April 5th, 2026

Florida Loop 2026 is the not so clever name for my motorcycle touring trip, riding a loop of the state of Florida…. hence the name of the trip

Florida Loop 2026 Total Miles = 2,261

Day 2 miles traveled = 286 Miles riding Big Lagoon State Park in Pensacola, Florida east on US Highway 98 to Holiday Inn Express in Perry, Florida

The original end of day plan for today was to camp at the Ocen Pond Campground near Lake City, Florida.  However, I had a very late start today rolling out of camp around 1:30PM waiting for the heavy rain to subside enough so that I wouldn’t have to tear down camp in the heavy rain.  I hate packing away soaked gear (it was still wet but not soaked by the time I packed up camp).

The heavy rains started at about 5:30AM and persisted for most of the day up until about 11:30AM – Noon. 

Camp setup and tear down took me a bit longer than normal as a lot of my gear was new to me on this trip and I was also a bit rusty having been nearly 3 years since I last moto camped during my USA Midwest 2023 motorcycle tour.

Day 2 Travel Summary

Not realizing that the tourist season and spring break season in Florida was still active, the traffic on US 98 from Pensacola to Panama City, about 111 miles, was absolutely brutal.  Often traveling no faster than 20 or 30 mph.

With the very late start to the day coupled with very congested traffic and often low speed limits, I reserved the room at the Holiday Inn Express while having dinner / lunch at the Wicked Wheel in Panama City, Florida.  My GoPro battery died while riding through Port of Saint Joe, which of course had the best scenery of the day visible in the daylight.  There was no safe place to really pull off and change my GoPro battery and by the time I reached Apalachicola, Florida it was getting too dark to worry about the GoPro.  From Apalachicola, Florida to the Holiday Inn Express in Perry, Florida, I rode another 106 miles, mostly in the dark through some heavy wilderness, which must have looked great during the day, sigh LOL.

By the time I arrived and got checked in, there was no food service available, so I opted for some of the overpriced frozen meals and sodas offered at the hotel, oh joy LOL. 

While the weather, traffic and speed limits all seemingly conspired against me today, today was still a successful touring day even if not the most rewarding travel day and cutting today’s route short by 82 Miles.

Today Was a Slow Travel Day

 An interesting fact is I only stopped 5 times on today’s trip.  First stop was to get gas, and it took maybe 10 minutes.  Second stop was about 20 minutes to hydrate and grab a quick snack.  Third stop was for lunch/dinner at the Wicked Wheel and was about an hour’s stop.  Fourth stop was for fuel and hydration in Apalachicola, Florida for about 20 minutes.  Final rest stop was at a closed gas station in Crawfordville, Florida for about 30 minutes (legs were feeling very rough – seat was still in the low position, not fixed until end of day 4….what a dummy LOL)

Total travel time today was about 9 hours with about 2 hours and 20 minutes of combined non-riding time.  So, about 6 hours and 40 minutes to travel 286 miles giving me an average speed for the day of about 42.6 MPH, yuck LOL.