Ray&#039;s Motorcycle Experience

Below are links to some of the many items I’ve purchased to enhance and improve my experience with motorcycle riding. Should you be interested, click and make a purchase I might receive a small commission for sending you there.

Ad Tec Harness Straps Grain Leather Motorcycle Riding Boots

Black Leather Motorcycle Lever Covers for Motorcycles 16 inch Fringe

Flag mounts and flags for motorcycles, made in the USA

Battery charger/maintainer for Motorcycles, Suuwer Store

No endorsement or commission from Revzilla but I’ve purchased several items from them and have been very happy with the quality of products and the expertise of the employees, highly recommend www.revzilla.com

Tags: #enterprisealabama, #motorcycle, #motorcyclerides, #motorcyclevideo, #raysmotoring, #ruckersmotorcycleandauto, #samsonalabama, #samsonvtwin, #suzukimotorcycle
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Lake Jackson-Florala-T33A Shooting Star

May 18, 2021

Another place I pass almost every day, either on my way to Lakewood Park to walk or just to run into town for food and supplies. Only live about a mile from the Alabama state line and the small town of Florala. One of the best attractions for this town is Lake Jackson. The lakes marsh land actually reaches into an area directly across the highway from my house.

Lake Jackson is said to be 408 acres (some say 500 acres) with a drainage basin of 1,134 acres. The lake is divided east to west by the state line of Alabama and Florida. The only natural body of water where one can easily travel by boat, canoe, paddle board, jet ski, swim (you get the idea) from one state to the other without even knowing it. Was once thought by many to be spring fed however, a study conducted in 2005 by State Geologists determined that Lake Jackson is not a spring fed lake but rather a prehistoric sinkhole dependent totally upon rain for its water supply. See this report: LAKE JACKSON HYDROGEOLOGIC ASSESSMENT

The lake was named for General Andrew Jackson who camped with his army on its shores while in route to battle the Spaniards in Pensacola.

As with most bodies of water in the southeast US, Lake Jackson is home to the alligator. When one frequents the swimming sites or if the alligator exceeds a certain length, it is captured and relocated by park officials to a more appropriate body of water. It is also home to several majestic Bald Eagles! And of course we cannot forget the friendly ducks that are continually begging for food from all who enjoy the park.

The Florala City Park located along the shores of Lake Jackson is about one and a half miles long and consists of approximately forty acres of land. The park’s 40 acres were originally donated by local landowners to the city of Florala, and for decades the park was owned and operated by the city. In the early years, the park offered few amenities. In 1932, however, local volunteers constructed a beach on the north shore. The following year, the federally funded Civilian Conservation Corps added a clubhouse near the lake. In 1970, the land was transferred to the state of Alabama, and the city park became part of the state park system. In 1986, the state added a campground and other facilities. A bicycle and pedestrian trail runs the entire length of the park.

Trails and paths around the lake are often used by hikers/runners/walkers. Also used many times for cross country events held by local high schools like Paxton High School and Florala High School with many other schools invited to participate in their 5K events. It is also home to a major event including a 5K held each year the first Saturday in February to raise money for local people with cancer in need of financial assistance. A totally volunteer organization started by a local couple that puts money directly into the hands of those needing it. They do much more than I could ever explain here so take a moment and explore their site …. It’s called Cancer Freeze!

The campground underwent a major renovation in 2006 and now features 28 modern campsites with grills, water, electricity, and sewage hookups. The tent camping area has tables, grills, water, and electricity. Modern restrooms, a coin-operated laundry, and Internet are available at both the tent and modern campgrounds.

In 2015, Florala State Park was transferred back to the city of Florala after the Alabama legislature and Gov. Robert Bentley passed a budget that included the temporary closure of five state parks, including Florala State Park.

The city of Florala has a long and I feel interesting history of which there is certainly not enough room on this blog to try and fulfill. However I did find this link that seems to do a great job explaining in detail the history of Florala and it’s people. Check it out here: Florala History

One thing I do wish to talk about is the T33A parked at Lake Jackson. First I’d like to tell you a little about that type of aircraft according to the U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet – LOCKHEED T-33A SHOOTING STAR

The two seat T-33 jet was designed for training pilots already qualified to fly propeller driven aircraft. It was developed from the single seat F-80 fighter by lengthening the fuselage three feet to accommodate a second cockpit.

