By Tony and T-Rex

On the Schoon *lazy* river in Chestertown we checked in with Tina at The Rancho Pines Campground. She’s owned this for 24 years but was established back around 1928 so it’s old…with tall pines all over. Set up camp then it’s time to explore, first stop T-Rex wants to see Lake George. There was no Americade this year so that hurt business here. Half the tourists are back, and no traffic going in or out of town. We are on the Eastern side of the mountains, so we rode up to Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.

Then I took T-Rex up to one of the oldest bars, restaurant, boarding house, and train station in Lake Clear Junction. The Charlie’s Inn established a little before 1901 was the main railway from Utica to Malone. It’s not running anymore but the buildings are still standing, so lunch and a beer and we were off.

From there we ran Route 30 to 28 N. It runs you into a small, ok…very, small town of Minerva, where we slid into Sporty’s Iron Duke Saloon, another cool place in the middle of nowhere. Cabins for rent, a bar and food they even put on a motorcycle hill climb. A week of riding in the mountains great weather, mountain roads twisting through the big pines and lakes and rivers galore…off to Vermont we go. Stay cool Tony @T-Rex.

By Tony and T-Rex

The first stop on this trip is Berwick, PA where we’re gonna hang out at the Bodnarosa Campground. T-Rex wants to see family and friends for a week, and I want to ride twisting mountain roads. But we also want to go see “Bill’s Old Bike Barn and Museum”. The owner is Bill Morris and he owns Bill’s Custom Cycle for the last 51 years, so you guessed it he is 81 years old and still working every day. On the weekends he is the first guy you meet at the museum. This museum isn’t just a bunch of old bikes. It is a collection of everything from Rock’em Sock’em Robots to an Elvis room, and of course, the name of this town is “Billville”. Between the old Berwick Hotel sign and the store made of beer cans, I could write pages about the 55,000 sq. ft. museum, but if you are ever riding in the mountains in PA stop in and check it out. It’s located right behind Bill’s Custom Cycles at 7145 Route 11, Columbia Blvd, Bloomsburg, PA. Ok off to our next stop in Damascus, NY more mountains and cool breeze…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Stay cool Tony and T-Rex

I had the most amazing day on the 4th of July. First off, we went with Karl from Volk’s Audio on his boat to “The Glen”. The ride on the St. John’s River was beautiful and thankfully my fear of Karl being a speed demon was unfounded! The most awesome sight was as we pulled into the glen it seemed as though we floated into a Trump rally. Trump and American flags flying everywhere. Red, white, and blue bikinis everywhere. Watching the polls and some news channels it was becoming very depressing. If I heard one more time “defund the police”, “our goal is no more cops in 5 years” and “no life sentences” I was going to start believing America was doomed. But seeing the patriotic Americans out enjoying a day on the river gave me a much-needed boost. A perfect day with amazing food cooked by Karl on his grill and an invigorating swim to the mouth of the spring recreated the energy for life. I still am worried that Biden may win, that we are headed off a cliff of anarchy and that most of America has lost their belief in our Constitution and love for our country. But I left that river on the 4th knowing we patriotic Americans are still out there and that we MUST not let those beating their chests like gorillas control our future. And if you think that was racist you are part of the problem. When the noose was found in a NASCAR garage the focus was on the “crime of the noose” not the fact that the REDNECK GOOD OL’ BOYS in UNISON supported Bubba. That should have been the news story, not a garage door pull!!!
Anyway, we who enjoy the freedom of motorcycling need to show our patriotism a little more this year. Ride on veteran and police rides, fly a flag on your bike or wear a patriotic shirt or hat. I joined a group called Adopt-A-Cop…you just send a note of encouragement to a police officer thanking them for putting up with us all and doing a difficult job in a difficult time! I know it doesn’t sound like much, but the police seem to appreciate hearing something positive.
Take a ride on a road you haven’t traveled, buy a cop a meal and don’t forget your sunscreen!

By Jan

During our Break Out Party on Saturday, June 13th, Scott and Adria, the winners of the Scavenger Hunt, were ecstatic to find out they were the first 2 and the only 2 that got all the answers correct. They won $125 in Gator Harley Gift Cards. They had no problem going right inside the dealership and found some great buys. Congratulations!

Everyone that went on the Scavenger Hunt was automatically entered into a drawing for a 3 day/2-night Weekend Get Away with their $5 registration fee. The chance to win was open to everyone. We are proud to announce Stacey Drosos with the Lake Co HOG won. Congratulations!

