Another Beautiful Florida Day

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I bought a new motorcycle this week and I just had to take it out for a breakin ride, and what a georgous day to do it.  I headed south from Clermont to Lake Louisa Road, which is one of my favorite roads.  The lake was beautiful as usual and there were even some braves soles out on there water ski's.  The road goes by Lake Susan, and from there I headed west on Lakeshore Drive which meanders along the shoreline of Lake Minnehaha and ends at Hwy 561.  I turned south and went just a few hundred yards hopped onto Florida Boys Ranch Road, which heads west.  This is a great road, especially for motorcycle riding.  Lots of horses, cows and even plenty of wild life spotted along the way.  I even saw a hawk and another bird fighting in the air.  The other bird was smaller and was flying circles around the Hawk, but every once in a while the Hawk would make contact with the other bird.  I watched for several minutes and then the gave up an fly their seperate ways.  Florida Boys Ranch Road dead ends at Hwy 33 and I headed south.  A short ways from the turnoff is Glider Port at the end of South Fork Ranch Road, which I've visited several times.  I love to watch the gliders pulled up by a plane and then start their wide circle until they disappear.  It's also exciting to watch them land on the grass airfield.  You don't know when they're coming in because they're so quiet, but they make a swishing sound as they go by.  I snapped this shot.

After watching a couple of landings I got under way to find another interesting road.  I saw an iteresting dirt road heading north from the airport, so I took it.  I wasn't sure how my new motorcycle would  handle in the dirt, so this was my change to try it out.  The road went by several small horse ranch's and dead ended at a road named Berry Groves Road.  I took a right and it lead me back to Hwy 33, and I headed south once again in search for something interesting.  I followed 33 to Deen Still Road and headed west.  Deen Still is a fairly straight road with the occassional dairy farm or small horse ranch.  I was starting to get a little bored, when I saw Stoneridge Road heading north, with a sign that said something about a wildlife area.  I jumped onto Stoneridge and headed north, and sure enough about 5 miles in I came to a wildlife area that had a hiking trail and a paved bicycle trail.  I was tempted to head down the bicycle trail, but there was a big sign that said "No Motor Vehicles"....darn.  I continued down Stoneride that ultimately turned into Green Pond Road, and ended up at (you guessed it) Hwy 33.  The whole section of road was a great motorcycle road.  If you've never been down it, you'll be pleasently surprised.  I headed north on 33 to Lake Erie Road and then headed west.  Another great road!  It ran into Hwy 565 (Bay Lake Road), and I head north towards Mascotte.  A warning!  Just as you cross into the city limits the speed limit changes from 55 to 30 MPH.  Just beyond that was a Mascotte police car with radar.  Luckily there was a car in front of me that slammed on his brakes hen it spotted the police car.  I slowly proceeded into Mascotte, and by this time I was a little thirsty and hungry, so I started looking for a gormet restaurant.  I finally pulled into McDonald's in Groveland.  I put a about 100 mile on my new motorcycle today, and I'm well on the way to breaking it in for my 10,000 journey in a few months.