Modern Vespa

The 7 Bridges Scooter Club Annual Bridges Ride Weekend is back on!

March 25-27, 2022

Jacksonville, Florida.

Ride all seven major bridges in Jacksonville plus the Mayport Ferry!

Sides trips planned to other Northeast Florida locales!

Stay tuned for details, but MARK YOUR CALENDARS now!

I'm curious, how many "7BSC Annual Bridges Ride Weekend" rides have there been now? 5 years? 10 years?

I think it's great that this tradition continues. Congratulations!

This will be the 10th one. Would have been the 12th but 2020 and 2021 were canceled due to COVID. We had 65 participants in the 2019 event.

It is an awesome weekend!

The Countdown Has Begun!

Two months and counting!

We're just 50 days away from the 10th version of our 7 Bridges Scooter Club Annual Bridges Ride! March 25-27, 2022

Attached is an agenda for the weekend. For those coming from out of town, a list of possible hotels is provided. Since our Friday and Saturday night venues are downtown-centric, you may want to stay in that general area. For campers, there are nice facilities out by the beach.
We will solicit RSVPs from everyone about 30 days out so we can properly plan manpower and give good estimates to restaurants.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

What are you waiting for?

One seven bridges we'll tackle in less than seven weeks at the 7BSC Annual Bridges Ride Weekend. Like a rally, but no charge. This one is the tallest (and fastest) in Jacksonville, Florida, the Dames Point Bridge. It's part of I-295 that we will be on briefly. March 25-27, 2022!

Another of the great bridges we'll cover on the 7BSC Annual Bridges Ride Weekend 03/25-27/22. Jacksonville, Florida. This time around we have the Hart Bridge, connecting Downtown with Southside. In operation since 1967.

Here's another of the great bridges we'll cover on the 7 Bridges Scooter Club Annual Bridges Ride Weekend 03/25-27/22. Jacksonville, Florida. This time around we have the John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge (aka Main Street Bridge), connecting Downtown with the Southbank. It's the last remaining drawbridge in the center of Jacksonville and has been operational since 1941. The City of Jacksonville usually does fireworks off that bridge on New Year's Eve and Independence Day.

Hope to see you then!

Another of the great bridges we'll ride during the 7BSC Annual Bridges Ride Weekend. In this case, the Mathews Bridge which was built in 1953 to connect Arlington with Downtown Jax. It was named after John E. Mathews, a Florida state legislator and Chief Justice of the 1955 Florida Supreme Court who helped gather funding for the bridge's construction. Originally silver in color, the bridge was painted maroon in 1984 in celebration of Jacksonville's USFL franchise, the Jacksonville Bulls. Jacksonville has since become home to the NFL's Jaguars.

One of the "bridges we'll be crossing is the Mayport Ferry.

The Mayport Ferry, aka St. Johns River Ferry, is an auto ferry between Mayport and Fort George Island, two areas within Jacksonville, Florida. The 0.9 miles voyage crosses the St. Johns River about 2.5 miles inland of the river's mouth and travels in an east-west direction. It departs every half-hour and the current toll for motorcycles is $6. The ferry has been operating since 1874.

7BSC Bridges Ride Weekend – March 25 to 27, 2022

The Fuller Warren Bridge is one of the bridges we'll cover as part of the 7 Bridges Scooter Club Annual Bridges Ride Weekend (3/25-27/22). It's a prestressed-concrete girder bridge that carries Interstate 95 across the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. The current structure was finished in October 2002, replacing the original bascule-bridge span, finished in 1954.

It's worth the trip! These guys and gals in Jacksonville area ROCK!!!!

Russ pulled it off again.

Somehow, he convinced the weatherman to give us the best weekend weather in months.

Then we had the biggest group of riders yet for a Bridges Ride, over 60.

The festivities started with a meet and greet at Intuition Ale Works in downtown Jacksonville.

Many of the participants had arrived and spent time getting to know the other riders.

