Withlacoochee Trail, Dade, City, FL: Day 4

Karen recovered so well from yesterday's fall, she cycled 32.1 miles today! As many of you know, there are over 60 miles of the FL Coast-to-Coast Trail that still don't exist. We decided to skip the open highway miles required to breach the gaps and do the same miles on the beautiful, rural, underpopulated Withlacoochee Trail. We'll end up with the same total miles pedalled (when the trail is complete) & we'll have traversed all the existing Coast-to-Coast trails by bicycle.

Karen is almost to the top already! 
"Steep Slopes" in Florida are bridge ramps. 
Our mountain friends are chuckling now.  :-) 
This is the Withlacoochee Trail bridge crossing FL 98.

Bicycle track

One of many beautiful spots along the trail

Karen like these lavender flowers beside the trail

Even sheep lived alongside the trail.  They were bleating at us!
The link takes you to the video including loud "baahhing"!

Apopka - Lake Minneola, FL: Day 3

Karen at the beginning of our ride today

Nine miles into the gorgeous, often shaded, West Orange Trail, Karen took a tumble off her bicycle when braking suddenly to avoid a speeding car as they set a land speed record. Thankfully, Karen's worst injury was a split chin, in addition to two bloody knees.

We were happy the construction was improving the
infrastructure, but it blocked the bike path and sidewalk

It was a beautiful but challenging day. It started with our discovery that active construction completely blocked the bike lane on FL 436, our initial 5 mile leg. As that highway is a busy, 6 lane, 55 mph thoroughfare, we decided to skip it.

Karen was feeling pretty good considering her fall, so we continued our ride for 12.3 miles until encountering some hills south of Lake Apopka. With the exertion required to pedal up these hills, her slowly bleeding chin now dripped profusely. We decided she should rest while I retrieved the RV, 6.9 miles away, collect Karen & her bike, then visit a nearby urgent care. They took good care of her and we're now relaxing after a late dinner discussing tomorrow.

Our bikes before our start, ready to go

Some of the trail was picturesque

Karen enjoying her ride

Downtown Winter Garden

Downtown Winter Garden

Brown arrow marks Karen's fall, Red arrow marks her resting point

Osteen - Altamonte Springs, FL: Day 2

Karen at the beginning of today's ride

Today's ride was 100% on dedicated trails (no cars), but they were busy in the northeastern suburbs of Orlando as we cycled through Osteen, Deltona, Sanford, Sanlando Springs, arriving in Altamonte Springs 33.5 miles from our start. All good, but the trails were very active all day with cyclists, walkers, pets, roller bladers and lots of young families. Everyone was upbeat yet kept their social distance. We made several stops for pics.

Karen at Green Spring Park, Deltona

Green Spring Park, Deltona

Murph at Lake Monroe, that's a sailboat in the distance over his right shoulder

Karen caught Murph riding one of the beautiful, shaded trails

Some trails were distinctly urban in nature

Wonderful artwork adorned the fences (JeffSonksen.com)
Click Here for Video

Bicycle track

Cape Canaveral - Osteen, FL: Day 1

Florida Atlantic to Gulf Coast Bicycle Ride, March 28 - April 4, 2020 (Click thru the "Newer Posts" at Bottom)

We decided a fun, achievable adventure would be to ride our bicycles on the FL Coast-to-Coast Trail.

It may be that I was harkening to my youth when I did a much longer ride with serious hills, pedaling from Bloomsburg, PA to Crawfordsville, IN in 1974.

For our first day riding our bicycles from Cape Canaveral, FL to St. Pete on the Gulf coast, Karen & I pedaled two legs for a total of 36.3 miles. We had to start 5 miles short of the Atlantic Ocean thanks to Covid-19 closing our beaches.

The first leg was 31.6 mle from the Cape
to the Gobblers Lodge Road Trailhead

As the road to the Atlantic beaches were closed, we began our ride
at the entrance to the Cape Canaveral National Seashore

The closed and locked gates are visible at the left side of the photo

View from the top of the Max Brewer Bridge, Titusville

This fellow had a golden tinge to his fur with black highlights.
I like to think of him as my Pittsburgh squirrel!

That's a small gator about 5 feet long

No one but us on most of the day's ride. 
Perfect for Social Distancing!

We repositioned the vehicles for the last leg,
wanting to get this "open road" stretch over with

Just a country highway, but we shared it
with occasional 55 mph traffic

You'll see from our top speed and average speed
that we were eager to get off this highway!

Bike Training - March 21, 2020

In one week, Karen & I begin our 8 day, 248 miles bicycle ride across Florida from Cape Canaveral to St. Petersburg.  While Karen is training inside TGO, I rode 50 miles on the rail trail today.  This stretch of the trail is part of the East Coast Greenway.

Rest stop north of Mims
Photo by Mr. Norman on Google

Bicycle Data

Baseball: COVID-19 Style

As I've done since becoming a resident of Florida, I commenced my plans to enjoy several days of Spring Training Baseball.  While there was concern for the quickly advancing coronavirus, our government was still formulating how to deal with the threat.  As I'm always at home wherever I park the RV, I continued with my plans to enjoy spring baseball.

Allen IV selecting Pirates' gifts for the niece and nephew

I joined my oldest son, Allen IV, in Bradenton, FL and we attended our first game.  It was fun to watch, especially as the Pirates' treated us to two double plays, yet lost the game anyway.  We were glad it was fun, because towards the end of the game, it was announced that it was the last game of baseball for Spring Training and that the MLB season would be delayed for a few weeks, if not longer.

My overnight parking spot on the causeway in Bradenton

Allen IV and I spent a few days together, but it was now a strictly family visit without any baseball.  Always good, but a very different tone with the virus threatening.

A pelican catching his dinner at the causeway

A couple days later, I was back on the Indian River Lagoon, enjoying the east coast and even a rocket launch!

View from Titusville's Marina Park

SpaceX has another successful launch
Click Here for video