Sometimes Near is So Far - Bicycling in Tampa

Sometimes your own backyard is overlooked.  When I was driving to Clearwater, Florida, to play pickleball last year, I watched the progress of a "trail" bridge being built.  It turned out great!

In this photo, you can see the new bridge on the left and the vehicle bridge(s) on the right.   We rode on a Sunday morning thinking that the traffic would be a bit lighter, and I think it was - but not much.

We parked at Ben T Davis Beach, which is right past the Tampa International Airport. 




We rode a little over 6 miles directly west toward Clearwater, Florida.  The best part of the trail is that it is always right besdie the water. 

The least best part of the trail is that it is sandwiched between the water and the 4 lane highway. 

The second best part of the trail is that you get to climb up and go down a hill!!!!  Well, not so fast . . .   In order to find a hill in the Tampa area, you have to have a bridge.  Here's the downhill part looking toward Clearwater.

Coming back, you get another hill!!!   Wheee!


This is looking to the east where you can see the City of Tampa buildings in the background. 

The total mileage?  Almost 13 miles.  Just about right for a Sunday ride.

Plus, it's in our own backyard!

Kindle, Nook, et al

I am not an "early adopter" of technology - nor probably anything else.  In fact, the picture below is of my actual cell phone - which most people laugh at when they see it.  But, it cost me $20 for the phone and 9.99 a month so I'm reasonably happy.  Plus, my brother has the same model!!!  (Hmmm.)

But this isn't about phones, it's about "reading devices," which I've been reluctant to embrace.

In a crisis, the local Hillsborough County Library did not have "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson in real print, which was on my list.  It was available in eBook however.  I borrowed ML's Kindle Fire that she got for a gift a year or so ago and rarely uses.  It was easy to download it to the Fire, although I had to get ML to do it through her Amazon account.  I didn't even have to go to the library . . .




So here's what I think . . ..

a.) If I traveled a lot, I would definitely have a electronic reader.

b.) I would have preferred more words on the "Fire" page.  Too much swiping! 

c.) It was nice that if a question came up, related to the book or not, I could switch over to the Fire browser and look it up with the same device. 

d.) The real benefit from my thinking is that if I subscribed to the "tablet" versions of magazines and/or newspapers that I get, I could get rid of tons of clutter surrounding the various chairs and bedside table that I use: stacks of books, magazines, newspapers, little slips of paper with notes on them, references that I'm saving to look up when I have time, you name it.   (like you see in the photo on the left.)

Just think, maybe we could have a clean house with one tablet each. 

No, you're right, even that won't work. 

I confess, it was OK, but I still like fumbling with a real book.  Must be my age.

Bicycling the Timpoochee Trail in NW Florida

Thursday dawned cool but not freezing.  In fact, it was a great weather day - cool but not cold and without too much wind.

The Timpoochee Trail runs 19 miles along route 30A, along a number of "lowrise" beach communities and a couple of State Parks.

We parked at Inlet Beach, about a quarter mile from the eastern end of the trail.  Inlet Beach was a nice looking beach town.

But when we looked at the real estate bulletin board, we decided we might not want to buy here.  It was a bit tony for us: the cheapest listed was 1.995 million.

The bicycle trail ran beside the road for the whole 19 miles.  This part was closer to the road than typical, but traffic was definitely a part of the ride.

We stopped at Amavida's Coffee and Tea in the town of Seaside for a coffee and a rest.  ML's latte was beautiful!

Seaside is famous for being a planned community in the early 1980's and the setting for the movie "The Truman Show."

We liked it, but not enough to check real estate prices.

The town square had a variation of the recent "Food Truck" courts - a row of airstream campers that served food. 

An interesting ecological tidbit was that the trail (and road) passed a number of unique "dune" lakes that were just above the tide range.  When the lake floods, it releases water into the gulf. When the lakes go down, the outlet closes and the lake water stays fresh.

Plus, they were pretty!

And then . . . the trail ended.  Like right now.  No sign, no nothing.  It turns into the road with a stop sign.

It did have mileage markers, but there was no identification of beginning or end - nor was the trail labeled "Timpoochee" at any point that we could find.

So we turned around and headed back!

