Being on the West Coast, I decided to shoot over to Daytona Beach on Monday. Tampa to Daytona in normally a little over 2 hours to cover 140 miles on Interstate 4. However, I have a mapped out track in my possession that covers 81 back roads starting in the Tampa Area and drops you off right on International Speedway Boulevard in Daytona 210 miles later. I didn't make this track. Rather, it was from a charity coast-to-coast ride that I did a number of years ago. It's a great track that takes about 6 hours. Much better than the Interstate.
So, Daytona is the lower section of the eastern coastline that we call the Palm Coast, with runs north up to Saint Augustine. With some riding time left Monday, I rolled up to Ormond Beach and picked up the scenic Route A1A along the Atlantic shoreline and rode the 50+ miles up to Saint Augustine.
Saint Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. It's really a cool place with lots of things to see and do. The two main attractions are the Lighthouse (aka, the "Haunted Lighthouse") and ...
...and the San Marcos Fort. Dating back to the late 1600s, it's the oldest serious military fort in the US.
Saint Augustine is a great place to tour on two wheels. It's full of old shops. Lots of stuff to see and do and they're very motorcycle friendly.
After messing around for awhile in Saint Augustine, I rode back to Ormond Beach to spend the night. Then Tuesday morning I ventured out to the south along the Space Coast, which runs Daytona to Titusville and is where Kennedy Space Center is located.
From there I was going to hit a few nice riding spots on the Treasure Coast, which runs from Titusville down to around West Palm Beach, including picking up some more A1A time, but as I was leaving Titusville the rain really started coming down. It had been overcast and somewhat drizzling since early Monday, but at that point it really started coming down.
After about 75 miles along US1 in the downpour I decided to start heading west around Vero Beach. I hopped on State Road 60, but still didn't get out of the rain until mid-state. But that's just the way it goes in Florida. You're gonna get wet at some point.
The 2015 Kawasaki Versys 1000 LT performed brilliantly. It did great navigating the gnarly back roads getting across the state and then handled the drenched roadways on Tuesday. No problems.
Plus, I got some good time behind my new Puig Touring Screen (see previous post). That was definitely worth the money I paid for that accessory!
I logged a couple of fuel stops into my Fuelly Page: 47.1 mpg on 213 miles and 45.6 mpg on 219 miles.
In two weeks I have a pretty big trip planned. Perhaps we'll find some other local roads to play around on until then. However, looking back, I think April was a hell of a first month on the new Versys.
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