Also, there were several Clubs and Organizations that came out to support Gator Harley-Davidson: Amazons of Florida, Cruisers of Central Florida, Nam Knights MC, Lake Co. H.O.G.(co-host of the event), Clermont LAMA’s, SCHOG, Fallen Few Lake Co, Warlocks Lake Co, American Legion Riders, and West Central MFCMC,

Thank you to all who rode out to support this event. We loved the band Sulfuric and only wish we could have arrived earlier to hear more of their sets.

Our group from Daytona Beach arrived a bit late due to a bad rainstorm when we were heading out for the ride over from the coast. So, I must thank Jan from Gator for taking the pics of the day including ours!! Jan and Gator H-D work hard to not only put on entertainment for their motorcycling enthusiasts, but to also give back to their community!

Lulu

by Jeani G.

On a sunny mid-June day, we felt like “Free Birds” as we embarked on an exploratory ride dreamed up by Gator Ken to the now historic Van Zant House in westside Jacksonville, FL. Six of us: TJ & Beth, Don & Lisa, and Gator Ken & I were on a mission to visit the cradle of Southern Rock … the childhood home of famed Ronnie, Donnie and Johnny, the lead singers and musicians of Lynyrd Skynyrd and 38 Special.

Along the way we “Wild Eyed Southern Boys” (and girls) stopped at the 3D Saloon in Palatka where owner Donnie served up some breakfast cocktails. With “The Breeze” in our faces, we “Held on Loosely” as we rode on to our destination. The Van Zant House located at 5419 Woodcrest Rd. in a blue-collar neighborhood the brothers referred to as Shantytown, was officially declared a Florida heritage site on Saturday, May 12, 2018. It’s been remodeled in the 70’s style that the boys grew up with … complete with a rotary-dial telephone, wooden console stereo with an 8-track player, and memorabilia hanging in their former trophy room. Fans can rent the house and do some “Down South Jukin’” in the place where their music began.

We ventured on to 5301 Lennox Ave. where we hoped to cut a rug at a place called The Jug with a girl named Linda Lou (y’all know how the story goes), only to find it was closed, most likely due to Covid-19. This is the location of the then West Tavern which was Ronnie’s inspiration for “Gimme Three Steps”, based on actual events of a confrontation he had when he was just 18 years old. While frantically driving away from the man with a gun in his hand, Ronnie, Gary, and Alan passed a liquor store called the Little Brown Jug on Edison Ave. as they penned the lyrics to one of their most recognizable songs. The West Tavern’s name has since been changed to The Jug Saloon.

Ooh “That Smell” … which led us to Huey’s on Edgewood Ave. for lunch where we enjoyed delicious Nashville hot chicken. We then took a westerly route back through Putnam county wetting our whistle at several veteran owned and operated bars: The Howlin’ Wolf in Melrose and Lit’l Caesars Dive Bar in Interlachen. Then on to Long’s Log Cabin in Welaka … always a favorite stop!

A total of 260 miles round trip brought us back to OB’s in DeLand where we continued “Rockin’ into the Night” with my “Simple Man” Gator Ken, and me his “Fantasy Girl.” Hope you enjoyed this Southern Rock tale as much as we enjoyed the ride … stay healthy and safe y’all.

By Lulu

In June, Janice and the folks at Stormy Hill Harley had reason to celebrate. Even though the economy had been on lock down for the past several months due to Covid, it was time to bring out the beer and toast their 18th anniversary! The dealership is known by many as a friendly, caring business with fair pricing and great service. To keep riders happy and coming back for 18 years the staff is doing things right. The day of the celebration girls were washing bikes, beer and food were filling bellies and the Steven Green Band rocked the parking lot. This fall their bike nights and social events will kick back in…unless our government puts us back in time out! On August 15th they are having a Customer Appreciation Day with 25% off all licensed products. On August 1st a blood drive is being held from 10a-4p as a bonus you get a free Covid-19 Antibody test and a T-shirt.

By Lulu

Since mid-March, bars that do not serve food have been closed…bar owners and staff have held their breath with each passing week hoping for a reprieve by Governor Ron DeSantis. Bills mounting, staff without pay, and until June 3rd no word out of Tallahassee. It was beginning to seem like Ron had forgotten about the bars while restaurants were serving alcohol to the masses and gyms were allowing members to resume their normal lives.

I wrote to Ron myself saying I would rather sit on a barstool next to people who I considered to be more like family than just friends, than pass strangers in the grocery store! So, Patty Miracle and Frank Scott from the Daytona Beach radio station Rock of Daytona organized a protest ride mid-May to raise awareness that Bars R Essential too! The livelihood of many including the 55,000 bartenders in Florida!!! Thankfully today the Governor announced on June 5th the bars can open at 50% occupancy as we move into Phase II. So please get out and visit our ad clients…tip generously…realize what a strain emotionally and financially this has been to our friends in the business for much longer than the rest of us.

