'banjo's blogtastically stooopid day trippin' picture thread

I did make it down to the camp-out in the Apalachicola National Forest outside of Tallahassee, FL

Warm clothing (no electrics...yet) were required. This was the scene leaving the house to get on the bike Thursday morning.





Nice and frosty.





But I was on a 500 mile track to the SouthWest so hopes were that temps would be rising.





I had a difficult time with my usual "on the fly" method of pic takin'.....seems having the bulkier gloves inside of cammo atv "hippo hands" slowed down the ability to set up the camera in time to get a shot.





Thursday needed to be more about making good time on backroads than picture taking, as the sun sets quite early this time of year.

This was in the SC Tag game recently.....nice hippo hands, eh?





My lack of pics along this corridor of South Carolina has more than been made up for by Shoganai's old "Ride to Work" thread. She posted many wonderful shots and perspectives of this area...CLICK HERE to check it out, but unfortunately she has gone back and deleted most, if not all of her posts ...some pics are still there in quotes though.


I was about half way to my destination before the sight of frost on shady rooftops had dissappeared....but it was a beautiful day.





One could spend a week or more if one stopped every time they saw an interesting subject. The South is interspersed with big fancy plantation style homes and old abandoned farm buildings...and everything in between.

Here's evidence of being way too slow on the draw......the camera had to be pointed back over my shoulder by the time it was ready to shoot.





What started out as a gas stop ended up being lunch as well. :dg





This reminded me of of our very own ADVer JMo (& piglet)...btw she will be racing the Dakar rally in '11

CLICK HERE to check that out.









The parting shot of two little piggies......

Nearing Albany, GA there is an abundance of pecan orchards all planted in pretty rows.





Some surround large plantation homes.










To harvest the pecans the trees are shook by a funny looking machine then the nuts are simply swept up into rows by tractors with rotating brushes.






The pink ribbon maybe for a new baby girl I often wonder how many generations of the same family may have lived in a place like this?






Cotton and peanuts are also big crops in this area....





As are long straight sections of roadway.






Florida before dark!






I better get another shot just in case I want to play a Florida Tag game.





I was still 40some miles from camp. Out in the middle of nowhere, with no services or supplies other than one sani-can. Farm rules: If you want it there, bring it there!


The shadows are getting long and the pavement has ended.....











My Floridian brothers.....




.....from other Mothers.





It got really, really cold that night....everything iced over with a heavy frost! I mean everything! We stayed up late by the fire and then I slept in til the sun began to melt the frozen condensate on the inside of my rainfly....


No more pics til Friday when HTSRocker lead a couple of us on big piggie bikes along a nice little scenic tour of the forest.

It did in fact get quite cold Thursday night.....a normal Florida heavy dew was a thick frost already hours before I crawled into my tent. Dr.Z and myself were the last two idiots out by the fire til who knows what hour of the morning?...it was still dark though.

All I know is that these Florida boys wouldn't be riding before it warmed up in the morning so I stayed tucked into my mummy bag as long as I possibly could.

I awoke to the makings of a beautiful day....and that's the crapper waaay over there across the lake! :huh





The firepit remained a popular place throughout the morning hours.





Florida's National Forests are probably the most exploited and at times appear to be just giant govt. tree farms.





At about 1100 3 of us riding pigs headed out for a ride....the DS guys couldn't make a decision as to what or where they wanted to ride to save their lives!





HTSRocker was our fearless leader and tour guide for the day!





I remember this guy's real name, I think but, not his screen name.





It was about 15 miles through the forest to the big city of Sumatra where we had what turned out to be a really good lunch. :dg





The rest of the thriving metropolis.





Need to mail anything?....there's not much for cell service out there.

After lunch we zig-zagged around on some two-track until we were down on the Apalachicola River, which is the boundary of Eastern and Central time zones.







"Hey, that guy that led us down here is over there talking to a tree, should we be worried?"



oser






Cypress are kind of spooky looking without any leaves, don't you think?

Next I think that we just sort of followed the river down to the gulf, even though we never could see the river from the FRs.





A contrast in crossing styles.

Slow moving GS





Faster GS






And finally a big dummy on a Strom (courtesy of HTSRocker)

Another shot of me courtesy HTSRocker






The favor returned.









Spanish moss is pretty cool in kind of a spooky way too, I think.









Next up was a swamp full of "dwarf cypress" that are said to be 200 years old....





This was in Tate's Hell State Park which adjoins ANF.






There's a boardwalk where a road once passed, but the area has been re-flooded in an attempt to restore the natural wetlands.





Back in Sumatra, this is your only chance for gas and supplies before heading back to camp.










Well, well....look who all finally got their acts together and got out for a ride!





Back at camp before sunset.






Chillin' out after dinner ....(and before an early bedtime for me)





The star show was excellent both nights that I camped there!

Hey Jim!

Every one of your pics is something that I missed.

I hope that all is/remains well for you while over in Korea.

OK let's go ahead and wrap up the rest of this past weekend's pics.


Saturday morning may have been 15 to 20 degrees warmer as there was no frost at all when packing up at first light.

