| The Prez Sez |
| The weekend before the Azalea City
H/S Ryan Crist and I set off to the Rodman Plantation near Palatka Fla , The FTR Benefit race was getting closer and it was time to get to the property and get some trail figured out . Normally on a new piece of property , the best way to start things off is to ride the perimeter of the property and all of the crossroads , just to get your bearings and an idea of what the property looks like . You know , things like , where the wet areas are , where the dry areas are , planted pines , oak sections , palmetto sections , sandy sections , ditches , mud bogs , clear cut areas , where the deer hang out , where the hogs hang out , is there any dove , quail , or turkeys , you know all that important stuff . I will tell you right now 5500 acres is a large piece of property !! The late afternoon started out in a pretty good fashion . We had cruised the better part of the outskirts of the south , east , and part of the north perimeter roads , when all of a sudden one of the bikes blew a base gasket and started overheating . As it was getting late , like almost dark ( 30 minutes to go ) The only thing to do was turn the gas off and lay the bike down in the weeds . You know , the old , we'll come back and get it tomorrow deal !! So here we go , Doubled up on my old CR 500 , we"re off and running . So at this point , you"re probably thinking , oh that's not to bad a quick run back to the camp and no harm done . One would think that , huh !! Here it is , now 20 minutes before total darkness , we are on a piece of property that is right about a 5 mile square , the deer are out , the hogs are out and we don't where we are , and no time to check the game out . Off we go , Southwest was the way we had to go , there was no problem there , we were trying to follow the roads and the disappearing sun . As luck would have it , after several trips down some dead end roads , and only finding some roads that were heading west , we kept moving along . South a ways , West a ways , West a ways , then South a ways . By now our friend the sun was out of sight , we were in the twilight when we finally came across a paved road . The landowners had piled a six foot high pile of trees , brush and miscellaneous everything to block the local people from entering their property . I walked around and found a perfectly good place where Ryan Crist could get a good running start , hit some logs that were laying there , skip off of some of the brush that was piled up about 5 feet high and have a perfectly good landing spot in a large section of palmettos just on the other side . What a better plan could you have , after all it was my bike and he is a AA Rider , no problem . Except for he didn't quite see the same picture as I did !! I crawled back over the pile of STUFF , and explained how easy it would be for a rider of his experience to pull it off . I also mentioned the fact that if he didn't get the motorcycle on the other side real quick , we would be spending the night right there in that spot . I also mentioned the fact that it was my motorcycle and it knew how to go places without a rider on board !! That was the clincher , I don't have enough time to give everyone all the details of that Evil Knievel Jump , but there were no broken bones and the CR 500 suffered only a minor abrasion , as they say , that's another story . Our luck was running good , a local guy was coming down the paved road and I flagged him down , Hey , which way to the entrance to the Rodman Plantation friend , he said it was only a half mile back down the paved road . I thanked him for his directions and we were off . A quick ride on the paved road and back to the Motorhome , and just think , we had 5 minutes to spare before it was totally dark . Man oh Man , what an afternoon . Now the only thing left to do was , let me see ...... Just where did we leave that broken down bike . But then again , that's another story !!!! Big Man |