Good morning All, Did not get a chance to blog last night. Just a day of relaxing. Sat around with Jerry and Trisha and talked most of he morning till Shirley got home. Jerry to the kids to camp for 3 days. Shirley, Trisha and I took a morning walk about 2 miles. Pam and Heather go here about 3 pm.. Great to see her. She brought a bunch of food and alcohol. Had some shrimp for dinner and Heather and Trisha made some appetizer also. It was fun sitting around the kitchen talking eating and drinking! We watched a movie last night but it took awhile do to slow streaming. Dont know if I will blog everyday until I get back to riding. We will be here till New Year's. So if you dont see a bl ou g the next couple days know one will be coming. Good Day God Bless
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Good evening All, Today was a great day for riding! Started out on the bike trail. Did not turn on my GPS because I was riding on the bike trail so I thought. About 5 miles out turned on my GPS to see how far along I was and its telling me to do a upturn. Come to find out the bike trailxut off while I'm just riding along a state route that just happened to look like a bike trail. So I ended up riding at least 10 miles out of my way. If you overridden a bike 10 miles is a long way plus th ed 60 lbs of gear I carry. So ride back the 5 miles to wear I started and the bike trail cross here. Well I'm what a start to my day. Alot of rolling hills along the way. Instead if doing 35 miles or so now I'm doing close to 50. Stopped at a small diner for lunch called Southern Palate in Dunnellon. Had Fried chicken with rice and green beans and Mac and cheese. Talk about home cooking. Excellent food great th service.. After lunch headed to Williston FL. Looking for a place to stay h
Good evening All, Today left from Brooksville heading to Iverness. About 30 mile ride. Following goggle maps for bicycling. Had me turn down this road heading towards the Wilderness Trail. About a mile in run out of paved road. Look at the map showing just under a mile to trail. So try riding my bike but the sand was to thick. So had to get off and push my bike to the trail. Once I get there just a walking trail that you are not capable of riding any way. So look at my map again looks like a road just a little over half mile up so I continue on but to my dismay another trail not able to bike on. So only option left is to push my bike back just over 2 miles on th oh s sandy road. From a 30 mile day just made it about 35 mile day. Really was looking forward to riding the trail because there is no shoulder on the road what so ever. Rolling hills and me riding in the middle of the road to get cars to slow down when approaching . Today overall has been my toughest riding day. Got to my w
Good evening All, Merry Christmas. Today was a good day even though I was not home with Pam and my family. My host at the Air B&B were very nice. Stayed here Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I got up and rode my bike to church this morning. Only 2 1/2 miles away. Stopped and had breakfast at gas station. Good coffee. Came back to the Air B&B and hung out with Fe and Ryan. Gave me some homemade pierogies for lunch. Very good. They asked if I wanted to paint. I said I watch them. They paint on old wine bottles. The sure do a nice job. We watched a couple movies then I came into my room to pack up my gear for in the morning. Have a 30 mile ride tomorrow. Calling it a night. Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Merry Christmas Eve! Today I said good by to old high school friend John King. Thank you for putting me up for 2 nights even though we have not seen each other since high school. Hope to see yo uh in Ohio soon. When I started out this morning temp was about 45°. Another cool morning but great for riding. Had a 43 mile day today. The weather warmed up but still remained cool riding. Rode on 2 different bicycle trails today. Saw 2 deer 1 was a buck. Go a picture of him. Good size deer for a Florida deer. Saw them on the Starkey Wilderness Trail. While on the Suncoast Trail saw 2 alligators, they were 4-5 foot long. No pictures though. Saw a turtle along the trail also. Great ride today. In Brooksville for 2 nights. Fe and Ryan are great host. Gave me a beautiful Christmas Card with a lottery ticket. Not a winner though. Also had some homemade Apple Moonshine. Very good! What a great young couple who are sharing their holiday with me. Merry Christmas Good ni
Good evening All, Another day of rest. Stayed another night at John Kings house. Plan on riding to Brookfield tomorrow. Should be about 40miles. Staying a an Air B&B for wa nights. Be there Christmas eve night and Christmas night. I have a warmshowers host set up for after Christmas. I was supposed to have dinner with Kimberly and Heather tonight but they were hit from behind on there way here. They are both ok but sore. The driver who hit them was texting at the time!! PLEASE DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE! Glad they are ok. Time to finish packing for tomorrow. Good night God 3
