Dolly's Bike Blog

Don and I left The Villages around 10 am on Sunday, after packing up our villa.  We did leave a number of bags and boxes at Ray and Linda’s home, including cold weather clothing we won’t be needing for the next weeks. Don will retrieve those after he drops me off in Fort Lauderdale and heads back to Indy.

We headed to St. Petersburg to visit Ian and Cheryl, tandem friends from Indiana.  They took us on a bicycle tour of the St. Pete Beach area, parts of it quite busy on Easter Sunday.  We were on the Pinellas Trail, the Treasure Island Causeway Trail, the St. Pete Beach Trail, the Bayway Trail and the Skyway Trail, a total of 26.12 miles (http://old.stpete.org/transportation/citytrails/docs/bikemap2014.pdf). Then we enjoyed dinner at Fish Tales before driving down to Venice to spend three nights.

When we got to Venice, I contacted Nancy Howard who had been on CCST13, regretfully ending the tour early in New Mexico when she fell and broke her shoulder.  She is healed now and in Venice training for the Atlantic Coast tour.  We met Monday morning and headed out on the Legacy Trail and the Venetian Waterway Trail.  I suggested we take an “adventure ride”,  following Dan Henrys (road markings) from the CIBA Boot Camp in March.  We headed to Manasota Key, riding from Manasota Beach south to Englewood Beach.  Nancy was excited to “Dolly-gag” after several weeks of just riding around Venice.  39.88 miles on my single.

Later that afternoon, Don and I bought some dinner items at the grocery store and went to Venice Beach for a picnic and to enjoy the sunset.  (The days are quickly getting longer and we had to wait an hour for the 7:49 pm sunset.)

Today,  Don and I got up early and headed south to Englewood to ride down to Gasparilla Island.  Again, this is a route we have ridden before at CIBA Boot Camp.  Thanks to a AAA map of the area, we “created” our own route through Rotunda (http://www.rotondawest.org), then crossed the three bridges to get to Gasparilla Island, continuing on to Boca Grande.  We found some new roads on the Island we had not explored before, and lots of beautiful homes.  40.82 miles on the tandem.  Delicious lunch at the Cedar Reef Fish Camp and now a quiet evening.

On Monday, we said goodbye to Sarah, Matt, and Mason, headed back to Alexandria, the last of our Florida guests.  Since then we have ridden the tandem three times (30.39 miles, 28.76 miles and 28.52 miles).  Just to prove to myself that I could, I rode my single for 64.73 miles on Wednesday (4/1) around Lake Panasoffeskee.  It was the longest ride of my training, with plenty of headwind, tailwind, and trucks (best training for the ride ahead).  I also rode 17.1 “commuter” miles on Thursday, delivering paperwork in Lake Sumter Landing and riding to church for Maundy Thursday service.

On my long ride,  I did some Dolly-gagging along the way – even rescued a turtle that decided it needed to cross a busy street.

This morning we rode our last time with The Villages tandem group.  At times, we have had as many as 10 teams riding, today was just the “loyal” five teams.

Bob & Jan, Randy & Marty, Norm & Denise, Ray & Linda, Diane & Gabe, plus Don (minus his stoker)

At the end of our ride, I took this photo of Don in front of our villa, 1928 Montrose Court.

Our villa: 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, very comfortable

And, finally we went to O Shucks for steamed oysters and fried shrimp!  Next we pack up the car…

Lunch today, preceded by dinner last Tuesday

For 5 weeks Don and I have been renting a 2 bedroom, 2 bath villa in The Villages.  Maybe some of you are wondering about a town named The Villages.  It is located in north central Florida, about one hour north of Orlando and an hour and a half south of Gainesville, just off I-75, just north of the beginning of the Florida Turnpike.

The Villages is a retirement community, virtually everyone here is over 55 years old with a population over 105,000 (I’m pretty sure that is not full-time, but takes into account homeowners who rent out and visit part-time).  There are 603 holes of golf on 45 different courses.  A group called 55 Places said “Life in The Villages offers an endless array of opportunities to enjoy favorite pastimes or to try something new.  Nearly every amenity imaginable can be found within The Villages.”

We first visited here as guests of Ray & Linda Cannarella, formerly of Indianapolis.  We have done tandem tours in Italy with them, and they have been committee chairs for both MTR 2004 and 2010, as well as committee chairs for CIBA’s Hilly Hundred event.  We have come back several times, always staying with Ray & Linda, who are permanent residents.  But 5 weeks was way too long to be their guests – and we were pleased that family wanted to join us in the warmer climate.

One advantage of The Villages for my training is the ability to cycle on nicely paved roads for over 25 miles, always staying within the property boundaries.  There are lots of traffic circles and thousands of golf cars – everything from Wal-Mart to the hospital to Bonefish Grill is accessible by golf car.  Most of the time, we ride the roads, many 4 lanes, or on the golf car/bike lanes.

The Villages has been described as Disney for Adults, due to the fictitious historical markers found around the three public squares (pretend Santa Fe, pretend Carolina colonial, and pretend Cowtown).  Another article suggested it was like a cruise ship, offering numerous activities, but closing up at 9 pm.  I can tell you that there is also a lot of activity early in the morning, taking into account the warm Florida summer temperatures.

Check out this information about the developer H. Gary Morse and scroll the referenced articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Gary_Morse

We have enjoyed our “vacation” here, now to head west, then south for more adventures.

The Villages – Florida’s Friendliest hometown!

Golf cars everywhere!