First Ride of THE YEAR - Sarasota

[kmehrzad]

Looks like you're really enjoying your vacation.
Can't get much better than a visit to Florida in the winter for us northerners.

[Mr. Bloom]

Today I repeated the Siesta Key ride with no discomfort or pain. By far, the most consistently good bike lanes. I think tomorrow I'll rest (or maybe not...) and then shoot for a metric on Fridaygoing east on Fruitville to Hwy 70.

I'm tellin' ya...this is the most urban riding I've done. I'm not used to so much traffic moving so fast. I now see the value of well designed bike lanes, and prolific quantities of signs pronoucing the rights of bikes.

[Mr. Bloom]

Today, my ride was awesome! 62.15 miles at 18.7mph with no assistance from the wind! I don't know if I like these lowlands. At least with our hills in Bloomington, you get some occasional moving rest...here, you're like the energizer bunny!

The route was both very dense urban and very rural farms.


Horses and cows:


Citrus Groves:


I met a Brit at mile 27 that rode and conversed With me for 8 miles. After he split off on his route, I came upon this canopy of live oaks with wild turkeys high in the trees! What a surprise!



After only 870 miles last year, I got off to a good start on '11 with 205 miles in six rides this week! With today's pace, I'm confident that this will be a great year! After a tough year, I'M BACK!

[kmehrzad]

Hi,

So you were out by Myakka? Any chance you went to the state park there? What an awesome place and the gators are everywhere. Riding over small bridges the gators are on the shore along the river as well as floating in the river. If you take the airboat ride, you're sure to see lots more gators plus all types of beautiful birds. Certainly worth the trip ...

[Mr. Bloom]

That last pic is Myakka Road just north of the Park. I didn't go to the State Park, but now that I know how close I was, I'll plan a ride through there to the rail/trail and then back to Sarasota via Clark (based on insight provided to me by the Brit). The bike shop indicated I wouldn't like the rail/trail because of a speed limit, but I might see it as a restful reprieve on a long ride.

Plane leaves in a few hours, so I'll start planning For future rides...