Boog's Blog

5 March. Withlacoochee River, Inglis

About 11 miles North of Crystal River one finds nothing. No lodging for the
next 35 miles. Decided to like the place. Pictured. $55 and I got the
last room! Turns out that there is construction at several nearby sites and
almost all rooms were taken. 2 Pics included.

Easy ride on US 19 with a good shoulder most of the way. Fast riding as no
headwind -yeah.
Warming up, gloves came off by 9 am as did overshirt.

Many RV parks and adult communities. Crystal River is a sports and
recreation area with a good state park.

As I had time explored the local area, towards the Gulf. Yankeetown and the
associated Crackertown. Asked a few locals about the history but none were
from here. Mostly got that Crackertown folks have been here for generations
and the name comes from the type of housing. Suspect more to it.

Local economy doing OK, maybe a little slower than usual. "Hope the
recession will pass us by, we are a low wages area". What is the local
industry? "No idea".

Did see a big flag on the back of a truck, could not get a pic: Redneck
word on a red white and blue fabric. This is the friendliest redneck area I
have visited. Went to Gobblers for dinner and tried to order a beer. "No
sir, no beer here". OK I said but then several rednecks nicely explained I
could go to the package store next door and bring in a beer. Strange.
"Florida is strange". Nice evening conversation about nothing ensued.
Figured best to keep away from my pinko commie comments. Kept my baseball
style cap on as did all, though some had them reversed or with very short
brims. Hardy food for hard working folks. Portion sizes for giants.

Cup chilli (excellent) pull pork and baked beans (no nearly as good as
Dee's) and coleslaw; good all. No veggies, fruit or salad in the place.
Total with tax and tip and coffee $12

Will return as originally planned, on Tues. The 10th.

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4 March.

Lovely if cold (gloves required) morning.

Continued on the excellent Pinellas (correct name) trail. As good as any
trail I have been on anywhere – if not the best very close. Too short at 34
miles. Winds through several communities, many watershed areas, numerous
birds, and nice people on trail.

Rode with someone (lightspeed bike) from Kentucky and a fellow tourer.
Highly recommended: start in St. Louis, go south on Mississippi trail,
visit Paduka artist colony, then tour the excellent network of state parks
each with excellent lodges. Distance between lodges 20-35 miles.

Took another of Sam's suggestions (thanks again) and visited Tarpon
Springs. Breakfast pic. Picture seems to have been lost – problem with
the memory card I think. Thumbnails stopped working last week. Not good
luck with these microsd cards.

Went to the Spong Docks. Greek community specializing in sponge fishing.
Saw many examples of many types. Basically the sponges and loophas we see
in local stores. Lots of food and tourist shopping.

After one of the best trails rode on one of the least desireable ones.
Route 19 North, 20 plus miles so far with debris shrewn shoulder, or
miserable sidewalk riding when no shoulder, in heavy noisy traffic.

Have not stayed in Hampton Inns before; will certainly again if this one is
at all represenative. Big, very big room, low cost, very good motel layout
and breakfast included.

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3 March. Clearwater Beach

The adventure improved today. Started off cold, many layers of clothing
shed during the day. Was 39 when I left and got to 59.

Tampa is a nice looking city but, as expected, not much fun to bike
thriough. Urban, without shoulders had to ride the sidewalks quite a bit.

Then turned West and South to St. Petersberg. Good ride over the long and
extremely debris free wide path of the Gandy bridge, only one a bike can use
so had to divert quite a bit.

Pretty ride to St. P's downtown, OK, with a nice yacht harbor. Western part
of St. P is going downhill fast.

Picked up the excellent Pinelas trail, a city trail that runs 34 miles from
western St. P to Tarpon Springs. Perfect road quality, no moterized
traffic, numerous steep overpasses (a good thing after so much flat land
riding), passing through many retirement communities. Lite of places to eat
and even lighter on places that one would wish to eat.

Decided to go to a Gulf side barrier so got off the path and went to
Clearwater Beach. Best Western resort hotel. Good dinner expected and
wanted. Simple pasta Fra Diablo with shrimp – added a salad, and of course a
well earned beer. There is chatter on the news that the wind will become
warmer on Thurs. Or Fri.

Note to me: no increase in pain. No roll over pain, pain but minimal when
walking, just the occasional twing on the bike. Similar to previous report.

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2 March

Bit nippy today. 49 degrees upon departure with expected high of 59.

Continued On to the Ringling Brothers Museum (see Wikipedia for better
details); good art and landscaping as well as circus history.

Çould not cross the Sunshine Skyway bridge (worth seeing it on Wikipedia) as
it is posted no bikes. Big beautiful bridge but long and high.

Rode through adult retirement land: RVs and permanently attached mobile
homes. Numerous communities. Many large American flags make knowing the
wind direction and strength easy.

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1 March

Rain, first in a long time while touring. Lasted almost 10 minutes; just
long enough to stop and put on some rain gear.

Looked into the eye of the demon and took a bhuddist view: there is no wind
or at least none that I should be concerned with.

Wind (wind advisory in this area) took me down to a hard 5-6 miles per
hour. Good justification for ride to see Venice Beach and the the
penninsula before a hearty breakfast.
The Kielbasa tasted good. Had many Polish dishes on the menu. Ate at
breakfast at noon.

