Ian CraigieFor some reason I decided to name this trip Southern Culture on the Skids 'cause I though it was rather witty and it is a very
cool band. I didn't mean for the stock market to follow our path over the last 3-weeks or so...
... the little curl at the end is when it all went sideways - but that's Alex's story.
And now back to our story. When we last saw the intrepid travelers they were lost somewhere in Alabama looking at yet another Frank, the Rosenbaum House in Florence (also home to the world famous Muscle Shoals recording studio Shoal Sound). Brian started to formulate some sort of theory of Jewish Academia and Frank appreciation - I suggested he might be better served by concentrating where he was going.
And since we were in Alabama, there was no way I wasn't going to worship (drool actually), at what is quickly becoming a shrine of motorcycling:
The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. Not only is there on display 700 of the 1200 motorcycles Mr. Barber owns but also cars, outboard motors, automotive artifacts, a restoration shop and a world class race track.
It was then into Florida where we found the last Frank of this trip and the reason why we came to Florida in the first place - Southern Florida College where there is an impressive collection of Franks.
After thoroughly tramping around the grounds of the college we located a nearby Starbucks (thanks to Google Maps on my Blackberry), that was in an old gas station (I think), and then it was down to Miami to visit Gillian and Alex et al. We found Gill at
her work jungle.
where she gave us a tour - its solar powered.
We then made our way to Gill's other jungle.
A great dinner and a very entertaining night watching the 2nd presidential debate. Fotrunately we didn't paly the John McCain Drinking game as there we only had 1/2 a bottle of Bourbon and also were headed to Key West the next morning. As morning dawned - actually it was more like lunch time - Alex finshed "fixing" his 1976 FLH Harley-Davidson (and this bike has a story!).
A stop at an iconic biker lunch spot on the way (rumour has it there is some new "art" on the wall).
We also stopped at a marina where you can feed these unbelieveably humungous tarpin... with bait fish... from a bucket... right from your hand. I think Brian has a picture, I have a small scar. And then down to the Southern Most Point in The Continental US - I guess I'm impressed.
Hopefully Alex will send me the story of the Harley as it is pretty cool, as for things going sideways down at Key West let's just say we are a day behind where we might have been and my AAA towing service got a 100 Mile work-out.