My First Poker Run

This past weekend my wife & I participated in our first Key West Poker Run. For those who don’t know what that is. The Poker run to Key West was established over 35 years ago by Phil Peterson’s Harley Davidson, where over 10,000 bikes run from Miami to Key West collecting funds for different charities. The run also is made to boost the slow tourist season in Key West during the month of Sept.

What makes this run so special is the ride itself. There’s nothing quite like riding from one little island to another with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic on the other. I talked about my first ride to Key West on a previous blog and how great it was, well this run doubled the fun and excitement because we were able to do the 160 miles with several other friends as well as several thousand other riders. Eight riders on five bikes met up on Friday morning around 9:am at the Service Plaza on the turnpike and headed out to the first of five different stops along the way.

The first stop is in “Gusto’s Bar & Grill” in Florida City. Although this is a nice place with plenty of parking, I found it a bit of a waste of a stop considering it’s so close to Miami. But I guess for those riding in from further north, it doesn’t feel as such a short distance. It was too early to start drinking so we stopped by to check out the other bikes and to empty out our bladders before heading out again.

Gusto's Bar & Grill

The 2^nd stop was at the infamous Tiki Bar at Holiday Isle in Islamorada. Now if you read my blog about my first ride to Key West, you’ll recall that this was the same place where I got food poising back in July. But I love the Tiki Bar, and I know that food poisoning from seafood can come from any restaurant no matter how cheap or expensive it is. So I don’t blame the Tiki bar at all for my misfortune 2 months ago. As expected the Tiki Bar was packed with bikes. It was already mid afternoon and the Bar b’que was in full swing and so was the bar.

Wife at tiki-bar parking lot

We had a quick bike to eat and a beer while we waited for my sister and her husband to join us on their bike. After about an hour our group took off while my sister and her husband stayed behind waiting for more friends to catch up. We then headed out to our 3^rd stop in Marathon Key where we skipped the food and drinks but instead took advantage of their restrooms.

Our next stop was at mile marker 26 close to the KOA campgrounds in Sugarloaf Key. As it so happens, my wife’s family was coming down here later in the day in their RV to camp out until Sunday. We had a bite to eat and drink and waited a while until my sister and her group arrived, but after waiting more than 30 minutes we decided to head off to our final destination; Key West.

We finally arrived in Key West at about 4:30pm. The 5^th and final stop was at the Conch Republic Seafood Co. As we rode into the parking lot, there was a guy taking pictures of each bike rolling in and then conveniently giving you a business card telling you where you could purchase the photo. Ahh capitalism at it’s finest…

We grabbed a stool at the bar, ordered a few cold ones and talked for a long time while over-looking the marina. We traded cell phone numbers and agreed to hook up either later that night or the next day. Then we all headed out to our individual hotels, except for my wife & I. You see we didn’t have a hotel room. Not exactly.

Our plan was to stay at her cousin’s house, but her cousin was working and was not going to be able to give us the extra set of keys to the house until about 8:30 that night. So we needed to find a way to kill the next 4 hours. Fortunately that’s not too hard to do in Key West. We spent the rest of the day and night wondering from one bar to another and had a great Cuban dinner at El Meson de Pepe.

After dinner we headed for Duval Street where by now it was full with bikes. We walked from one end to the next checking out all the incredible array of bikes (and some charismatic bikers). At about 8:30pm my wife’s cousin found us and gave us the keys to the house. We had planned to take a nap and then head back out to Duval Street later that night, however that nap turned into an all night restful sleep. We didn’t get up again till 8am the next morning.

Duval-street-poker-run

On Saturday we got up and headed back to downtown Key West for breakfast. Afterwards we got back onto US1 and headed north to spend a few hours with my wife’s family at the KOA campground in Sugarloaf Key. The 20 mile ride was incredibly invigorating. The sun was shining on the Gulf and the Atlantic making the water as clear as glass. We spent about 3 hours in Sugarloaf enjoying the beach and the pool. We were going to go into the Jacuzzi but it was too hot, so instead we sat down next to their RV and had a light lunch and talked about the ride down.

With our bellies full we then headed back towards Key West. A couple of friends we rode down with the day before had invited us to a pool party Harley Davidson was putting together at the Southernmost Hotel. By the time we got there, the place was rockin’. The dj was spinning everything from southern rock to hip hop and what started out to be a bikini contest quickly turned into the “best tits” contest. Needless to say that when you mix bikers, alcohol, and bikinis, you get a very lively party! And of course the wife wasn’t too thrilled about that little portion of the day…

So after mooching off some pizza from our friends, we all decided to head back to our individual hotels and get ready to join up later that night which was going to be a bit more somber than the earlier hours. You see one of the things our group had planned for this Poker Run was to celebrate the life of a fellow rider who had passed away a couple of weeks before.

Leo De Pazos was a sales rep for Harley Davidson and one of those people you meet that just makes you feel really good every time you’re in the same room with them. I had ridden with Leo only once but quickly came to like the guy a whole lot. Several riders that had come down to Key West also knew Leo and we all decided to do a toast in his honor at Malory Square while watching the sun go down on the horizon. So at 6:45pm we all gathered together at Malory Square with a few riders from my sister’s group and said a few words and raised our glasses to him while the sky turned to a beautiful mixure of purple and yellow lights just as the sun hid behind the waves.

Later that night we met up with my wife’s family at Fat Tuesdays. My wife’s cousin had picked them up at Sugarloaf and drove them down to Key West to have a few drinks. We walked up and down Duval Street where by now there were twice as many bikes than the day before. In all, it is estimated that Key West had over 15,000 bikes that weekend. At about 1:00am my wife and I were exhausted and headed back to the house.

Sunday morning we woke up, got our stuff packed, said “thanks” and “bye” to my wife’s cousin and began our trek back home. This time we rode through the east side of the island where the road runs parallel to the beach. It was a beautiful site that made me appreciate the fact that I live in Florida. Our friends who rode down with us on Friday decided to stay till later, but there were no shortages of bikes heading back north, so we just hooked up with one group after another.

Key West in the morning

Once we past Key Largo we decided to take Card Sound Road instead of the usual US1. There we found Alabama Jacks and pulled over to have a bite to eat and listen to the live country band. Unfortunately today this place was way too packed and they just didn’t have enough servers so by the time we got our food and our bill, we had spent a good 2 hours there.

We finally got home at about 4:30pm, but my job was not finished. The bike had gotten really dirty on this trip and I wasn’t going to put her away without giving her a good bath. So with my riding gear still on, I went to work on washing then drying her up and then putting on the cover. It was an exhausting 3 days, but it was way worth it.