Finally, A Nice Bike Ride - Monday - January 16, 2012

Our life has been a little frantic the past week.  Today was the first time, since we left South Carolina a week ago, we have had a chance to ride our bikes. We decided to forego our morning walk and save our energy for a 20+ mile bicycle ride.


After showering and eating breakfast,

we drove Northeast to the Green Pond Trail Head
of the

00b - Van Fleet Bike Trail Map
This is one of several Rails to Trails bike trails in Florida. 

It is a 29 mile long paved trail
along the eastern border of the Green Swamp.

00 - Green Swamp Map

We rode through the swamp on Rt 471 on our travels from Silver Springs SP to Hillsborough SP. While we will just be riding the trail today, The Green Swamp looks like a great area to explore when we have more time.


Since we have not done much biking lately, we were not going to ride the entire trail.  We decided that 20 miles would be a good distance.  We could ride from Green Pond and go 10 miles north to the Bay Lake Trailhead, have lunch and ride back. It was a beautiful 73 degree day and the trail was great!!


Off we go…
02b - Starting the Trail - Bill 
Rail Trails are usually built over former train tracks. 
 Therefore, many are long and straight!!


This one had several bridges over the swamp.03 - Stopped on Bridge

I stopped on the county line ;o))
03b - Stopped on Bridge County Signs


As you can see, the swamp is GREEN!!04b - Green Swamp


The warm weather is making it come to life!!04 - Yellow Flowers04c - Green Ferns


It also brought out the critters to enjoy the sunshine!!05 - Alligator from Bridge05b - Alligator from Bridge


I almost ran over a little Ribbon Snake. 
It never moved so we rode back to be sure he was OK.

All’s well, it was still sunbathing!!!05c - Ribbon Snake on the Trail


Approaching Bay Lake Trail Head, the halfway point.10 - Turnaround point
We turned around and headed back.


But first, a stop for lunch and photos ;o))
11 - Lunch Stop03c - Stopped on Bridge Nancy and Bill


As we ate lunch, we watched the birds in the sky!!!12 - Vulture overhead
Hey Dan and Tricia, here’s that Vulture following us again.



We haven’t identified this bird species yet ;o))12 - Plane overhead


Here comes a REAL cyclist…  he was flying!!!11b - Lunch Stop -cyclist approaching


As we headed back, the weather warmed up
and
the trail got more crowded.
20 - Nearing Green Pond


I love the look and color of the Saw Palmettos!!20b - Nearing Green Pond - Saw Palmettos

Just before we reached the Green Pond Trailhead,20c - Nearing Green Pond Trail Head
my cell phone rang.  It was our realtor’s office calling to say the appraisal and inspection had taken place.  There were no problems with either.  Heck, we didn’t even know they had done the inspection.  We’re really enjoying this LONG DISTANCE way of selling our house ;o))


We’re leaving Hillsborough River State Park tomorrow and driving to Myakka River State Park about 2 hours south.  Let’s see, this week we sold our house, went to the RV Supershow twice, ordered a motorhome, spent time with RV-Dream friends, ate Cherry Pie, hiked, kayaked, biked and really didn’t get much ‘down’ time!! 

But, what a week!!  We’re really excited and are thankful we could share our excitement with our friends and blog followers.  I promised Nancy that we will relax and get some rest while we are in Florida. 

So far, I haven’t kept my promise...

There’s Always Tomorrow!!

8 comments:

  1. I've been doing a lot of relaxing for you! That 20 mile ride just tired me out :) Not to mention the extra distance I ran when I saw that snake!!!!

    Today will be another fantastic day ;)

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  2. LOL...down time...I hope you do get some before you get back to the house. I predict that it will be almost the middle of April before you can really relax for a few days at a time. In the meantime, enjoy each busy day.
    Syl

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  3. Going to miss your daily adventures when you have to go back to the house to finish things up. Glad things are moving along well with the escrow.

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  4. I think I may have to second Gin & Syl's prediction. We'll add this bike trail to our list and you can add the Legacy Trail from Oscar Scherer. Blog on it to come "someday". LOL

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  5. I'm just enjoying seeing you in shorts, Bill! The sunny weather looks delightful!

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  6. Got a chuckle out of the vulture picture! Too funny! Will definitely have to add this trail to our ever-growing list!

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  7. I do not like snakes! Shiver. I guess it is because I grew up in a place where most snakes were deadly poisonous!

    Mike and Dee
    gonerving.blogspot.com

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  8. Dianne and I love bike trails. This one looks like a winner. (Dianne's major criteria is that it does not go up or down. Actually, down is fine with her :-).

    The mention of home inspections send my heart racing. You had yours and passed without having to fix things! Wow! I think your luck has changed.

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