By Lulu

Despite the corona virus, motorcyclists met up at The Dog House in Port Orange and took the roadways to remember veterans and their sacrifices. Stops included Fox Head in Osteen, The Inn Between on a beautiful piece of tree covered property in Deland and OB’s in Deland. They then headed back to The Dog House for an after party. It was a great turn out for veterans with over a hundred bikes and a beautiful day to be riding.

I am going to rant about the rioting and looting. Don’t call it peaceful protest! Sit-ins were peaceful protests. The first person to stand and yell in a cop’s face, spit on them, throw pre-staged bricks and rocks at them, destroy vehicles, burn buildings, steal merchandise was the end of ANY peaceful protest! My nephew is a GOOD SWAT cop in rioting Louisville, Kentucky.

I am fearful for him. I understand daily the fear blacks claim to feel for family members. The thug they are marching to honor has a criminal background that included burglary while holding a gun to a pregnant woman’s belly. He still didn’t deserve to be knelt on by a rogue cop until he couldn’t breathe, while his “bad apples” just stood there. But this isn’t the days of the Old Testament…it isn’t an eye for an eye in the U.S.A. and even if it was, as I am writing this, 7 cops have been shot, at least 2 have died, one of them a black cop…do Black Cops Lives not matter? Who the hell are these fools marching and giving cover to looters?

Minority business owners still reeling from the coronavirus shut down now have broken windows, missing inventory and in at least one case have lost their lives in the crossfire. Let alone the total cost to our government that is trying to keep people fed while having less income tax to finance it all. I have seen on T.V. a black man in the street begging the looters to stop and to leave his business alone that he had worked his entire life for!

If these rioters and protestors think this helps us feel better about their race…they are wrong! All this has done for me is make me reup my NRA membership and want TJ to buy more ammo. I would never sit idly by while people destroy our property over a murder that happened in a city across the country by people I don’t know. I was outraged by the video. I felt the need to address the police brutality on this man. He shouldn’t have died that day.

But our country isn’t the problem! Our police across this country are no more the problem, than a bad surgeon who causes the death of a patient makes all doctors the problem. DEFEND THE POLICE! We should be the Red, White, and Blue line standing between the protestors and our police for God’s sake. If the police quit all we will have is THUGS and our GUNS.

Help the small businesses that have been so hurt by the coronavirus shut down, be kind to all races despite the insanity and pray for this country.

Each year Twisted Tea builds a custom bike that they giveaway to thank all the loyal Tea drinkers that have made the brand so popular. We caught up with Bill Grotto their “man on the street” at the motorcycle rallies and Chris Callen of Cycle Source via Zoom to get the low down.

TR: Hey guys what’s been happening lately?

BG: Hey Beth! Not much I’ll tell you that! With all the spring and summer motorcycle rallies cancelled I’ve been at home in Florida staying busy with things that I never get a chance to do since I’m always traveling. Equipment maintenance, organizing stuff, throwing old crap away that kind of thing. Oh, and lots of video conferencing with the home office since they’re on work from home as well. Normally planning for the next string of bike events would be on this list but right now it’s unclear.

TR: How about you Chris?

CC: Over at Cycle Source we’ve been just as busy and even busier with the stay at home. With rallies dropping like dominoes we realized we wouldn’t be getting in front of ppl anytime soon, so we ramped up our digital efforts in a major way. We’d been pretty successful in the amount of views our weekly digital broadcasts get but the stay at home has taken it up a notch.

TR: Cycle Source had a virtual bike rally a few weeks ago so tell us about that.

CC: Back in April we’d all only been on the stay at home for a few weeks and we’re hearing from all sorts of ppl how they missed seeing their friends and weren’t sure when they’d see them again since the future of rallies was so uncertain. So, the idea was simple; create all the sights and sounds of a motorcycle rally and bring it to the people digitally in the comfort of their own homes. We had a bike show, a bikini contest, a wet t-shirt contest and several bands played all set up from their garages; we just clicked a button and put them on air when it was their time to be a part of the show. We even had everyone’s favorite rally bartenders telling us what it’s like to be a rally performer and making drinks to boot.

BG: Yeah, the sights and sounds were awesome I’m glad you weren’t able to re-create the smells!!

(laughter)

TR: That is a really cool idea how was it received?

CC: It was a huge success- so much to the point that we’ve added a weekly virtual bike night every Thursday where we follow the same model; we have live entertainment, garage tours from the viewers who want to join in and we even have a cooking with Tea segment with Billy. People can check it out on our Facebook page or our YouTube channel.

