On the Road Again!

 I was reading a blog entry on one of the blogs I follow, "Key West Diary", and the latest post is about crossing the state on US41 -  https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2021/01/alligator-alley.html It brought a couple of memories of when I did it in 1991 and when Claire and I did it a few years back on route from Punta Gorda to Weston. In December 1991 I was staying with a work colleague and friend, Carole Belcher,  in the south of Miami in Cutler I had the loan of a Kawasaki Z750 twin from her neighbour I only knew as Sgt Steve.  He was in the air force based at Homestead. I had already done a trip to Key West and decided a longer trip to Sarasota to see where my Cavalcade had come from was the next trip.  Remember in 1991 there was no internet. On the Key West trip.... I set off along US41 stopping at various places to check out the Everglades.  One stop was because I saw a large alligator on the opposite side of the water filled ditch.  He...

We were up early. Most of the packing was the night before and so it was a quick job to load the car. The Mustang trunk was able to take one big case and the little hand luggage one. So where was Air Canada delayed case going? Back seat. Problem. How? Roof down and then hump it over the side onto the back seat. Then roof back up!! Sorted. It was just before ten when we set off. First stop in TomTom was the Triumph dealers on US41 South of Fort Myers.  A bit of a cold atmosphere once they realised we weren't buying. Friendly on entry but no time to chat with a foreigner and Triumph owner. Sally was down to about 114 miles to empty and I wanted to fill it up. Once again the pump refused to accept a zip code. Then it was over to the cashier and  guess how much gas I could squeeze in. I guessed $50. Pre-pay and then go and fill. Click. Click. With only $40 to fill it to the clicks I had to go back and get my $10 refunded. In the UK most petrol stations let you fill or make pay at ...