Key West not the only great motorcycle ride in Florida

Great motorcycle roads always (hopefully) lead to sunset at a fun restaurant.

A great motorcycle road in Florida? Hard to believe. Our roads tend to be flat, straight and boring. But there are some great rides — sometimes through small towns to a dead end at the ocean.

There is a whole website devoted to such towns in Florida: Florida Backroads Travel. It has a helpful list and map of the 17 end-of-the-road towns it considers worthwhile, NOT including the most obvious one: Key West.

Of course, everyone know about U.S. 1 through the Florida Keys all the way to Key West.

Key West "is the quintessential end-of-the-road town, not just in Florida but maybe in the entire United States," the website notes.

I thought I'd discovered another great dead-end ride when I came across a reference to the "Ozello Trail" the other day.

I asked my wife Bonnie to Google it. No need.

"We've been there," she replied.

"I don't think so," I said. "This is supposedly a twisty road through islands along the coast, with a great place to eat at the end, called Peck's."

"Yeah," she said. "We've driven it. We ate there."

We did?

The blog MotorcycleRoads.com gives the Ozello Trail a four-star rating.

"Probably the one road that the state of Florida got right," one rider commented. And everyone seems to like the food at Peck's Old Port Cove restaurant at the end of the road.

Surely I should remember it!

Moral of this story: when your wife suggests someplace for dinner, pay attention to the road to the restaurant.

Although the Ozello Trail is only nine miles long, it turns out there are many great, longer rides in my state. Check out MotorcycleRoads.com to find great rides in your state.

Royal Enfields and others at Barber motorcycle museum

1964 Royal Enfield Interceptor:
"Royal Enfield was very advanced with their technical designs."

Of course she photographed the Royal Enfield motorcycles for me first!

My daughter Anna recently visited the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Ala.

Looking at her photos, your first impression is: "Those motorcycles are gorgeous"

1965 Royal Enfield Continental GT:
"The final version and has every conceivable option."

The second impression has to be the sheer number of motorcycles.

Barber claims the world's largest motorcycle collection: 1,400 motorcycles (more than 650 on display on any given day) from 200 manufacturers in 20 countries.

The bikes Anna photographed each came with identifying commentary, often a bit sly. Here are just a few of Anna's photos, with captions quoting directly from the museum placards.

1926 Royal Enfield 250 (Britain):
"Typical 1920s commuter machine, probably giving over 100 mpg."

1970 Clymer Indian Enfield (U.S., Britain, Italy):
"It is thought that only 10 of these 750s were built."

1946 Indian Chief (U.S.):
"Indian riders were divided over the fenders, either loving or hating them."

1913 Flying Merkle (U.S.):
"Flying Merkle has to be one of the greatest names for a motorcycle."

1913 Yale (U.S.):
"The wide track allowed for the machine to run in wagon ruts for a smoother ride."

1894 Hildebrand & Wolfmuller (Germany):
"Long connecting rods are attached to the rear wheel, which is actually the crankshaft."

Honda Cub clip-on motor (Japan):
"One of the first motorized products from the Honda Motor Co."

1957 Douglas Dragonfly (Britain):
"Bold new styling on a very old design was their last fling."

1929 Majestic (France):
"The chassis is two side panels joined by bulk heads."

1958 Ariel Square Four (Britain):
"A lot of myths regarding performance."

1938 Triumph Speed Twin (Britain):
"Built to look like a single cylinder from the side view."

1923 Scott Sprint Special (Britain):
"Scott, the innovator, was responsible for nearly 60 separate motorcycle patents."
My comment: "None of them was for beauty."

And on and on and on...
All photos by Anna Blasco.

Following Elvis Presley to the end of the road in Florida

Follow That Dream Parkway leads to a boat ramp and beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

How many times have you wondered where a little side road went? Or spotted an arrow pointing the way to a small town with an intriguing name, and you thought you'd like to visit it someday?

It happens to me every time I take a road trip.

Recently my wife Bonnie and I drove to the tiny Florida Gulf-coast town of Matlacha so she could do an item for her blog FloridaRambler.com

Matlacha (pronounced mat-la-SHAY) has a fascinating history; supposedly it was "founded" by squatters who exploited a little-known aspect of the law to create a hard-scrabble fishing village in the 1920s. Today it's still a precious time-piece, preserved from the rampant development that has transformed much of the rest of the state.

Later we discovered, to our surprise, that the 1962 Elvis Presley movie "Follow That Dream" is based on the story of Matlacha.

Elvis followed his dream to a Florida side road in 1961.

Except, of course, that the movie had to be filmed in a place that was even less developed than Matlacha had become by 1962. The film makers chose a tiny community up the coast with the intriguing name "Yankeetown."

Thanksgiving week, finding ourselves once again on the Gulf Coast of Florida, I casually proposed taking a side trip to Yankeetown.

"There's nothing there," Bonnie replied. Subject closed. Almost.

Driving past on the highway I noticed that the road to Yankeetown is named "Follow That Dream Parkway." I couldn't resist.

I couldn't resist seeing where Follow That Dream Parkway led.

The next day, Bonnie squeezed a trip to Yankeetown into our schedule. I was glad she did.

We quickly found the bridge where Elvis and the rest of the cast set up their squatter's village in the movie. There IS only one bridge! The site is a bit more overgrown than the movie makers found it, but it's still vacant land.

You'll see this site — less overgrown — in the movie.

Not far beyond is, literally, the end of the road, where Follow That Dream Parkway plunges down a boat ramp into the Gulf of Mexico.

Mission accomplished.

If you can stand watching Elvis pout for 90 minutes, the movie treats you to Florida scenery that is still there.