It was a beautiful morning riding across Georgia, but I was heading Northeast and it did get cooler and frosty before it got warmer.

Here the sun is beginning to burn off the frost and fog from the fields.






A fly by shot of a neighbor....just for contrast.






The cloud cover steadily increased throughout the day.....






In Bartow, Ga I decided that my legs could use a little stretch.






Even though the old depot was decorated the rest of the town looked to be occupied by ghosts.












But it was Saturday












The break in the clouds would only be temporary.












The only ghost that I actually seen in Bartow.







One last fly by shot......





As I entered SC the clouds began to look more like snow clouds to me!

Saluda became a lunch stop and a message came in from a friend that it was sleeting back home. Thankfully I didn't have to ride in any sleet but it did sprinkle intermittently in the final 100 miles and the temps dropped from the 60s to the 30s.

The hot shower at home felt real good.

Thanks for stopping by but now that winter is upon us my day trippin' may slow down....but hopefully not by too much.

You were one of the last ones up by the fire? That doesn't sound like you....

Looks like you had a good time.

au contraire, 'ol 'banjo may have very well been the 1st to go to bed Friday!

PK just posted a pic of tired little 'ol me on the way back to camp....




It was a great time none the less!...but you should see the pics of the feast I missed on Saturday night!

Oh the screen name I forgot was clark-kentski....I pilfered one of his pics of what I missed.

Glad to meet you Sir, and you did miss one heck of a feed Saturday night

Likewise Buzz

I'm happy to have made it there at all!

KB - well played, great pix of the swamps and old south.

I do think it's a stretch calling that part of the state Florida. More like Gorflorbama. Frost? WTF.

Wanted to make that one but too much life going on this time of year. Perhaps BQF in Feb?

Fu...I hate you couldn't make it! :ddog

You do know there seems to be one campout per month in ANF this winter, don't you? Dec, Jan, BQF? (don't see a thread yet), and again in Mar.

Unfortunately the date in March conflicts with Bike Week so I doubt I'll be making any of them in ANF again this winter......unless nothing comes together for ONF during Bike Week.

Wow KB I just spent the better part of the day tripping thru yur daytrippin' I was at TWO the weekend after you...I loved Wolf Pen Gap rd. Did it a whole bunch of times... I was with thwe XS11.com group. The XSive Riders rally...every year at TWO the 3rd weeekend of Oct Fri and sat were just awesome but Sat nite and all day Sunday it rained like cats and dogs. Spent Sunday in Dahlonega..neat little town.Lots of pawn shops...found me a $200 watch for 5 bucks! Just needed a batterySubscribed to this so I aint gonna miss any more of it. really enjoyed all the pics. You have a great roadside manner too.

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm registered on XS11 but haven't been on much lately...and didn't know about that get together.

"the pig" has made a few runs across wolfpen gap though

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/2697932" width="400" height="302" frameborder="0"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/2697932">GA 180</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1104365">Kenny Banjo</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

KB..my bad...the XSive Riders rally is the 3rd weekend in Sept:huh If you want to see a bunch of classic Yammies theres plenty of 'em there. Loved the folks at TWO too...what a cozy place to stay. Heres my measley RR of the XSive Riders Rally...
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=624555

Dude,

You have got to stop posting pics of the southeast, especially NC! Too many people will get the wrong idea. The roads suck, the moonshine is of questionable origin, and I haven't met any friendly people here yet!

Seriously, I think I've ridden every inch of your pictorial. Been living and riding NC my whole life. Thanks for the journey...

Hey man!

You should have come out for the Charlotte / Pizza / 3rd Thursday's last night.

3 of us that were there decided to meet again today for lunch then take a little back roads cruise around the neighborhood.

So we met at Courtney's BBQ in Clover around noonish and I was stuffed leaving that place! :dg

That's JoeyBones on the far left and once again I forgot a screen name.
(I know your looking and I remember your real name so post up!)






That early 80s CB900 makes a neat scrambler though!

I should have taken more pics of it...here's a crop of that shot to show his custom skid plate.





It's been cold and/or wet most every day since I got back from Florida two weeks ago so today's 50s and sunny provided a much needed opportunity to shake some cabin fever.





Same old farm road for me....but new for them.






I need to come back and try some more sunset shots at this old cabin sometime.....






I'm right on the state line looking back into the "good" Carolina in this shot.







We did about a 75 mile loop with as much of this as I could link in. Of course they did more miles than that total as they rode down from Charlotte.











I even gave away a few of my little hide outs.






Lake Crawford still had some ice floating along the shady shoreline.











I find everything about this 15 acre tract of land to be a bit strange... It's only been a year or less since "improvement" began on the tract, which is completely surrounded by park land.






Today there was a guard dog stationed at the gate. :huh Unrestrained but he stayed on his side of the fence and barked at us, even though he could easily get out....it looked like he had a food and water dish.







One of these things is not like the others......





The answer is A






My parting shot for the day.....






Thanks for coming out for a little ride today guys!

I enjoyed it!!