TR: Really? What’s that about?

BG: I enjoy cooking and baking because I was a cook in the Navy, so I’ve been doing more of it now that I’m home. We have some cool recipes for Twisted Tea, so I figured what the hell they do it on the Today Show right??!!

TR: Now tell us about the Twisted Tea Sweepstakes Bike

BG: We’ve done a sweepstakes bike for the past 5 years. The first 2 (a 71 Shovel Head and an ’05 ultra-classic) were pretty much stock bikes with Twisted tea paint scheme and pin striping by Dave “Letterfly” Knoderer. In 2017 with Cycle Source acting as the general contractor so to speak, we got together with several builders to build a one of a kind custom build which was the Tea Chopper. It really set the stage for what was to come because the bike was unbelievable. In 2017 we did a flat track called the Tea Tracker, in 2019 we did a chollos inspired low rider called the Tea Low Rider and this year’s bike is a bobber style bar hopper kinda like an Exile because I’ve always like that style.

TR: Wow that’s so cool I didn’t realize you’ve done that many bikes. Who comes up with the inspiration for the different builds?

CC: Usually when Sturgis is over and we’re all still out there, Billy, myself, Heather and whoever happens to be left standing go to a place called Pizza Ranch and get a bunch of fried chicken and talk about what would be a cool bike to take on. It’s that simple; no board room no bullshit just people who love motorcycles wanting to build a kick ass bike to give to the Tea fans

TR: Wait a minute, you go to the Pizza Ranch for fried chicken?

BG: Yup…it’s a kind of a best kept secret that’s not really a secret for those “in the know”. It’s a pizza buffet and the pizza is great but they also have a cafeteria style buffet and the main thing is fried chicken- it’s killer! I always loved the look of the Exile bikes; squatty stance, stripped down, internal components, big fat tire on the front. They looked tough kinda like Mack truck or a bulldozer.

TR: Is that how you came up with the name Tea-Dozer?

CC/BG: There was nothing else more fitting especially when the bike was done- it really fits.

CC: The primary builder this year was Flat Broke Chops and Rods which is Mark Persichetti and me. It started out as us just wrenching on bikes because I’ve known Mark forever and it just built from there. We call it Flat Broke because we’ll never get rich doing it, but we love it and that’s all that counts!

(Laughter)

TR: What made this bike so special? People were totally digging it when you did the reveals in Daytona during Bike Week.

CC: I’d say the biggest thing was probably the tank where we took 3.5-gallon fat bobs and split them down to make a rubber mount chopper tank. That and the rear fender struts came out really nice.

BG: Yes, all that plus Curt Green from Barebones leather did the seat and Casey @ The Paint Chop did the pinstriping again which was really cool.

TR: You guys always bring the bike around to the different rallies so how can people see it or enter to win it?

BG: Yeah that’s another casualty of the COVD-19 pandemic. Since we aren’t able to bring the bike to the rallies, we’ve been promoting it on social media, print and any way we can really. If anyone wants to enter to win the bike, and it’s totally free to do this, visit twistedtea.com, or cyclesource.com and enter. Another way is to text the word “TEADOZER” to 24587 and you’ll get a link on your phone that prompts you through entering.

TR: Wow that’s cool that Twisted Tea does this for the drinkers and bikers

BG: It’s the least we can do to thank them for being our customers, plus I get to ride it at rallies…Come to think of it there goes another thing I can’t do thanks to the pandemic…damn it!

TR: Well thanks a lot you guys and we’ll see you on the road before too long- If not we’ll be seeing you online

By Holly Will Bond

On a beautiful Monday evening a crowd gathered at the Flight 747 Lounge on Airport Road in Jacksonville. The air was bittersweet as we gathered to dedicate a chip table to the memory of our beloved Leather Lady, Patty Trantham, whom we lost on December 7, 2018. Patty had been collecting and trading Harley chips for years. Occasionally, she would sit out on her screened porch and arrange the chips on a wooden table, post pics on Facebook and comment about completing the table once she had enough chips.

Sam Bond offered to complete the table. He too had been collecting and trading chips over the years and spoke with Patty on numerous occasions about the table and that he would donate some of his chips to complete it. Patty’s family lovingly agreed to let Sam complete the table. The dedication was made on February 10th with a group of about thirty of Patty’s family and closest friends. Patty’s family wants the table to remain at the 747 Lounge as it was Patty’s favorite watering hole. If you are in the area, be sure to stop in at the 747, have a cold one, see the table and share a memory of Patty