Heading Home

 

We spent a couple of lazy days at Lazy Days near Tampa, enjoying a few more days of warm sunny weather.  Our site was on the cul-de-sac near Sligh Ave. with a red berried shrub beside the coach.  Here’s “the boss” on the picnic table at our site.

                              

We left Lazy Days Friday morning heading north as our winter trip to Florida winds down.  Soon we began noticing bright “spring green” trees, white flowering bushes, and a little later, blooming red bud trees.  Then George commented on the pollen we’d seen on the truck windshield the day before.  Hey, it’s spring in central Florida!  And we still have spring in Rome to look forward to.

           

                               

We arrived in Valdosta in the early afternoon to visit our niece Meredith and her family.  We got together with Meredith and the girls in the afternoon and then met Kevin for dinner at Smok’n Pig BBQ – except for 8 year old Katie who already had an activity planned.  It was great to see them all.

Driving north, George missed the lush semi-tropical vegetation of Florida, but spring in Georgia isn’t far away!  In fact, we arrived home to find daffodils and forsythias in bloom.  Could it be that Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast is right? 

North to Tarpon Springs

 
Tuesday morning we headed north on the Pinellas Trail and enjoyed a moderate tail wind. It was another beautiful day in the mid-seventies like so many we’ve enjoyed on this trip. Our destination was the Tarpon Springs sponge dock.                                                                                                                                                 
              

We had an authentic Greek lunch at Mykonos restaurant. George had fried squid – not the little calamari, the big guys – while Irene had Shrimp Mykonos.  After lunch we walked down the street threading our way through several busloads of tourists to have an obligatory ice cream before heading back against the south wind.                                                                                                                                                        
      
                                                                                                                                                          Upon arrival in Tarpon Springs George had a Twilight Zone experience. Stopping at the tourist information center seemed like the right thing to do when we arrived at Tarpon Springs, especially with time to kill before lunch. George went around the wrong side of the building and wound up at the dock master’s office. A man with a pronounced Greek accent quickly walked up and asserted in a very firm voice, “Can I help you?,” to which George replied, “Where is the Mykonos Restaurant?” The man gave directions saying it was on the main street only a couple of blocks down.

George had remembered from research on Google Earth that the restaurant was actually on a side street. He then went around the other side of the building and entered the tourist information office. He asked the lady in the office where the Mykonos Restaurant was. The dock master overheard the question and came in angrily asserting that he had already told George where it was. George replied that he was seeking a second opinion to which the dock master replied angrily that George did not trust him. After this exchange, the tourist information lady offered that she did not eat Greek food. George asked if she were Greek and she replied “No.” George then asked where she was from and she replied, “Florida.” This was definitely not your typical tourist-welcoming information office. George walked outside into the sunlight and escaped the Twilight Zone.                                                                                                                                                                     
                      
                                                                                                                                                             On the return we stopped briefly at the Tarpon Springs Depot. Our next stop was at a water reclamation project of Pinellas County adjacent to the trail. Further down we stopped at Wall Spring  Park.       

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Sure enough, there is a typical north Florida spring there. The spring has a long history of ownership and has been a tourist draw since the turn of the twentieth century. During the patent medicine era some of the owners made outlandish medical claims for the spring water. Many of the paths and boardwalks appear to be new, and we enjoyed one more look at the Gulf of Mexico before heading inland tomorrow.     

                                                                                                                                                  
                

Today’s trip was a mere 16.3 miles. Unfortunately it is probably our last trail outing for this trip as tomorrow we head to Lazy Days for a couple of free nights before heading home in earnest. What marvelous biking we have done all over both coasts of Florida on this trip, and what great weather we’ve had.

Sarasota to Palm Harbor

 

On our third day at Oscar Scherer SP we drove to the Sarasota waterfront to bicycle there. We biked around Bayfront Park enjoying views of the bay and downtown Sarasota as well as seeing the marina and all the people out enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Since our last visit here. Sarasota has extended the trail over the Ringling Bridge to Bird Island Park, and we enjoyed biking that new section.

