RoadRider13 wrote:
Marcodweller
have you ridden up the coast? When I get down to FL I plan on doing a lot of coastal riding. I am an odd person who loves the quirky coastal towns. I actually love the jersey shore because the photo ops with all the kitsch and characters is so hard to pass up. I have been to Marco a couple of times. We usually like to spend a week at Sanibel photographing birds each winter.
Hi RoadRider13,
I have ridden around Naples on the vespa but it would probably be hard to find the quirkiness you desire around there, very few parts of the old naples exist and those that do are tourist attractions, having said that there is a lot of impressiveness to see in downtown Naples and Port Royal.
Heading North from Naples there is Bonita springs a little inland but still has a feel of small town Florida although that is becoming more "gentrified " as each year passes.
Just a few miles from Marco Island is Goodland and there you will find quirkiness in spades,its just a very cool little village that still has a very small fishing fleet ( mostly crab and mullet) along with a few bars and restraunts , the most famous of which is Stans , which would be best described as a tiny part of key west that came north, it holds an annual mullet contest (the fish not the hair style) every January.
If you like to see a lot of custom bikes lined up , Harleys, Boss Hoss's ,trikes and everything in between that would be the place to see them.
Its a place John Bohener ( former speaker of the house) goes when he is down here and he is likely to be stood talking with a dreamer who things never quite worked out for anywhere else, who is now picking up a little day work here and there to buy his beer and rum punch. Its the type of place where millionaires stand shoulder to shoulder with ditch diggers.
Further east is Everglades city which again has a good amount of quirkiness , this tiny place has its own notoriety from the 80's where the majority of adult males including the mayor were arrested and sent to jail for drug running , (bales of drugs were dropped by plane into the Everglades and collected by fishermen, airboat captains infact anyone who had a boat or watercraft and distributed from Everglades city and elsewhere)
They have a fantastic sea food festival every year and a real piece of old Florida real estate in the Rod and Gun club harking back to the days when the wealthy from up North would venture into the swamps for hunting and fishing excursions before roads were here.
I truly love this part of Florida with its old timer tales , history, folklore and often tall tales, exaggerations and downright lies (all the old timers have a claim to fame down here be it they used to play in Jimmy Buffets band, were pro sport players to running drugs for the south american cartels but it all adds to the mix)