Good evening All, Beautiful morning to start my day. The temp was 55° to start. With a 40 mile ride ahead after 2 days off I was ready to ride. Riding to New Port Richie. 30 some miles were all trails. Now that was awesome. Very little road riding today. Stopped in the town of Dunedin for lunch. They also had a farm market and craft show today. Walked around a bit before I headed out again. Got to John King's about 2pm. He looked the same as he did in high school. Spending 2 nights here before I head out again. Thanks John. Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Today was a great day. I had lunch with my grandson Tyler and had dinner with my granddaughters Kimberly and Heather. Only get to see them 2-3 times a year. So enjoyed today. Today back on the road riding. Plan to spend the next couple nights at John Kings house. I have not seen him since 1972. It will be good to catch up with him. Looking forward to riding Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Today it poured down rain all day. The only thing I did today was to go to Walmart to pick up a few groceries and a new lock for my bike. Going to dinner tomorrow with my grandchildren. Thought 1 of them might of stopped by but they must of a worked. Looking forward to tomorrow. No pictures today. Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Got up this morning to eggs,sausage, toast,fruit and coffee. What a great morning. Larry and Diane were great host. Larry drove me from Bradenton to St Pete. Rode to my Air B&B. Will be here till Saturday morning. Hope to spend a day or so with my grandchildren. The rain has come to St Pete. Looks like rain the next 2 days. Glad I don't have to ride. That's it for today. Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Left out about 8:30am. Had to wait a bit for fog to lift. Headed out and had to ride a couple miles before getting on to Legacy Trail. The Legacy Trail runs about 16 miles what a great ride . Water to the left and mainly swamp on the right. I Just enjoyed the ride!! Got to Diane & Larry's about 1:pm. Larry was out working on his 1969 Ford bulldog. He was rebuilding the carburetor for it. Got it rebuilt and car running. Once I got here took shower then washed clothes. Sat and talked with them for a bit then they took me out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Got to watch the sunset. Food was great as was the company. After dinner we took a ride to the beach. Even tho it was dark out I was able to get a couple pictures. Tomorrow Larry is driving me across the bridge so I don't have to ride up to Tampa then back down to St Pete. I wi be in St Pete till the 22nd. Hope to spend time with my grandkids here. Will call it a night. God Bless
Good Morning All, After a long days ride with a good head wind ended up falling asleep before I could blog. All together rode about 42 miles. The weather was cool all day. Wore sweat pants and my light jacket on my ride. The ride from Larry's to Venice at times was iffy. There was no sidewalk or bike lane on the road and also no shoulder. So you had to ride in the road. So I would ride in the road so cars would have to slow down before they could go around me. Last time I tried to be nice and ride the white line on the side of the road almost got hit. So in this situation I ride the road. Today I will be on a bike trail from Venice to Sarasota. I am heading to Bradenton to stay at a friend of Pam's. Looking forward to meeting Diane and her husband. Today will be a 33 mile ride with hopefully no detours. Yesterday I have ridden over 500 miles so far. I will post a couple more pictures from Larry's place today. Dont think I took any yesterday on my ride. Good Day God Bl
Good evening All, Today I left Ft Myers and headed to Punta Gorda. About a 35 mile ride. Had a head wind all day but still made good time. Got to my next warmshowers host Larry around 1:30. He was out but a couple of his friends were here. Leah and her boyfriend. I forgot his name right now!! Will post it tomorrow when I think of it. When I got here they made me comfortable and gave me coconut and star fruit. Leah also made me a cup of coffee. Leah and her boyfriend are refurbishing an old school bus. Larry already did that and is living in his school bus. The place here reminds me of the 60s! I love the simplicity of this place. Larry came showed me around his place and all the projects he has going on. He is redoing a houseboat, working on a 29 foot boat. Has a sma plane to work on. They made a fabulous dinner. Vegetable and cheese with hummus for an appetizer. Salad,soup,sausage and a pork loin. Also a baked potato. Chocolate cake for dessert. Wine with dinner also. What an e
Good evening All, Pam drove me to Naples Florida to continue my journey. I started out around 11:30am heading towards Ft Myers Fl. Weather in the 70s and cloudy. Had a couple of spurts of rain along the way. Overall a very good 30 mile ride. Staying with a warmshowers host Don. Young man with a lot of knowledge about traveling on a bike. I truly enjoyed talking with him about his travels as well as of talking about mine. Looking to ride to Cleveland Florida tomorrow. I will be staying with another warmshowers host Larry. He has refurbished a old school bus for living in. No pictures today . Sorry to see Pam go. Looking forward to when she will be able to ride with me! Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Today Pam and I went to the Everglades for a air boat ride to see alligators. What a great day. The ride was great and we did see quite a few. The weather was great but very windy. Pam is driving me to Naples in the morning for me to continue riding. Plan on riding 30 miles tomorrow. We got back and walked across the street to the beach and walked around. Have a few pictures to post. Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Today was a day off. Pam and I drove to Key West for the day. Had a great day walking around Key West. Stopped at a restaurant in town had a great meal. Walked some more then drove over to the beach area and walked on the beach. Pam walked down to put her feet in the water. Called it a day and drove back to Miami. Plan on going to the Everglades tomorrow for Airboat ride. Good night God Bless
Good evening All, Started out about 8 am. Temp was 48°. Did not get to say goodbye to Ray & Denise. Had a great evening with them. Sun was out so it warmed up pretty quickly. Able to take coat and pants of early. Stopped about 10 miles out for coffee and breakfast bagel. Beautiful ride along the ocean. Stopped a couple times to take pictures. Arrived 12:30 at the hotel in Miami. Unloaded all my gear so I could thin out what's not needed right now. Pam will take home for me. Pam gets in about midnight. 3 days of R&R. Plan on going to Key West and hang around Miami for a day. Laundry done and going to try and take a nap before Pam comes. Good night God Bless