Two Springs and a Breakfast

We had planned a bike ride Saturday -- it was the middle day of a long weekend. We did have some in-service activities mixed in with report card work on Friday, but a day without the kids is almost like a vacation day! And we have Monday / MLK Day off as a true vacation day. Saturday was 100% sunshine, but it was a bit cool to get down the road on a motorcycle. I know that after this past week you Northern folks can talk real cold, but I've been there...and I didn't say "cold"; I said "cool". We did leave at 9 AM on the bike, with layered clothes, an extra sweatshirt, and Thermolite gauntlet style gloves. We took the short route north on I-4 for 30 minutes to get to Blue Spring State Park. Blue Spring has a spring (duh!) that pours out thousands of gallons of 72 degree water year round. Its waters go into the St. Johns River, and when air temps drop, the manatees swim upstream and hang out in Blue Spring's relatively warmer waters. Hundreds of people thought just like GB and me, and it was worth the trip. We saw more than 100 manatees in the spring waters, more than we have ever seen before! All of these giant gentle mammals in a truly amazing corner of God's creation takes your breath away. After reveling in the sights for more than an hour, we rode a half hour farther north to DeLeon Springs State Park. This park also has a freshwater spring, somewhat smaller than Blue Spring, but it has panache! It is named for Ponce DeLeon, the Spaniard who went looking for the Fountain of Youth. If this was truly what he found, it was a doubly poor choice. Ponce died when he was 47, and the waters at his namesake have the unmistakable smell of sulphur! John Audubon came to this spring 300 years later while on a Florida bird painting expedition and claimed that the sulpher smell made him ill. 200 years after Audubon, it's not that bad...I did dip my hand in the spring water to feel the temperature, which was warm compared to the air temp, but my hand doesn't look any younger today.

Actually the water was just a distraction; we went to this park for the food. The Old Sugarmill Restaurant is on the park grounds and sells a wonderful breakfast all day long. You cook your own pancakes on a griddle built into the table, and the building is a former mill with a huge waterwheel (unused) on the side of the rustic building. When we pulled up to the park entrance at noon, the sign on the ranger station said that there was a 2 hour wait to be seated at the restaurant. It was fairly accurate; we sat down at 1:50 PM! But it was worth it! We were hungry and it's always fun to pay to make your own meal right at your table. Two different kinds of pancake batter, blueberries to stuff into your pancakes, thick sliced bacon, and all the coffee you could gulp. A side benefit was that our legs were nicely warmed by the electric griddle. We took a scenic ride home through back roads west of Deland down to Sorrento - saw a large farm producing orchids - and west almost to Mt. Dora, and then south to Orlando. About 7.5 hours and 130 miles for a thoroughly enjoyable day.

A Little Jaunt

Gayle and I decided to use a day of vacation this week to visit Sanibel Island. We had not been back to the island since we moved to Orlando and thought it would be fun to practice our "Sanibel stoop" again. We checked to weather reports and decided Tuesday would work, so we left at 6 AM Tuesday on the motorcycle. Weather was cool - mid 50's - and traffic was light. We enjoyed watching the sun come up as we rode. We took I-4 down to US 17 to get as scenic a route as possible. We were on Sanibel by 11:30; went to the Lighthouse Park close to the causeway because of the high traffic on the island. It was a joy to walk the beach and find many of the familiar Gulf side shells. Many people were scouring the beach, but there still were nice specimens for the finding...if you knew how to look! The names of the shells did come back also. The lighthouse was decked out in Christmas ribbons! This was the first time we saw and drove over the new causeway; no more waiting for the drawbridge.

We had called our Ft. Myers friends Jim and Ardith Smith last week-end; thought we could visit with them before we went back to Orlando. Turns out they were up in the Pittsburgh area visiting family and didn't get back until Monday evening. Jim called us when we were in Ft. Myers and we went to their house after the beach. We had a wonderful catch-up-on-family-and-events time with them. They invited us to spend the night, which we had not planned on. Their hospitality prevailed -- and they had an extra tooth brush! We spent a delightful evening with them and slept in their cabana/guest room. We left their house about 9 AM and rode by our former house on Beechwood Trail. Apparently the owners were not interested in maintaining the bushes and landscaping we had. The neem tree is gone, as well as all of the hibiscus, angel leaf jasmine, bird of paradise (all in front of the knee wall), crinum lily, and crepe jasmine that was on either side of the garage door. The Silver Bismarck palm in the front was 8 ft or more tall. The yard needed work but the house itself looked good -- had been repainted. We could see the Weaver's bamboo in the back yard that we had planted was doing well. Ah well, different strokes for different folks...
We took Palm Beach Blvd. to LaBelle and then US 27 north to Haines City; then US 17-92 north to Orlando. It was a little breezy (for Florida) but the ride was great. Back home by 3 PM -- sore buns, but a beautiful trip.
After this, our longest bike trip to date, I came up with some Rules for Riding:
1. Dress warmer than you think you need. Wind chill is nasty and you can always take a layer of clothes off. Can't put on what you don't have.

2. Take a tooth brush and extra socks. You never know what a road trip will bring...

3. Bring an extra bottle of water. Riding dehydrates a body.

4. Riding time is longer than driving time. Biking makes the road personal, more intimate, which then takes more time.

5. Good friends are a treasure. No explanation needed!