Originally designated the TF-80C, the T-33 made its first flight in 1948. Production continued until 1959 with 5,691 T-33s built. In addition to its use as a trainer, the T-33 has been used for such tasks as drone director and target towing, and in some countries even as a combat aircraft. The RT-33A, a reconnaissance version made primarily for use by foreign countries, had a camera installed in the nose and additional equipment in the rear cockpit.

The T-33 is one of the world’s best-known aircraft, having served with the air forces of more than 20 different nations over several decades. The T-33A on display was flown to the museum in 1962.

TECHNICAL NOTES:
Armament: Two .50-cal. machine guns in nose
Maximum speed: 525 mph
Cruising speed: 455 mph
Range: 1,000 miles
Ceiling: 45,000 ft.
Span: 37 ft. 6 in.
Length: 37 ft. 8 in.
Height: 11 ft. 7 in.
Weight: 15,000 lbs. maximum
Serial number: 53-5974
Type of Aircraft: (make/model): T-33A

Tail Number: (S/N): 53-4938

According to research provided by the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, this particular T-33A was manufactured by Lockheed Aircraft, Burbank California, and delivered to the U. S. Air Force on June 4, 1954. The following is a summary of its service:

Jun 1954 – 3205th Drone Group (Air Proving Ground Command), Eglin AFB FL
Dec 1957 – Air Proving Ground Center (Air Research and Development Command), Eglin AFB (deployment to Holloman AFB NM)
Oct 1965 – AF Logistics Command, Eglin AFB
Dec 1965 – Dropped from inventory by transfer to museum status. Presented to Florala State Park December 7, 1965!

Keep the shiny side UP!

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Flag mounts and flags for motorcycles, made in the USA

Battery charger/maintainer for Motorcycles, Suuwer Store

Tags: #airforce, #cancerfreeze, #florala, #floralacitypark, #lakejackson, #lakejacksoncampgrounds, #lakejacksonpark, #motorcyclerides, #raysmotoring, #T33A
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Lakewood Highest Point – Part TWO

May 14, 2021

This follow up is necessary to the previous post where I talked about a great place to walk at Lakewood Park, Florida’s highest point. The improved trails, signage, trail map and other upgrades done over a year ago were due to an awesome young man which I know personally.

Eugene Hall is a kid that I’ve had the pleasure of watching grow into a young man working hard as a runner. Cross country (5K) runner at Paxton High School. Not only was he an excellent cross country runner but the kid was fast too and set records for our school in 400 meter competition. As a huge fan of Paxton High School sports I somehow became the cross country and track (self designated) number one fan. One of my grandsons was a cross country runner and track participant, maybe that’s how I became involved? Felt like I had a special connection with all those boys and girls on the track and field teams. Attended all the meets possible, got involved as much as was allowed, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids compete.

We used Lakewood Park as a training area especially for cross country training. Coach Gilbert would drive a bus load of boys and girls to the Park after school some days and the kids would put in some hard workouts. We also did some training and meets, inviting other schools for competition at Lake Jackson in Florala, AL, just up the road, article about Lake Jackson coming soon. 🙂

I said all that to let you know Eugene’s attachment to the park and maybe where his idea came from to improve the trails? When they were training there the trails were not nearly as defined, no signs and sometimes it was hard for the kids to know if they were on the trail or not.

The trail map you see out front and the signs throughout the trail are some of Eugene’s work.

