March 5th marked Chuck’s 36th Birthday.  He has celebrated for many years by heading down to Daytona for Bike Week.  Last year I was unable to join him, but this year I definitely made up for it.  I took the red-eye on Wednesday night and got in on Thursday morning.  The first thing that I noticed was it was some kind of cold!  I mean BRRRRRRR!  Chuck was a peach and rented me a car but then those plans quickly disintegrated as the car rental agent ticked us off.  We left with me and my luggage on the bike, and I’m sure it looked something like this:

Okay, so it wasn’t that bad, but let me just say that I was scared too death.  (BTW: You must check out StuffonBikes.com!  Who knew there was such a website!  Perfect for the Gibson-Rice Household.)

Anyway, it was a good 20 minute ride, but we finally made it to our hotel — the lap of luxury, otherwise known as the Motel 6.  Have you ever stayed at a Motel 6?  Until meeting Chucklebutt, I never had the privilege. Do you know that in every Motel 6, they have the same pattern on their comforters?  Check it out:

Why yes that is a Motel 6 sign on the bed spread  — Americana at it’s finest.  😀  Tom Odette will leave the light on for ya!

After taking a serious nap (I had been up for over 24 hours), we headed for some grub and then caught a movie.  If you haven’t seen Shutter Island, I recommend it.  It’s at least worthy of a video rental.  While we were leaving, we ran into the White & Red Queen and the Mad Hatter.  They were preparing themselves for the midnight showing of Alice. Chuck looks like a cross between a Navy Seal and a blue frog.

On Friday, we headed to Weikiwa Springs State Park.  If you have never ventured into the Florida State Park system, you must!  They are gorgeous and full of things to do.  In fact, at every entrance, there is a plaque commemorating all the awards the system has won, plus the motto — “Come See the Real Florida!”  As a kid, every year I would visit my grandparents down in New Port Richey.  One year we went to Weeki Wachee Theme Park — you know, the amusement park with all the mermaids?  I had no idea that such pristine beauty was right down the road.

We did a couple geocaches in the park, but the most exciting event was…

OMG!!! We saw our first ever LIVE armadillo.  Isn’t he a cutie?

They are slow little fellows.  Primarily they root around all day for food.  However, if you perchance are brave enough to touch one (oh yeah I did!) they run like hell!

We saw all sorts of terrain in this park.  Chuck is doing his best Big Foot impersonation, although it looks like he’s taking a whiz.  😀

I wish we had a canoe or kayak with us.  These springs were perfect to tool around on.

Don’t I look like I’m in the jungle?  We had a great time, although we walked a good 3-4 miles.  My feet were out of shape but we still had to go check out Daytona.

It was so cold (in the 40’s) that there really weren’t a lot of folks on the road.  And there certainly weren’t any hoochie mamas — too cold for hoochie mama clothes.

I’m always impressed with lady riders.  She’s awesome with that pink bike, helmet and jacket.  Girl after my own heart!

This dude was a bad ass!  Check out the green.  He reminded me of the Green Hornet.  Too cool!

For the most part, my experience was pretty tame.  Nothing too crazy happened (no fights, drug busts, etc.) and I kinda like it that way.

After all the walking, I passed out when we got back to the motel.  Oh my feet have never hurt so badly!

Stay tuned for more details…