March 3, 2014

Even though this is Monday we decided to ride our bikes--I have to leave tomorrow and it is too perfect a day to NOT ride! This was to be a casual ride, riding the trail, going to the beach... We rode the trail into Tarpon Springs, then rode to Fred Howard Park where we stopped for a break at the beach.

After the beach it was back to Tarpon Springs to check the bayou for manatees. There were none--this is the first year I have not seen them--they usually come in when it's cold and it's been warm and sunny since I got here. After the bayou we got back on the trail and saw a police car parked exactly where it was yesterday, where the road is closed for construction.... what's wrong with this picture?

We stopped off at Booker Creek Park because I wanted to see alligators and Dianne and Jan both have seen them there many times. We saw no alligators in the creek or at Lake Tarpon, where over 1,000 of them live year round! Oh well. We got back on the bikes and headed toward home. Then I realized I had a problem with my shoe--I could not unclip from my pedal (same shoe that I tightened up yesterday). We stopped and neither Dianne nor I could get the shoe off the pedal, so she undid the velcro so I at least could take my foot off the pedal when we stopped.

We rode home with my foot out of the shoe, got there safely, and I packed up the bike for shipment home, pedal and shoe still firmly attached to each other. We dropped the bike at FedEx, sent a box of books to Michigan, and went home to play Scrabble until dinnertime. We went out with Jan; a good time was had by all.