| Silver River Cruise | Biking In Florida |
| Don and Kathie Visit Florida | ||
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| Pictures (click on link) | ||
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pressure has been building
for a visit. One of the events that we
have tried to roll into a visit is the Sebring Tandem Rally that has been
happening for about 6 years now in early spring. Our problem has been taking a week to visit
and ride from our always stressed vacation schedule. This year we decided to make it happen so we blocked out the
time for the week before the first weekend in April which was the weekend
scheduled for the Sebring Tandem Rally.
So the plan was to work our way south through Ormond and Silver Spring to visit Jim and Dan then work our way the
Bob’s in West Palm before moving on to Sebring. Unfortunately someone decided
to have a wedding in Sebring and they trumped the Sebring Tandem Rally from the
planned weekend and the Rally was moved to the middle of March. The bad news was that many of the couples we
hoped to visit with had already made travel reservations for the trip. The
good news was that our friends Dan and Heather had planned a few days of riding
in St. Augustine before the Rally that now had become the main event for the
week. So we changed our plans and dropped West Pam Beach from our travels.
On Friday March 28th
Kathie and I left mid-day and headed down Interstate 95 where we made it to
Florence SC for the nigh. The next day we got up and took our time getting to
the Ormond / Daytona area. This included a stop off at the outlet malls in the
Hilton Head area. We got to our hotel at Ormond in mid-afternoon, got settled
and hopped over to Jim and Sonya’s for a quick visit.
On Sunday we got up and drove the Silver Springs to visit my
brother Dan, his wife Donna and his daughter Sofia for the day. They live on acreage in Silver Spring and
have built a variety of out structures that they use as a party areas that
attracts local musicians from the area and other friends. When we arrived Dan
and Donna gave us a tour of the grounds while we waited for Sofia to arrive
from college. Part of time we spent visiting with Donna’s parents who live next
door. While there Sofia showed up and
was joined by her “little”, who was her little sister from her sorority at FSU.
We soon packed up Dan’s boat and hauled it to a boat ramp on
the Silver River where we would spend the day. Dan launched the boat and we
were soon taking our trip. As we left the launch area I
saw a sign that restricted our boat speed to no wakes with a manatee pictured in the sign. I
asked Dan if he had ever seen a manatee and he said no.
The river was lush with sub-tropical vegetation and birds,
turtles and alligators but the real attraction for the day was the monkeys.
They are non-indigenous animals that were brought in by a man running a tour
boat in the early 20th century, and put the monkeys on an island to
attract interest. Little did he know that the monkeys could escape the island.
We did get to the monkeys on the way up the river,
then we got our first surprise of the day, a manatee came right at us and went
under the boat. This was the first time any of had seen a manatee on the Silver
River and the first time I had ever seen a manatee close up.
We continued our trek and made it to the head of the river
which was in the Silver Springs Park that used to be privately owned as an amusement park but
has been given to the state and is now a state park. They still have glass bottom boats and the
view of the aquifer springs from Dan’s boat was beautiful without the glass
bottom to see through.
On our way downstream we saw more of the wildlife and also
got see a parade of amphibious cars coming upstream. This was another suprise for all of
us. We continued downstream and stopped
to see monkeys again then finished to ride.
While Dan was pulling the boat out of the river the
amphibious cars caught up with us and we got to see them drive up the ramp out
of the water. There were 5 of these cars from 4 different northern states. Dan finished pulling the boat out and we
returned to his place. We visited a little longer then went to dinner at a
place on route 40 where we had a nice dinner with family before we returned to
Ormond.
On Monday we went to Jim and Sonya’s to do I ride from their
house. There we met up with friends of
ours from San Diego who were staying with Jim and Sonya. Dennis and Cindy were one of the couples that
had plane reservations before Sebring was rescheduled. They are also friends
that have done European tandem rides with us, as were all the couples that we
rode with on this trip.
The three couples got ready then rode from Jim and Sonya’s
house to Flagler Beach where we turned south along the Atlantic coast then
switched to riding the east side of the intercostal seaway. At the southern end
of the ride we moved to the west side of the intercostal seaway and traveled
through the Addison Blockhouse and Bulow Creek State Parks. There we stopped to check out the remains of an old rum factory. We had lunch at Jim and Sonya’s and then
returned to the hotel. Later we met the other couples at a seafood restaurant
in Flagler Beach.
On Tuesday we did an early ride from Jim and Sonya’s, this
time going north at Flagler beach and returning on the same path. Kathie and I went back to the hotel to shower
and check out then traveled to the World Golf Village outside of St.
Augustine. There
we checked into the
timeshare. After checking in we were parking just in time to meet the
tandem riders who had arrived earlier in the week. They were finishing
their ride for the day.
There we got to say hello to six or seven of the other
couples that we were joining. After
greeting everyone we unloaded our car and later that afternoon we all had a
dinner planned and mostly supplied
by our hosts, Dan and Heather. We all had a
great time getting caught up with those we hadn’t seen in a while and managed to
drink some wine also.
On Wednesday we had breakfast at Dan and Heathers then did
the ride for the day. This ride went
south west until we reached the St. Johns River where we pedaled north along
the river. We stopped at a park along the way and had lunch at a place called the
Outback Crab Shack. The food and the
scenery were great and after lunch we returned to the Golf Village. After showers we had a wine and cheese party
at Rich and Ina’s apartment then we all went to Caddy Shack which is a
restaurant chain owned and managed to Bill Murray and his brothers. We had a
great dinner and participated in trivia night.
As is the story with many who play this, we started out strong and fell off
at the end.
On Thursday we got up had breakfast on our own and started the ride that went
north west this time until we came to the St. Johns again and traveled south. Again
we stopped at a park and went a few miles out of our way to have lunch at the
Outback Crab Shack again. After the ride
Kathie and I showered then strolled around the ground of the World Golf Village
Hall of Fame. Afterward we returned to
Dan and Heather for a dinner of leftovers from the week and a nice evening of
thanks to Dan and Heather and goodbyes
to our friends.
On Friday morning we got an early start, packing the car and
heading north. We got home in about 12 ½ hours very happy with our travels.