Go West Young Man….

So it’s been a while since I’ve written about one of our long rides. It’s also been awhile since my wife & I have gotten on our bike and just rode out on our own (no poker runs or event rides with groups, just us two). This past weekend we did just that. However, this time instead of heading South to the Keys, we headed west to Ft. Myers Beach.

For some time now I had been telling my wife that I wanted to get away just for the weekend to some place we hadn’t been before, but as it usually happens something always tends to come up. Well last week what came up was “my birthday”. So I logged on the web, picked out some weekend hotel rates and told my wife not to make any plans. We were heading out of town.

Saturday morning, after sleeping in late we packed a few clothes into our Tourmaster bike luggage, fed the dog, gave my mom the spare key to take care of the house for the weekend and took off. Our first stop was Café 27. Lot of bike rides tend to start out from this little outdoor bar/cafe, especially if you’re heading north towards central Florida, or to the Gulf coast. This weekend was no exception. When we arrived we met a few biker friends who were heading up to Clewiston. We sat down and had some breakfast, filled up the tank and headed up towards I-75 westbound which would take us all the way to Naples.

The ride to Naples via I-75 is about 2 hours and very un-eventful. There are a few rest stops and maybe 1 or 2 little towns you can get off to grab some fuel and refreshments, but other than that, it’s a straight 70mph highway with the Everglades on both sides. When we got to the outer fringes of Naples we decided to get off the highway, and look for US 41 which would take us all the way up through downtown Naples and then towards Ft. Myers.

I hadn’t been to Naples in over 6 years, and boy has it changed, especially the downtown area. There are a lot of new condos with a very Mediterranean look that makes the town look fresh and clean. We stopped to have lunch on a little outdoors café in Tin City, which is right on an inlet. My wife had the crab-legs while I had the BBQ wings. Although it’s a little bit pricey (geared mostly to tourist) the view was pretty nice, especially on a day like this where the weather was awesome. After checking the GPS for our location and direction, we headed back onto US 41 towards Ft. Myers Beach.

Riding up to Ft. Myers Beach took a little over 30 minutes. There wasn’t much traffic so the ride was very peaceful. As we rode up along the coast you can see the Gulf of Mexico in between some pretty awesome looking homes. It was sad however to see so many for sale signs. You could tell that the recession was taking a toll even on this affluent community. Sure these are million dollar homes, but still the effects are not without notice. I’d say every 3^rd or 4^th house on either side of the road was either for sale or for rent. A couple of new constructions even looked as though they may have run out of funding and were left temporarily abandoned.

We finally got up to our hotel at the Lani Kai Resort. There are a lot of places to stay at in Ft. Myers Beach, but if you’re looking for some place that has a lot of water sports activity and good live music, dancing and the best “Miami Vice drinks” (Piña Colada & Rum Runner) this side of well..Miami, this is the place to be. Check out some of the pics below:

Lani Kai roof top view

The beaches of Ft.Myers have some of the best sand around. It’s really fine white sand. Unlike on the Atlantic coast, you don’t have too many issues with seaweed that tends to litter the beach during high tide.

I’ve stayed here in the past and it’s not uncommon to see dolphins swimming near the pier early in the mornings.

Dancing on the beach

Now if you’re not young at heart, this place may not be for you. You do see a lot more 20 to 30 year olds in this area than in the southern part of the island. (Naples itself seems to cater to the over 55 crowd). Another great thing about Ft Myers Beach is that they are very “biker friendly”. The host at the registration desk is a rider. One of waiters that took care of us is a biker. The parking attendant is a biker. And speaking of parking, Lani Kai has a parking area exclusive for motorcycles (Big plus).

Around 5:00pm we decided to take a ride around the town of Ft. Myers Beach. The thing is you don’t need to “ride” around to see it. Everything is pretty much in walking distance, so after cruising up and down for 10 minutes we went right back to the hotel and waited for the sunset. And wow, what a sunset that is.

Sunset in Ft Myers Beach

I’ve been to Key West to see the sunset there at the famous Mallory Square, but I gotta tell you, watching the sunset in Ft.Myers Beach is the best. One reason is because you don’t have anything blocking your view, like an island or huge ship.

After sunset the party continues with a little fireworks show on the beach. There is a fire-dancers who entertains the crowd with some nice “in-your face” tricks. And of course there is nothing like a beautiful sunset to trigger a little fireworks in your romance too.

The next morning we woke up around 9:30am. Check out was not until 11am so we decided to take our time packing, had some breakfast in the hotel’s roof-top café and watch as the jet ski and parasail where getting set-up for the day’s events. We checked out, and headed back south towards Naples. We had decided that instead of taking I-75 back to Miami, we would take a longer but more scenic view through US 41, or as we Floridians like to call it Alligator Alley.

The reason it’s called Alligator Alley is obvious when you ride 86 miles down the middle of the Everglades and Miccosukee Indian reservation and see alligators swimming in the lakes and canals just a few feet away from the road. It’s an awesome ride, but you need to make sure you top off on fuel just before leaving Naples. There are very few places to stop also, so relieve your bladder before taking that ride. Also, just my own recommendation; don’t take this route at night. It’s pretty dangerous and there are no street lights.

There is a lot of wildlife out here. While riding down the road a huge Blue Heron swept out of the trees and came only about 2 feet above our heads while trying to create enough lift to cross the road. And you thought riding in the city was bad…

When we arrived at Dade Corners in Miami, our butts were pretty sore, but it was only about 3pm and we really weren’t ready to call it a day yet. Luckily my mother-in –law called us to say they were having a picnic at Black Point Marina. So we got back on the bike and headed south for some great BBQ and cold beer with the family. All in all it was a nice birthday weekend.