Saturday had us divide up into four groups for lunch rides.

I led the longest ride to High Springs, Florida for lunch at the Great Outdoors restaurant.

We had 13 riders who enjoyed some of North Florida's best roads and a pleasant lunch outdoors on the restaurant's patio area.

Saturday night we all gathered at V-Pizza for dinner, then to bed for the Sunday Bridges Ride.

The big ride begins early, this time in Arlington so we could hit the Dames Point Bridge and catch the Mayport Ferry while it was on our side of the river.

We arrived at the Ferry with the boat sitting on our side.

Because not everyone had made it yet, we almost decided to wait another 30 minutes for it's return, but chose to load up the more than half the riders on this trip.

From there we rode through Mayport to the Wonderwood Bridge and bumpy expressway, through Arlington to the Mathews Bridge into downtown.

From there we rode past TIAA Bank Field to the Isiah Hart Bridge to Southside, then to the Friendship Fountain that was unfortunately undergoing extensive renovations, but the view of the river and city made it a good stop.

After a break there, we hit the road again across the Main Street Bridge and the Acosta Bridge, then I-95 Fuller Warren Bridge into Riverside.

The ride through Riverside, Avondale (My neighborhood) and Ortega (where most of my design projects are located) is always a highlight for me, as I get to show off my favorite parts of town.

Then down Roosevelt Boulevard to a Wawa butt break before the last bridge, the three mile long Buckman Bridge that is part of I-295.

From there we had another scenic ride on Mandarin Road, then typical city roads to the 7 Bridges Restaurant for lunch.

Everyone headed back home from there.

It was among the best weekends we have had yet.

I am looking forward to next year.

I hope more MV scooterists will join us then.

Bill


Washing scooters for the big weekend.

Russ giving instructions for the Saturday Rides.

Scooters and brother David's BMW at the Great Outdoors in High Springs.

Vespa parking at V-Pizza.

Russ giving instructions and Rocket at the start of the Bridges Ride.

The Mathews Bridge as the sun was coming up on the way to the big ride.

The Dames Point Bridge

On Heckscher Drive on the way to the ferry.

On the Ferry.

The Mathews Bridge again.

On the ramp to the Hart Bridge.

On the Hart Bridge.

Scooters at Friendship Fountain.

The Main Street Bridge.

On the ramp to the Acosta Bridge.

On the Acosta Bridge.

very nice, looks like a great turnout and fabulous weather (as it is 10 deg and snowing out again here in VT)

In the Friendship Fountain pic, the red scooter with the umbrella, looks like a scooter I saw on the 2021 Cannonball, Scott Donovan's? I think he lives in SC so concievable for him to ride down. Very nice guy.

You are correct! Scott rode down with Nathan from the Charlotte area, meeting up with Scott's brother Mark, who rode up from South Florida.

That is Scott in most of my riding shots as their group rode in my rides both Saturday and Sunday.

All three are very nice guys. A pleasure to hang around with over the weekend.

Bill

Thank you to everyone who came out to participate in the 10th Annual 7BSC Bridges Ride Weekend.

It was great to be able to host this event again after having to cancel in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.

Mother Nature couldn't have been more cooperative, which helped us to achieve a record turnout.

By the Numbers:
# of folks who turned out for any part of the event: 67
Friday night Meet & Greet: 38
Saturday morning ride to High Springs: 13
Saturday morning ride to Fernandina: 17
Saturday morning ride to St. Augustine Beach: 11
Saturday night dinner: 35
Sunday morning Bridges Ride: 48
Sunday afternoon lunch: 46

We hope everyone had a great time and if you have any feedback or suggestions for 2023, bring 'em on!

Thanks to long-time 7BSC member Bill Leuthold, the attached story about the 10th Annual Bridges Ride Weekend made it into the latest issue of Scooter Zine newsletter/magazine.

Again we appreciate everyone who was involved and special kudos to Bill for his wordsmithing!