August2009Agenda, Motorcycle excursions through the Rocky Mountains, the Maine Lighthouses, Cherokee North Carolina and St. Augustine Florida, among others

From St. Augustine Florida, Cherokee is 465 miles. I did it in one day with five stops every 90 miles or so. It was a wonderful trip. I discovered that if you live in The Smokies, your bike tires won't wear flat on the bottom!

Live the Dream !!

Join Us !!

(Who is friar Bob?) Pick One

"Friar Bob" is the stage name of a licensed tour guide from St. Augustine Florida whose real name is Robert Makin. He works for Historic Tours of America and Old Towne Trolley Tours of St. Augustine. When he started with Old Towne Trolley Tours, there were seven other Bobs and all the military titles had been used up. St. Augustine was once the home of a Franciscan Friary and Friar Bob once studied Theological things of all sorts, all the way through Biblical Greek and Ancient Hebrew. It was felt that "Friar" was more appropriate than "General" or "Governor." The name stuck.

I was looking for a book cover photo for the StrathNaver Legends. I chose the photo to the left.

In some of Friar Bob's past lives, he drove eighteen wheelers all over the United States and a lot of Canada, taught English, Greek, Travis Picking and commercial and residential real estate appraising. He wrote computer programs, course work, curriculums, text books, four fiction novels and well over six thousand real estate appraisals in St. Johns County in Florida. He wrote maybe another one or two thousand appraisals in Volusia County and a few hundred more, each, in Putnam, Flagler and Duval Counties.

Now he just wants to drive his Prius all over the country.

The Latest

Friar Bob's Books are now available on

KINDLE at Amazon.com

There is beauty everywhere. I don't want to miss seeing ANY of it.

Friar Bob

Favorite Quote: "Watch My Lipstick."

This is how we do it... and why this is a very good deal.

For routing "through the woods," avoiding cities and interstate highways as much possible, Friar Bob is a PRO. If I ride my bike from, say, St. Augustine Florida to Cherokee North Carolina, the distance is 463 miles, the way we go. The only interstate highways are bypassing the congestion of Jacksonville Florida. A motel in Cherokee will cost $68.00 on a weekend. Some of the popular things to do in Cherokee (and there are many) include the Oconoluftee Indian Village ($20.00) and the play, "Unto These Hills ($22.00) (Plus tax). If Friar Bob can put together a group of ten or more, he can get a nice group discount - enough to pay for his own expenses. Rounding the $246 bill to $250 to join the group for Cherokee puts $4.00 toward the $15.00 or so of State Sales Taxes. So, you're getting a small discount in addition to the company of others, professional route planning, pre-made reservations, and an optional agenda of entertaining things to do while in Cherokee.

For a nice way to spend a four day weekend with your motorcycle, you can't beat this.

I sure wish you could join us for this, Bert. You'd love it.

-Bob

St. Augustine Fl. to

Cherokee NC

U.S. #1 North to I-95

I-95 North to I-10

I-10 West to I-295

I-295 North 7 M. to Exit 28

U.S. #1 North 48 Miles

Through Callahan Florida

to Georgia 15/121

Georgia 15/121 North 58 Miles to Baxley Ga.

U.S. #1 North to Wrens

(108 Miles + / -)

Georgia #17 North 20 Miles

Georgia 17 / 78 North 24 M.

Georgia 17 North 41 Miles

(Be sure to stop at Bowman)

Georgia 17 North to Toccoa

(35.5 Miles)

Alternate Ga. 17 North

(10.6 Miles)

U.S. 23 / 441North 60 Miles to Dillsboro

U.S. 441 North 13 Miles to

Cherokee N.C.

The total distance is about 460 Miles.

Silver Wing News:

So. I bought this Silver Wing. I love it. It goes fast. It's comfortable and when I finish a long ride, my ears don't ring. It's comfortable enough that I can ride six hundred miles in a day and not feel crippled afterwards. It has this great console with a clock and two trip odometers, a fuel gauge, tack and a bunch of other things. I was setting out to plan a day trip out of St. Augustine beginning at the Bayard Rooster. When I got to the Rooster, I parked the bike and took a short stretch. Then I fired it up again, the clock had re-set to 1:00 A.M. and the trip odometers to zero. I reset the clock and when I later started the bike again, it was back to 1:00 A.M. and the trip odometers to zero. An interesting connection here is the trunk light runs off the same fuse as the clock but the fuse was okay. I replaced it anyway to no avail.

I took the bike to the local Honda dealer in St. Augustine and told him of my problem. He said, since it's an electrical problem there is a minimum fee of one and one half hours (at $99.00 per hour). If they could find and fix the problem in that time they would not charge me another $99 labor for the next hour.

I went off looking for alternatives. I learned that the problem is probably in the clock unit itself and that is part of the over-all console. The whole console would have to be replaced to the tune of $576, plus an hour and one half labor for a total in excess of $700 - to fix my clock.

The bike is 3 years old and has under 14,000 miles on it. I sold the bike. Honda will never again charge me $80.00 for a freaking oil change, and that's a fact.

My new Prius gets as good a mileage as the bike did (50 MPG) and it has air conditioning and if it rains, I don't care. I use RainX.

And the Prius has a bumper to bumper warranty. I plan to take the western trips I've outlined, but I'm pretty sure I'll be doing it alone. Polish to Live and Live to Polish is out of my system. I live to travel. Whether it's a bike, Sail Boat or automobile, as long as that Earth is moving under me, I'm in Hog Heaven, seeing new things, meeting new people, hearing new dialects of English and other languages, eating in new restaurants. If you're on the highway, you'll bump into me sooner or later. If you live to travel too, it'll be sooner than later.

Friar Bob

Gainesville, Fl to Cherokee N.C.

Florida Highway 24 East 10 Miles

U.S. 301 North 59 Miles to Callahan Florida (See Callahan in left Column)

Lake City to Cherokee

U.S. 441 North to Homerville

(68 Miles + / - )

U. S. 84 East 26 Miles to

Waycross Georgia

U.S. 1 North to Baxley Ga

(See Baxley - Left Column)

Almost Heaven

There is a stretch through the mountains of West Virginia that I always wanted to run. I've been through West Virginia many times, but I never had the time to actually do this 'through-the-woods' run. In September, this year (2010), I took the time, went to West Virginia and did the run. I wanted to plan this as a motorcycle trip to post on this web site. The route is about 150 miles - not bad for a day's ride. It took me over four mountains. There were many hair pin, 15 and 20 mph turns, steep up and downs, magnificent scenery. It's a terrific ride, but...

The trip has to be taken so slowly that the 150 miles took most of the day. The turns were so sharp and sudden that I decided, anyone who is not used to riding in the mountains may well be in grave danger, doing this ride. I decided this run is too dangerous to take a group. It's U.S. 219, north from Peterstown. Ride at your own peril and watch out for loose gravel on those turns!