I’d like to share an article with you from the Walton Sun written on April 24, 2020:

MOSSY HEAD — Eugene Hall of Mossy Head received his Eagle Scout Award on Feb. 8. 2020.
He learned at that time that he was number 1 out of 97 scouts in the quality of his project, according to an email from his grandmother, Libby McScheehy.
A plaque will be displayed at the Scout Headquarters and he received a lifetime membership without dues in the National Eagle Scout Association.
His project involved upgrading the trail at the highest point in Florida, a state park called Lakewood Park. He widened the trail and removed debris, cut down trees, added mulch donated by Chelco, made a new trail map, and added eight new trail signs, lumber donated by Hodges Lumber.
He also updated the trail map digitally and made it more accurate.
Hall is also president of his junior class at Paxton High School. In sports he has been running with the varsity track team in track and cross country since he entered sixth grade and has gone to state the last two years.
Recently he and his teammate and training partner Philip Anderson did their first half marathon in Andalusia, Alabama and broke the course record.
Clicking the link to the Walton Sun Article will display photos of not only Eugene but some of the work he did.

Eugene was a Junior at the time of this article but will be graduating in just a few days from Paxton High School. Already miss seeing that young man compete.

This post is just my way of saying THANK YOU to Eugene for the improvements of the trails at Florida’s Highest Point in Lakewood, Florida. He deserves a lot of credit as his work has made it a pleasure for me and others to walk and do their exercises to improve over all health. Also a nice place to visit while out riding the motorcycle. Every time I go there to walk those trails, I think of that young man and the work he did and the improvements he accomplished!

Throwing in a little video below of my ride out to Lakewood Park yesterday, May 13, 2021. 🙂

One of my routes to Lakewood Park

Keep the shiny side UP!

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Flag mounts and flags for motorcycles, made in the USA

Battery charger/maintainer for Motorcycles, Suuwer Store

Tags: #crosscountrycompetition, #eaglescout, #floridashighestpoint, #lakewoodpark, #motorcyclerides, #paxtonhighschool, #trails
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Lakewood – Highest Point in Florida

May 13, 2021

Might have mentioned this in my previous post about the place I go for walks. This is inline with my thoughts of writing about interesting places I visit on the motorcycle or my daily life within the small area near me that hopefully some will find interesting.

Still trying to get back in the swing of things and get my legs back to somewhat normal after the accident last year, by walking as much as possible. It is a great place to walk, has three different trails to hike, longest being about seven tenths of a mile but if you walk them several times it’s possible to build up any distance you desire.

A very quiet place rarely anyone around to disturb you and since it’s only about five or six miles from my home, it provides a great excuse to jump on the motorcycle, take a little ride and do some walking. The trails are soft with leaves most of the time which is better than walking on pavement or concrete in my recuperation. You’re basically walking through the woods, trees shading all the trails. Before the accident I was walking there three or four times a week an average of four to five miles each time. Two miles is my current goal and have been reaching it for the last couple of weeks with only a day or two off due to rain, etc.

Florida’s highest point is in the country, North Walton County bordering on the Alabama state line east of Paxton, Florida, a place called Britton Hill. At 345 feet above sea level, Britton Hill is Florida’s highest natural point – and the lowest “high point” in the United States. Your grandmother can get to the top without breaking a sweat. 345 feet is pretty high for us Floridians since the Mean Elevation of Florida is only 100 feet above sea level. It also has many visitors from the HighPointersFoundation.org of which their motto is: Education, Support & Conservation of the Highest Point in each of the 50 United States. Have actually met a few of their members while there for my walks.

Found this interesting article about the area of Lakewood and it’s history:

