Sunshine and more sunshine

2/20/14

Wow, we've certainly had a perfect weather here!

Here we all are back at Mike and Mary's. Poor Jill is still sick, not so much from the pneumonia as from the antibiotics. The first ones made her so sick that she couldn't function at all, so last night we picked up anti-nausea drugs and a different antibiotic for her. She was OK this morning, even spent some time in the pool. After lunch she took the new antibiotics, and now she's sick again.

Upside down jellyfish

Gerry and I had a fine time biking and kayaking around Lido Key yesterday. Two hours of biking through the neighborhoods of the very wealthy, and then two hours of kayaking. The bay is so shallow we weren't required to wear life jackets: The guide said, "If you fall out, just stand up!".

Mangrove tunnels

The cormorants here have learned that if they dive in the shadow of the kayak they can, for some reason, get more fish. So there they are, literally right up next to the boats, diving underneath us and resurfacing so close you'll hit them with the paddles if you're not careful. Cormorants have beautiful emerald green eyes. Who knew? We also got to see some "upside down jelly fish". which instead of floating around, plop themselves in the mud, with tentacles upwards.

Ibis on Sanibel

The mangrove tunnels were fun to paddle through, so narrow and winding that it's easy to get your kayak paddle stuck in the branches. I finally broke down my paddle and only used half of it, like a canoe paddle. These tunnels are actually manmade, as are most of the islands here, Lido Key being an exception. Our guide tells this story: Ringling, of the circus, is a big name here, and he apparently created some of these island thinking he would retire some of his tigers, elephants, and such to them. Until someone told him they could swim. Then, no one wanted to live here because of all the mosquitoes. So they used diesel oil to kill them off. Then no one wanted to live here because it smelled like diesel. Finally, the army corp of engineers had the idea of letting salt water into the formerly fresh water bay, cutting paths through the brush so that the salt water could circulate through with each tide, killing off the mosquitoes (and incidentally I suppose all other wildlife that doesn't like salt water).

Some sort of egg casing? about 8-12 inches Across

2/23/14

I've just been too busy, or too tired, to write.

Mike and Mary

Up until last night the three of us were still at Mike and Mary's, with Jill still recuperating. Gerry and I did a little riding around their neighborhood, and saw a bobcat mom and two kittens cross the road in front of us!

Hershey

Finley

Jill at the George resort

Then we spent a wonderful day out on Sanibel island. I would love to stay out there for a few days, but all of the lodging I could find on the internet was a bit out of my price range. I was on Sanibel 40 years ago and was afraid I'd return to find it all built up with skyscraper hotels and tourist ticky-tacky. But instead, at least a third of the island is now wildlife refuge. There are bike trails all over the island, and we rode at least 30 miles....until almost dark, in fact. Although Florida has a reputation for being a dangerous place for bikers, the cars where the trails cross the street have been unfailingly polite everywhere we've ridden. The only car that did not stop for us was on Sanibel when it was almost dark, and even then he stopped after I waved at him.

The only disappointment was that the main road through the Ding Darling wildlife refuge was closed for the day, closed every Friday to give the wildlife a break from the traffic.

M & Ms beautifully decorated home

Yesterday Gerry and I took the short drive up to Venice, to ride the Legacy trail. It's only 7 miles long but worth a visit, a bit like riding through jungle, all palmettos and pines and palm trees. We did the 14 mile round trip and then rode a bit further along the intercostal waterway. We had planned to ride the five miles or so out to the beach but we both just ran out of steam. Then we ended up riding another 6 miles out of our way to find a coffee place, only to discover that it had closed at 3pm. These savages down here!

In Sarasota

Yes, it's a rail trail

This morning Mike, Mary, and Jill drove up to meet us and have brunch. We loaded our three bikes back on the car and sent Mike and Mary home, while we drove back to Clearwater to drop off the bikes. If you every need to rent bikes down here, I highly recommend Chainwheel Drive. It was $100 to rent a nice hybrid for a week, and another $25 for a rack to carry the three of them. They were very accommodating and, even though it is not there normal, policy, let us rent racks for the back of the bikes for about $10 each.

Now here we are back in Tampa, awaiting our flight home tomorrow. The hotel near the airport is unexpectedly very nice, right on the water in fact, with its own tiny beach and, lo and behold, a Starbucks just a 10 minute walk away.

This trip was an experiment in seeing if I could do a WomanTours trip on my own, for a lot less than WomanTours charges. The answer is yes, with a lot of buts:

But you need at least 3 people willing to share one hotel room.

But it takes a couple of 8 hour days to plan the hotel, car, bike, and plane reservations,

But you need someone to drive sag, or all of your bike rides will be out-and-back, as ours were.

But, you probably won't be able to ride directly to your hotel to shower and collapse, because you've got the car to deal with, and loading and unloading the bikes.

But, you've got to shell out the extra bucks to rent an SUV, to insure that your vehicle has space in the back for your luggage, as you won't be able to access a trunk with the bike rack on the car. Plus another $11 per day for each extra driver.

But, it's about another 8 hour day to research bike routes, print out or send for maps, make kayaking reservations, etc.

But, you have to find your own place for dinner every night, which can be a royal pain in the butt in the tourist areas (aka everywhere) down here.

Overall we probably saved about $800 apiece over the WT trip. Personally ( since I did all of th organizing) I think I would gladly pay them the extr $800 for the joy and relaxation of having to do nothing but bike, eat, and sleep.

 

 

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