               

The next day we broke camp and headed to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota which consists of the Ringling Museum of Art, the Circus Museum, and Ca’ d’Zan, John and Mabel Ringling’s winter home. There wasn’t time to see it all, so we decided to save the art museum for another visit. Ca’ d’Zan (which means House of John) is a 5 story Venetian Gothic mansion filled with the treasures the Ringlings collected as they traveled extensively in Europe looking for new circus acts.

              

The Wisconsin, their private railcar in which they traveled about three-fourths of each year, is included in the Circus Museum along with hand-carved circus wagons, a calliope, circus posters, and an original human cannonball machine. A highlight is the world's largest miniature circus, the Howard Bros. Circus Model. The model is a replica of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1919 – 1938.

             

The grounds of the Ringling Estate are quite impressive, with gardens and huge banyan trees.

             

After our stop at the Ringling Museum, we continued to Caladesi RV Park which is just north of Dunedin and right on the Pinellas Trail.  On Monday we planned to bike the eight miles north on the Pinellas Trail to Tarpon Springs and have lunch at the sponge docks at Mykonos restaurant. However, a stiff south wind caused us to head south on the trail for about four miles to Dunedin’s Hammock Park which is listed in the "Great Florida Birding Trail Book."   This park reminded us of Oscar Scherer in that it was a natural oasis within a congested urban area. We biked the main trails of the park and came upon some wading birds right away. Irene spent a good bit of time photographing the birds.

               

            

            

We then ate our picnic lunch in a quiet interior section of the park which appeared to have been a tangerine grove at an earlier time. We saw many tangerine trees albeit with very small fruit. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch with a nice breeze and plenty of shade.  Later we met up with a very short fellow on the trail.

            

            

Our return trip home was assisted by the same stiff south wind that had made out southbound leg a bit difficult. Though it was a hard pedal up, we enjoyed experiencing the trail overpass of Alt US 19.

            

             

Legacy/Venetian Trails

 

After leaving Marathon, we drove to the west coast of Florida on the Tamiami Trail, stopping for lunch en route at the Big Cypress Swamp Visitor’s Center where we walked along the pedestrian bridge looking at the alligators basking in the noonday sun.  Then we drove on to the Ft. Myers area and spent a few days on Pine Island.

                  

We went to our next location, Oscar Scherer State Park north of Venice, specifically because the Legacy Trail runs through it. We found Oscar Scherer park to be a welcome natural refuge from the surrounding urbanization of the Sarasota-Venice area. The maximum RV length is 36 ft. which is no problem for us.

                  

We had visited the Venice area last year and saw the bike trails, but the weather was too cold and windy to ride. Our bike outing wound up being one of our longest at 26.2 miles. We started at 9:30 am and returned home about 5 pm. We headed south on the Legacy Trail from the park with the Venice Depot as our initial destination- about eight miles.

                 

                 

However, by the time we reached the environs of Venice, we discovered that the trail was closed for construction of a trail bridge over the US 41 bypass. Some other bikers told us of a way around the construction that involved a steep bank and ditch. This bypass wound up taking us to downtown Venice rather than the Venice Depot. That was a nice serendipity as Irene wanted to look in the stores there anyway, and we found a nice sidewalk restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we continued south on the Venetian Trail  which has sections on both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway.

                 

On this section of our ride, Irene was ecstatic to see and photograph two bald eagles perched in a dead tree. 

                 

      

We went almost to the Gulf of Mexico before returning downtown and getting some ice cream to bolster us for the return leg home on the Legacy Tail. The weather was beautiful and sleep came easily that night.

                 

Key West – If it’s not paradise, it’s close!

 

We’ve been coming to Key West off and on since our first trip in 1979, originally during Christmas breaks from our jobs.  Something just keeps pulling us back!  Certainly the tropical climate has something to do with that, plus the beautiful vegetation that goes with the climate.  The delicious seafood attracts us too.  And it’s “summertime” in the Keys when Rome is having winter, especially this year with all the snow Rome has gotten, and we can enjoy bicycling in a town that’s truly bicycle friendly.

