Rainy Day

Okay, we have had awesome weather on this trip — nothing to complain about at all! That said, we knew that today it was going to rain, and we made a plan for it.

As we needed to "dump" our tanks, we decided to wait until today and use the occasion of moving the motor home out to not only dump, but go into town.

We picked out a movie, and then also planned a grocery store run.

Our plan worked great. We woke up to some blue skies, so we decided to take a hike on one of the nature trails at our campground before we left in the motor home at about 11:30 am.

The nature trails are nice — there are areas where the park rangers are doing controlled burns. We're going to try and learn a little more about their procedure for deciding what area gets burned and when, as well as how they control the burn.

After our walk, we dumped, and then went to a movie theater to see the movie, Spotlight.

As Spotlight won "best picture" this year at the Oscars, we were excited to see it. We weren't disappointed — if you haven't seen it, it is definitely worth seeing.

After the movie, we went to the grocery store and then back to our campground to get everything set up again at our site.

We're now settled in for the evening — as you can see, there is more rain that will be falling most of the night.

Tomorrow is still a chance of rain, then we're in for some cooler temperatures. Oh well, when we talked to family in Minneapolis this morning, we heard there was a coating of snow. Makes us realize that the "first day of spring" tomorrow in Minnesota is in name only. :-)

Biking to Venice and Caspersen Beach

Today we hit the bike trail headed to a hardware store located in Venice. Greg was looking for a coupler and some bolts to stiffen the joint in the arm on his bike trailer.

We started on the Legacy Trail and then continued on the Venetian Waterway Park Trail — two beautiful trails.

After we successfully purchased the new parts at the hardware store, we decided to hop back on the bike trail and travel further south to Caspersen Beach. Caspersen Beach is a place that is known for sharks' teeth. Most of the people on the beach had special sieves they were using to search for sharks' teeth.

After walking on the beach for awhile, we biked back to Venice and had nice lunch out in a little sidewalk cafe followed by some homemade ice cream.

After our nice lunch out, we rode back to the campground — our total mileage today was just over 25 miles.

When we got back to the campground, Greg completed the latest "fix" of the bike arm. Hopefully, it will do the trick for the remainder of our trip.




Tonight, we'll have another round of very competitive double solitare — we've been having fun playing several games each evening.

The Engineer is Still at Work

On Monday, we moved to Oscar Scherer State Park that is located on the gulf side south of Sarasota. We've been to this park several times before — one of the reasons we like it is that the paved Legacy Bike Trail runs right through the park.

For this trip, Greg worked on the second iteration of the bike trailer. He made it bigger and used a different design — one that could more easily be taken apart and folded down.

He was excited about his design using carbon fiber hockey sticks as the frame underneath the crate. And he created a two-piece arm that connected the bike to the trailer.

Upon beta testing the trailer on several trails, the engineer has learned that there are some design flaws, particularly in the arm. He has made three different redesign attempts on the arm to stiffen the attachment point, but it continues to fail when the trailer is loaded with weight due to the stress.

We did test the third fix by riding to the Nakomis Beach which is about a 12-mile round trip.

We had some periods of sun in between periods of "sea fog."

When we got to the beach, it was clear that we had more "spring break" activity than last week. We saw a mixture of families with younger children and college students. It was a nice afternoon reading, people watching, and watching the waves crash.

We made it home without a total failure of the arm attachment point. However, the plan is to ride to Venice tomorrow (without the trailer) to a hardware store. The engineer has "another fix" in mind for the remainder of our trip. And he has decided that he will go back to his original design for future bike trailers.

Saying Goodbye

Well, we've had an amazing weekend with some new friends — we've covered a lot of territory in our discussions including travel stories (Holly and Leland are world travelers extraordinaire), bike and kayak equipment, politics, favorite authors, health & exercise, and post-apocalyptic science fiction.

After a healthy breakfast of oatmeal, Greg and Leland did their last workout together lifting beer bottles while enjoying some more conversation down on the deck overlooking the river.

Meanwhile, I had a chance to show Holly the "7-Minute Workout" app that I've been using on this trip in addition to the biking. We went through one set so she could see the exercises. I try to get three sets in each day I'm at a campground.

After our lovely morning, we packed up and left at 11:30 — we are so appreciative of the hospitality that Holly and Leland provided, and are grateful we could spend this time together!

Biking on the Withlacoochee Trail

All week, it looked like the chance of rain on Sunday was "80%" — we've learned, however, you can't always take the weather apps too seriously. So, we decided to chance the weather and drove to the Withlacoochee State Trail for a day of biking. 

At 46 miles in length, the Withlacoochee State Trail is presently the longest paved rail trail in Florida. The trail corridor runs through small towns, ranches, and natural areas as it makes its way south from Citrus Springs to Trilby.

The weather was just perfect for biking (not a blazing sun) and we definitely enjoyed this beautiful trail.

We stopped in Inverness for a late lunch and met a group of bikers who were all on recumbent bikes (very popular in Florida!). They were all really experienced bikers who have ridden across large parts of the USA. One of the couples had rode recently from Iowa City to Washington, D.C.

The other couple were owners of a bicycle shop in Florida that specialized in recumbent bikes — it was fun to have a discussion with them as to why they are all sold on recumbent bikes!

The rain started just as we ended our ride so we felt very successful!

We headed back to Holly and Leland's VRBO and relaxed before we had a wonderful shrimp salad dinner.

We then went to a movie at a nearby mall — definitely a flick that Greg and I wouldn't have normally seen, but as Leland said, it got a 90% on the "Tomatometer" on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is 10 Cloverfield Lane starring John Goodman. We all had our adrenaline going during the show and had some very interesting conversation about it afterwards that continued the next morning!

Our Visit to Florida's Nature Coast

We left St. Augustine and drove across the state to Florida's "Nature Coast." The Nature Coast State Trail is officially designated as part of Florida’s Statewide System of Greenways and Trails. It comprises the inside curve or Big Bend area of the western coast of the state. It is an area know for its natural springs and waterways so it is a popular place to canoe and kayak.

We are staying with some friends of good friends of ours. Holly and Leland have graciously opened up their VRBO they are renting for the month and are showing us the area.

Holly and Leland are big adventurers and have traveled all over the world. In addition to skiing and biking, they love to kayak. So they took us to the Chassahowitzka Recreation area.

The Chassahowitzka River’s headwaters, several tributaries and springs are known locally for their great sportfishing and crabbing. The salt marsh, hardwood swamps, crystal-clear springs and river are a canoeing and kayaking paradise.

 We saw lots of birds.

 Leland in his kayak.

Okay — one of the "scary things" we did was kayak into this area to see a spring. We reached a point where we couldn't kayak any further, (as the water was too shallow) so we got out of our kayaks and walked to the springs. As we were walking, several people coming out from the springs said "watch out for the water moccasins" in the water.

After we got to to springs and took some photos, there was an actual water moccasin we passed. I was so relieved to get back into the kayaks!!

Back at the VRBO, Holly and Greg relaxing on the deck overlooking the river.

It's been a great day!

Last Morning on the Atlantic

On our last morning at Anastasia State Park, we headed down to the beach again.

This time, the tide was up so the "walkable beach" wasn't as wide, but it was still beautiful.

We saw quite a few surfers out riding the waves.

We are so happy to have had the chance to see Anastasia State Park and look forward to coming back here sometime in the future.