home turf), despite being in the Alligator Wrestler group. He’d managed to scoop up the group photo and the “hidden” combo SURFERS, while apparently hitting all the big point bonuses and restaurants along the Gulf coast.

Also worth mentioning, Alligator Wrestler Nicole Meuse had indeed had something special going on when I’d spotted her yesterday afternoon. Her run was similar to Eric’s out the Panhandle after attending the group photo. She had managed to collect a lot more points than anyone else while primarily targeting the RSTRNT combo. She’d very cleverly called each restaurant while en route to order her food ahead from the road, minimizing time wasted standing around and nabbing an easy extra 500 points at each one. Unfortunately, quite a lot of those points were lost at the table, resulting in a 7th place finish. Still, what a ride! This lady is serious business.

Despite my mid-pack finish (9th), various troubles, and Florida not being my favorite state for motorcycling in general, this rally was a wonderful time. Reflecting back on it a year later, it had been great getting to know the state a bit better and appreciate a lot of cool bonus locations that were specific to Florida culture. Snowbirds had a fun, creative theme idea, with the rally puzzle extremely well-designed and executed by Wolfe. Not to mention the cool logo and trophy designs. Everything had been clearly communicated, but in a casual and fun way, infused with the rallymaster’s own chill vibe.

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Jacksonville FL – Troutville VA
Sun Mar 9, 2025
(~601 miles)

With the rally officially over, I chewed the fat a bit longer with the podium finishers and other riders, soaking up more anecdotes from the road before heading out around 13:30. By now, a weather system had moved into the area, so I found myself riding in varying intensities of rain all the way up though South Carolina. The temperature gradually fell as I made my way north, settling into the high 50s for a while before dropping down to 45F after Fancy Gap.

The rest of the way was cold to my hotel in Troutville VA, a comfortable Quality Inn where I’ve stayed in the past. I arrived there around 22:15 and got a late dinner sandwich at Subway, which I was surprised to find still open. Then to bed.

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Troutville VA – Southeast MA
Mon Mar 10, 2025
(~689 miles)

Awake at 05:40 to 37F temperatures, I bundled up in full-body heated gear and multiple layers. including my lobster mitts. The temperature dropped to 32F and then sometime flickered to 29F at its lowest moments through the highlands along I-81, but the road surface was dry, and I was quite comfortable.

The sun rose around 08:00 but it took another good 1.5 hours for it to start actually warming things up along the highways, first into the 40s and then eventually up to 61F. I gradually de-layered with each fuel stop, with the final extra layer removed at my last fill-up in central Massachusetts. I made it home around 16:30.

It had been another successful run to Jacksonville, a great jump-start to the riding season. Big thanks to the IBA folks for continuing to get us all together early each year! Word is that the host hotel will be changing in 2026, so I’m looking forward to seeing the new digs next time I fly south. With a rally to prep for, the vibe hadn’t been quite as relaxing for me this year, but I chalk that up mostly to my own focus-level when it comes to riding these things, not to mention feeling so out of practice. Snowbirds was so much fun and definitely worth it — I’ll participate again without hesitation. Thanks Wolfe (and staff) for adding this great event to the Jacksonville agenda!

 

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More photos from this trip, including more people pics.

Here’s a video of the group SpotWalla tracking page animation, showing my position in black during the rally.