In 1980 I had a BMW R100T. As the Christmas break began I was asked by friends and family, "what are you going to do during the break". My answer, not unlike the super bowl winners was "I'm riding the bike to Florida where it's warm". Little did I know that the weather had some surprises for me. There were snow flurries in Miami! When I got to the Keys the highest temperature I saw was 43 degrees. I froze the whole way down and the whole way back.
With age hopefully comes wisdom and experience.
Kari and I had planned a trip to our house in Juno Beach Florida during the February 12th Presidents Day weekend. I thought it would be great to have the bike down in Florida. Oddly, I thought that the Autotrain was very expensive, in the $800 area. Of course the last time I checked was probably when I was in college and no matter what the price it was too expensive. Consulting the Amtrak website I found that it would cost about $180 for the bike and $120 for me, about what it costs to drive down with an overnight stay at a hotel. The bike and I would board the train in Lorton VA the next morning we would be dropped off at Sanford Florida, just North of Orlando. This would leave a ride of about 180 miles just over 3 hours to "drive". However, that route uses interstate 95 for most of the trip, about 120 miles.
I'd gotten a little time on the bike, but only about 10 minutes on the highway at speed, I didn't feel all that confident on the bike and I felt it needed some modifications and or upgrades to be suitable for the trip to Florida.
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