Went for a ride this morning, leaving around 10am. Headed out to the beaches via SR 100 and Palatka. Took 100 all the way down to Bunnell and US 1, then US 1 down to Ormond Beach. When US 1 crosses under I-95, there is a huge motorcycle superstore there at the intersection, and I stopped in there to take a look at things. The Harley shop had bupkis for me, and their saddlebags (which I am in need of new ones) frankly scare the daylights out of me. Why would you ever pay $800 USD for a set of saddle bags? I don’t care if they are made of leather… that is just too much.
There was another place in the same complex that does after market stuff and stuff for metric bikes, and they had some decent bags there. I didn’t buy any, but I took note of the manufacturers of the bags that I liked, and I will probably just order them online instead.
Kept going down US 1 and took the turn off to Ormond Beach, then headed north on A1A until I got to one of my favorite places to eat lunch… High Tides at Snack Jack. The food is decent there, and the view is incredible, overlooking the ocean the way it does. All cage parking is via valet, as they have a limited amount of room for parking and they know how to park vehicles better than the rest of us do, at least for their parking lot. Bikes on the other hand simply park in a small area they have designated.
I just had the wings this time around, and they were quite good. Lots of meat on the bone, and the sauce was just spicy enough for my tastes, which means that a normal person would have been unhappy. It wasn’t drowned in the stuff, however, which is something that I have found a number of places do in order to make their wings “super hot” (as an aside, for those that have been to The Blog of Unnecessary Quotes, I believe I used those quotes quite appropriately.)
Left there and headed further north into Flagler Beach, where I hit another of my favorite places to eat… the A1A Burrito Works. They don’t have a website, but they can be searched for on Google and an address found there. Ordered a large beef burrito with all the works, and it was incredible. Their burritos are different from those found at Burrito Bros. Taco Company, and I really can’t say that they are better or worse. The one key ingredient that made their burritos so darned good, I have to say, is the large amount of cilantro they put into it. That gave it a spiciness that was just heavenly.
After finishing my burrito, I continued up the road until I reached another favorite stopping-off point, the Hammock Wine and Cheese Shoppe. They are normally closed on Mondays, but their front door was open so I took a peek inside. Turns out that they are remodeling the place a bit and moving some things around to make things easier to sell and stuff. They should be done by the end of the week, and on Saturday they will be having a wine tasting event as a grand re-opening of the place. I was able to make a purchase, since they were there and I gave them a much needed uplifting of attitudes. Bought a bottle of dessert wine, which I will have to try out… it is a red Muscat.
By this time it was starting to get late, and I curtailed my plan to head all the way up into St. Augustine and then home, and instead just cut across to Palatka when I got to Crescent Beach. The ride home was uneventful.