March 2, 2014

This morning was bright and sunny, perfect biking weather. I tightened the screw on my shoe (it had worked itself loose yesterday) and we were on the bikes at 7:45. We rode to Dunedin to meet up with Suncoast Cycling riders, who were split into two groups today. One group rode the Pinellas Trail from "head to toe" and back again, a total of 75 miles. We had decided ahead of time not to do that ride (they started at 7:30). The 8:30 group was the Starbucks ride, and we left with about 50 cyclists to ride to Safety Harbor.  Ed (who rode with us on the Natchez Trace last year) was leader of the ride. We had talked with him yesterday at the bike shop too--unfortunately he is not able to come with us on our Quebec adventure.

We rode with the club to Starbucks, about 20 miles. The leaders were almost ready to leave when we arrived, so we just let them go on without us. After a snack and a break, Dianne and I got back on the bikes. We rode through Philippe Park, stopping to read historical markers and take a photo of the cloudless sky.

We rode north from there to Tarpon Springs, stopped at Spring Bayou to look for manatees (no manatees, but there was one dolphin swimming around the bayou). A few people were there, including this fisherman and his feathered friend.

We stopped at Mama Maria's for a great lunch--their gyros have more meat in them than any I have ever seen! We have certain traditions we have to follow when I come here, and lunch at Mama Maria's is one of them!

We stopped at a few antique stores in Tarpon Springs looking for a statue of a horse--most had none, but then I found a store that had a lot of them--from $160 to $2,800. OK, no horse this trip.... Then we headed home; we rode 50 miles today! I could not have done that last week. Finally I feel "normal" and it's almost time to go home.

After our ride Jan came over and we played 3 games of Scrabble (her daily limit--Dianne and I have no limits!). We made plans to go out for dinner tomorrow, my last night in sunny Florida. After Jan left Dianne and I played until almost 9 PM. I think we will both have Scrabble withdrawal when I go home!