F&F Day 16: Florida Memories

When we decided to move full time from Florida to North Carolina this year, there were a few reasons why the move was difficult.  It wasn’t the beach; we’re not beach people.  It wasn’t the weather; too damn hot.  It wasn’t our house; it was just average.  No, it was leaving friends behind.  Here are five of the reasons why the move wasn’t easy:

Mark, Ski, Brian

Steve and Ruth

All five of these folks, as most readers know and everyone else has guessed are motorcycle friends.  I’ve ridden with them since I got my first Harley in 2003.  In fact, I’ve probably ridden more than 100,000 miles with them, about half the miles I’ve put on all my bikes in the past 14 years.  In each case, I’ve ridden not just short, lunch rides with these folks (though we’ve done plenty of that, too), but long, multi-thousand mile rides.  You get to know folks when you spend that much time on the road.  And I like these folks.

Yesterday, a ride to eat at an old haunt in St. Augustine, turned into a 4 1/2 hour lunch that helped everyone catch up with each other, to reminisce about rides past and layout future plans.  We left vowing to do it again.  Will we actually get the group together?  Who knows.  But it would be nice to make it an annual event so we don’t lose touch.  I expect our paths will cross again.

My two-day stay in Jacksonville is over and I don’t know when I’ll get back again.  All my friends here know the door to our house in Maggie Valley is open to them; I hope they take the opportunity to visit.  Soon.