From The Palm Beach Post archive (Oct. 1993), Florida historian and author of Florida Time, Eliot Kleinberg, visits Britton Hill, Florida’s highest spot.
This 400-by-900-foot plateau less than 2 miles south of the Alabama line has been declared the highest spot in Florida – a nosebleed-inducing 345 feet above sea level.
Margaret Jean Britton Richbourg has heard the jokes. It doesn’t change her love for this unique spot on a stretch of Panhandle country road.
On the west side of County Road 285, a turnoff leads to an open shelter. A short walk into the woods brings one to a granite marker reading “Lakewood Park: Florida’s Highest Point. 345 feet.″
The settlement surrounding the marker “is kind of a ghost town,″ Richbourg says sadly.
The post office is now a guest house. The old railroad depot sits in a pasture across the road. The former one-room schoolhouse is a dusty private museum filled with rusting chains and tools, mementos of the region’s once-thriving lumber and railroad trades. The Richbourgs open it on request.
The lumber company founded by Margaret Richbourg’s father and uncle at the turn of the century was the economic heart of this region. It owned 90,000 acres and a 22-mile-long railroad spur and was cutting 100,000 feet of lumber a day.
At its height, Lakewood had boasted 101 buildings, including a three-story hotel, rail depot, store, commissary and housing for 400 mill workers.
But the Depression, a timber glut and fires – the mill burned down three times – had taken their toll by World War II.
In 1956 state engineers did a survey to find Florida’s highest point. Other sites made the claim but the honor fell to a spot just south of Lakewood.
Richbourg’s mother, post office manager Hazel Slaughter Britton, saw a chance to resurrect the town. She pursued investors without success and died at 87 in 1976. Soon her post office was closed and mail routed from Florala, Ala.
It was an insult to be in the highest point in Florida and get our mail from Alabama,″ Richbourg says.I wrote (then-president) Jimmy Carter up in Georgia and asked him how he’d like to get his mail from Alabama.″
She never mailed the letter but mail now goes through DeFuniak Springs, about 20 miles south.
The year her mother died, Richbourg got a letter from a girl in Lakewood, N.Y., wanting to know what the Florida town planned for the Bicentennial. That sparked her to pick up her mother’s cause.
She set up the museum in the old schoolhouse, pushed to convert the post office into a historical exhibit, and began organizing homecoming festivals. Reunions in 1978 and 1979 drew as many as 1,000 former residents. But the town returned to obscurity. Richbourg partially blames a 1982 Associated Press story that cynically described “Midget Mountain″ and told of visitors showing up in climbing gear.
In 1984, the Richbourgs donated 17 acres and the county spent $17,000 of a state grant to build the park and monument.
Richbourg envisions a restored settlement and museum complex, with a barn, a cane-grinding mill, a blacksmith, and harness, gun smith and bicycle shops, along with a studio for weaving, pottery and leather crafts.
But, she says, “I’m getting old. It’s just in limbo. I’d like to see somebody pick it up and carry on.″
Florida Time is a weekly Florida history column from Palm Beach Post historian and reporter, Eliot Kleinberg. The series launched on January 3, 2019 across 22 GateHouse Florida website markets including Jacksonville, Fort Walton Beach, Daytona Beach, Lakeland, Sarasota and West Palm Beach.

Here is an idea of what Lakewood Park looks like today. Nice clean quiet place in the country that not many people know about and that’s great for me. Like being able to walk in peace, maybe listen to some music. 🙂

Found this video on You Tube posted by Two Egg TV talking about Florida’s Highest Point.

Once again, thanks for reading and hopefully following. Not an “Old Biker” by definition, just an old man that loves to ride motorcycles. Not really a Biker “motorcyclists” fits better.

Keep the shiny side UP!

Ad Tec Harness Straps Grain Leather Motorcycle Riding Boots

Black Leather Motorcycle Lever Covers for Motorcycles 16 inch Fringe

Flag mounts and flags for motorcycles, made in the USA

Battery charger/maintainer for Motorcycles, Suuwer Store

Tags: #brittonhillhistory, #floridahighestpoint, #highpointersfoundation, #lakewoodpark, #motorcyclerides, #raysmotoring
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Alabama National Guard Armory – Fort Joseph L. Byrd Sr.

May 12, 2021

Sometimes in our daily routine we pass by things of importance and those with interesting historical value right in our own local. As of late I have started paying more attention to the things around me that I come in contact with often. Fort Joseph L. Byrd Sr. is such a place that I pass almost daily on my motorcycle rides to Lakewood Park to do my much needed walking exercise. More on that later, but today I would like to tell you a little about this National Guard Armory located in Florala, AL.

What really made me take notice the other day was seeing some tourist that had stopped there and were taking photos near the big tank. It seems that I personally am paying much more attention to things around me in my motorcycle rides lately. On my way home after walking decided to stop and take a few photos myself.