Venice has a charming downtown. Higher end beach area with several bridges.
Continued North West into more wind but no more rain.

Got to Sarasota and decided it was enough. Tonight and tomorrow will be cold
both by Florida standards and human standards.

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28 Feb. Warm Springs

Felt energetic today; winds were calm and sun was just right. Headed North
and NW following a route the Sam suggested; looks like it is going to be a
good one.

In Ft. Meyers stopped at the Edison Ford winter home. Museum, garden,
botanical gardens. Several pics of the great Banyon tree, I remembered it
from a visit in 197x.

Ended up at a very inexpensive but very charming motel. Jacuzzi, efficiency
kitchen, opens to pool and lots of soccer moms and families. Tournement
this weekend; reminesient of Tom K's travels only a lot warmer. I believe
Tom is off to Maine this week.

Friendly group outside, offered to take me to the store for dinner but I
biked over instead. Tomorrow a big storm is due; will see.

The Bouganvilla was spectacular. The little plant is a baby (seedling)
Banyon tree. There are several shots of the one tree, yes one big Banyon
tree.

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27 Feb. Key West to Ft Myers Beach

If one wants to study the condition of Americans skin this is the place to
go; a lot is on display. Little is covered except at a few restaurants.
Many many sunbathing and shopping/stolling/exhibiting.

Very hard to tell which are daughters with Dads or trophy wives. Up the
street is an exotic dancer, sitting outside the club she likely works at;
smoking and very bored. Cannot imagine how there could be any business in
the club unless it is afront for a lot more service.

Not hard to find a proper breakfast, many choices and I picked a good one.
Very close to the Southernmost point.

Bicycles, electric golf carts of many sizes, scooters are a major local
rental business.

Checked bike at storage facility (many bikes are stolen here), walked the
historic seaport area and took a glass bottom boat to a living coral reef;
about 9 miles out so was in the atlantic. Good view but photos would not
work through the glass.

Easy ferry ride back except for a TSA inspection which was a nuisance and
pointless.

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26 Feb. Key West

Spectacular clear, shirtsleave, low wind morning. The difficult Niles
channel bridge was easy without the wind; almost enjoyed it . Naturally
the wind picked up later.

For my records: the cortisone is starting to wear off. Some slight twinging
while riding. Had a great few weeks with zero pain; no spike when I rolled
over in bed.

The pictured sticky bun was just as good the second day. No, they do not
ship; I asked.

Back to Key West for sightseeing, riding, some shopping, visit to the Post
Office to get rid of shopping and some excess warm and wet weather cloths.

Southernmost point visited, natch. Line to take pictures. Pretty water,
bird with little concern that I was close,

New Jersey: business is very good but I am in the cosmetic packaging
business and everyone wants cosmetics.

Rochester: Area doing well as we are diversified. Syracuse a little worse
but I think Buffalo in trouble; NAFTA has not helped as they had hoped.

Above from the Sheraton Suites hot tub; thanks Michelle.

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25 Feb. Key Deer National Refuge

A shadow of a Turkey Vulture crossed my path, then a second. Knew I had to
keep moving.

Generally T Vultures are peaceful creatures riding low thermals overhead;
not particularly cute when perched on ledges or trees but not menacing.
Their large shadows are another matter- they scream loiter at your peril.

The refuge protects the last habitat of key deer, 24"-28" adults, a sub
species of white tailed deer. Endangered, they can often be found at the
"holes" such as blue hole. Alligator hole, generally one male per hole.
About 75 such freshwater holes on the keys. Blue hole is, so I was told, the
Waldorf Astoria of holes.

After reaching the refuge early I mostly spent the day exploring by bike and
on the nature trails.

The seven mile bridge was less fun than it looks; made it the Eastern
terminus of the ride on the Keys; Marathon Key just not that critical.

A good afternoon key lime pie. Business is reasonably good and has been
getting better. Motel almost sold out and will be full tonite; low cost but
no bugs.

Rhode Island: no real problems in our area.

National meeting of Star Gazers in the next Key; some spillover here.

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24 Feb.

Early ferry to key west. About 120 miles in 3 plus hours. 450 on the boat,
many for just a day trip.

Boston folks I traveled with sounded the praises of Sarasota; on my route
for later but firsr an exploration of the Northern Keys and their bike
paths. Yes, a few have paths. One I am heading to is in killdeer national
refuge.

First impression of the keys….wait the second as the first is clearly the
wind; large unprotected spans. Second is the water color. Gulf on one side
and Ocean on the other. Multiple colors as water is shallow. My tinted
glasses add to the contrast.

Pictures tell all about my abode for the evening. The propriator said that
last year he was full every night for all of Feb, March and April. This
year he has some vacancies, but business is picking up. He hasa not lowered
prices.

Dinner was perfect. First Conch (pronounced conk) soup. A Gastropod,
strombas gigas, see wikipedia, is used like clams. The chowder is tomatoe,
potatoe, veggies, and should be served spicy with oyster crackers. Done
right here!

Then Fra Diavolo. All the seafood was feesh and excellent. Nice very spicy
sauce. Had to 'settle' for this as the spiny Florida lobster is out of
season.

Passed on the Key Lime pie – just too much though I am sure I could have
ingested.

Beautiful night on the keys. Off for now to go look at the stars using the
Android Star guide app.

Love, virtual hugs and kisses to the QB whom I miss

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