                

On this year’s trip, we arrived in Key West with our traveling buddies George and Jan, and Jack and Mary Lou arrived the next day after having their coach repaired.  We all went to lunch at Hogfish Bar and Grill, one of our favorite Key West restaurants and a short bike ride from Boyd’s RV Park where we stayed.  We ate outside by the docks, enjoying good food and scenery including views of Mel Fisher’s boats, bougainvillea, and palm trees. The sun was shining and balmy breezes were blowing.  You know, the essence of Key West!  And in the spirit of Key West, we went to Mallory Square for the sunset festivities.    

                          

Jan and George had an emergency at home and left Thursday.  We missed them!  Mary Lou and Jack were in Key West a few more days, and we all bicycled and ate good seafood as well as Cuban food at El Siboney.  (Irene needs their Cuban roast pork at least once a year). We especially enjoyed biking the length of Duval Street several times with Mary Lou and Jack.  We also met up with two other couples from the Country Coach rally in Naples who had taken the Naples to Key West ferry.  The eight of us had lunch at the Westin Bistro overlooking the Gulf.

George and Irene checked out a lot of art galleries looking for the perfect Key West image in a painting for their coach. We bicycled into Key West most of the days we were there, riding to the Mallory Square area to see which cruise ships were in port for the day, sometimes eating lunch, and just enjoying the summer-like weather. 

                 

Dorcas and Myron, also Country Coach buddies, came from Marathon where they were staying and we bicycled along the beach on the Atlantic side of the key.  They have recumbent bicycles which George and Irene enjoyed trying out.  It’s definitely a different perspective on a recumbent bike!  We met up with Dorcas and Myron again a few days later when we were in Marathon and ate lunch at the Keys  Fisheries.  

              

 

                  

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First Stop in the Keys: Marathon

 

Having enjoyed a beautiful drive (except for a slow down in Key Largo because of the seafood festival there), we arrived in Marathon in mid afternoon.  Our site was on the seawall on the Gulf side with George and Jan next door.  Lots of pelicans were gathered near the the fish cleaning station awaiting a treat.  The sunset was impressive – a true Keys sunset.      

              

              

Tuesday the four of us enjoyed biking to Pigeon Key which is reached by a section of the old Seven Mile Bridge which was originally Fragler’s railroad.  The bridge was open to car traffic from 1935 until 1982.  We drove over this bridge in our Honda hatchback the first time we came to Key West in 1979.  It’s a pleasant bike ride with views of birds, boats, Pigeon Key and expansive waters.   After our ride, we ate lunch at the Keys Fisheries Restaurant which is on the Gulf.  After lunch we drove to Sombrero Beach on the Atlantic side of Marathon, and George and Irene biked some more in this area. 

              

              

Tuesday morning we all headed to Key West, driving the “new” Seven Mile Bridge with views of the old bridge on our right.  It’s still quite a sight.

Country Coach Rally in Naples

 

After we left T.Y. Park and the Ft. Lauderdale area, we crossed the state to Naples to attend the Southeast Country Coachers Rally which was held at Signature RV Resort January 27 – 30.  George and I were co-hosts along with Jan and George from Birmingham with whom we’ve enjoyed traveling.  There were 9 coaches in attendance with a couple of last minute cancellations due to health and coach problems. 

Signature RV Resorts was a nice setting for the rally which included a pizza supper Thursday night, 2 catered breakfasts, lunch at the Turtle Club in Naples, Friday food and music at the resort, and a sunset dinner cruise on the Marco Island Princess on Saturday. 

                

Hank, owner of a 60’s era Morgan, invited George to ride to lunch at the Turtle Club in the Morgan – an opportunity for them to discuss the British sports cars they had owned. 

Sunday after breakfast, George and Irene and George and Jan headed to the Keys, hoping to meet up with Jack and Mary Lou who had missed the Naples rally because of coach problems.