First let me tell you a little about the tank in the photo as I found that it be interesting. Information based on this link: M-60 Battle Tank Information

“The M-60 Patton Main Battle Tank (MBT) was designed in response to the Soviet T-54, as an improvement and follow-on for the M-48 Patton Tank. The M60 was the first U.S. tank to carry the MBT designation, a heavily armed and armored tank that was also fast and maneuverable.
The M-60 Patton Main Battle Tank was first produced in 1959 and fielded near the end of 1960 by Chrysler Corporation at the Detroit Tank Arsenal. During the 1970s and 1980s, the M-60 was the main assault tank for both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. Over 15,000 M-60 tanks were delivered over its 23 year production history in the four principal variants M60, M60A1, M60A2, and M60A3 along with a number of other low-production prototypes and experimental models.
The M-60’s crew consisted of the commander, gunner, loader, and driver. It operated at a top speed of 30 mph. Among other innovations, the M60 was the first U.S. tank to be equipped with laser range finders and thermal sights, giving it the capability of being employed at night and under conditions of limited visibility.”

Now that was not enough, wanted to learn more about the armory and how it got it’s name and when etc. Always a curious nut when it comes to history. Found this article by the Florala News, a local newspaper that still exists today, archived on this link: Florala News July 1, 1976

As reported in the Florala News on July 1, 1976 by JoAnn Mann. July 1, 1976 was on Thursday, paper was published weekly so the previous Sunday would be the date of the dedication.

Estimated crowd of 200 people were present Sunday afternoon for the dedication of the Florala National Guard Armory to the memory of Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Leonard Byrd, Sr. Chief Byrd was a long time resident of Florala. He was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 131st Armor, Alabama National Guard at Florala for more than 40 years.

What was of further interest in that newspaper link was some news referencing people that I know today, however much older than they were back then. Was rather fun to read about the 24th of June King and Queen courts. 🙂 By the way the 24th of June in Florala, AL is an annual Masonic celebration. Maybe more on that big deal later as it would need a couple of pages to skim over the details. 🙂

Hope you found this interesting? Plan on doing more articles like this in the near future, basically beginning with historical or interesting places locally first and then expanding out further in my motorcycle rides.

Once again, thanks for reading/following, hope you will continue. Remember not an “Old Biker” by definition, just an old man (by birth certificate) that loves to ride motorcycles. Biker is really not the right word for me, “motorcyclists” fits better.

Feel free to leave comments, suggestions and hit that like button. Stay tuned, follow to be notified when next post publishes. And if you feel the urge, share this on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Thanks for reading. 🙂

Keep the shiny side UP!

See more Video clips of my rides on My YouTube channel.

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Tags: #24thofjune, #alabamanationalguardarmory, #floralanews, #motorcyclerides, #nationalguardarmory, #raysmotoring
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No Destination-no timeline

May 10, 2021

That seems to be quite common with me these days. No particular destination and no time limit to get there and back. Not the destination most of the time, just out riding my Suzuki and enjoying the countryside. Weather is getting warmer so I’m definitely out riding much more except of course when it decides to be a rainy day.

Well on April 26th, 2021 it was as close to a perfect day for a ride as any human could expect so there I was with no place to go, not even an excuse to ride so guess what, don’t need a destination or excuse. Get out and ride when you can is my motto. The ride depicted below showing 97 miles is really not an accurate account of that day. Forgot to turn on the “My Ride” app when leaving home, remembered somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty five to thirty miles into the ride. 🙂

Add 25 to 30 miles to this April 26, 2021 ride.

Tried something a tad different on this outing. Positioned one camera on the chin of my full face helmet and the other was a rear view mounted on the turn signal bracket. Interesting to say the least. Posted below find short clips of each camera position. Remember I’m on a strict budget so camera equipment is not the best out there but at least it’s something to display some of my experiences. 🙂

Front View

Rear View

Keep the shiny side UP!

See more Video clips of my rides on My YouTube channel.

Ad Tec Harness Straps Grain Leather Motorcycle Riding Boots

Black Leather Motorcycle Lever Covers for Motorcycles 16 inch Fringe