We rode just a couple hundred yards to take a lunch break at the Hurricane Oyster Bar.  I had lightly fried oysters with some sauce stuff on taco chips.  It was great - and not too much food.

ML had fried green tomatoes which weren't bad either!

Most of the trail and road are very close to the beach.  The sand is very white and pure.

There was very little bicycle traffic - but November is a slow month for the area.  Plus, it was cold by Florida standards.

This was only one of four or six bicycle rental places.

We were glad that we did it when we did.

Plus, after 38 miles, we were beat.  Time to get in the car and mosey down the road.

Bicycling Santa Rose Beach, FL

ML and I had brought our bikes along, intending to do two different bike routes.  We had been cold on the Blackwater River the last couple of nights, but the forecast was for a real cold front with 20-25 MPH winds.  We intelligently opted for a hotel instead of a campground.

The forecast was right - it was COLD the next morning.  ML, also intelligently, opted to send me off.  I put on all the clothes I had, with my rain jacket over my helmet to keep the wind off.  It worked except for my hands and fingers froze with my little bicycling gloves!

ML dropped me off at Navarre Beach, FL, on route 399, a two lane road with wide shoulders.  There was a path along the road, which was lined first with highrises and then with single family homes.

I couldn't help but think about the flood insurance issue that is facing us as people keep building multimillion dollar "homes" on the beach.  Seems to me it should be like the "old days": put up a shack or trailer that is worth nothing and when it blows away, no harm done!

Maybe we should allow no buildings worth more than $10,000 and not have any flood insurance at all.

It wasn't long before I entered the "Gulf Islands National Seashore."  I couldn't help but thank the federal government for preserving a beautiful stretch of beach.  I'm happy to pay taxes to keep highrises off the beach.

Instead of drifting snow, I had to fight drifting sand.  Luckily I had my rain jacket to protect me against the occasional barrage of drifting sand.

The gulf water was a much prettier color than this photo shows.  My camera just couldn't get the water color very accurately - or maybe it was the photographer.  You'll have to take my word for it, the water was different shades of a pretty blue.

Rolling hills!!!  Up and down!   Not many hills in Florida unless you cross a bridge.

With a stiff wind coming just aft of my right side, I made some pretty good progress.  Before long I entered Pensacola Beach, greeted by some mighty impressive highrises. 

From there it was beach housing and boulevards, not my favorite riding conditions.

I turned right at Pensacola Beach and rode over the bridge and turned right on Route 98, a major stoplight highway access from beach to beach.  I connected with ML at the Gulf Islands National Seashore visitors center, which was well worth visiting.

We learned that so many live oak trees were being cut in the late 1800's, that the federal government started an oak tree farm to grow oaks for shipbuilding. 

After we goofed around the Visitor's Center, we drove the barrier island that I had just ridden so that ML could see it.  Then off to the east on route 98, not a very fun road.

But we ran across a road sign for a Eden Gardens State Park.  Florida does an excellent job of creating and maintaining State Parks - often from "donations."  The creator of the Eden Mansion and Gardens died and left the grounds to the State of Florida. 

The mansion was closed (it's in the background of the photo), but we walked around it and looked in the windows.  Then we walked the grounds.

The grounds were beautiful, made especially nice with huge live oaks, the very oaks that made such great wood to build big ships.  I did my best with the camera, but I just couldn't get the reality of the majesty of the oak trees with their spreading branches.

Day 3: Canoeing on the Blackwater River in NW Florida

The third morning dawned a little less cold - or at least it seemed that way.  I think if you spend all of your time outdoors, your body adjusts to it - or at least to a degree (pun intended).  Plus, we now knew what to wear to bed the second night - which again was most of our clothes!

Mist on the river is always present in the mornings.

When the sun started coming over the trees, the light was pretty on the Fall leaves.

You can see that ML still has on her down jacket, however!

Our campsite was on quite a large sandbar.  It was nice not to have to share it!

People we didn't see.  However, it is clear in this picture that we had cell service. 

I finally got my photo of a red leaf just under the water.  Although the water is supposedly "black" from tannin, it was surprisingly clear.

Here is another "looking beneath the water" photo.  OK, that's all of those I'm going to show you.

As we follow the river, it flow is greater from feeder streams.  It is also wider and doesn't have as many obstacles to paddle around.

It's just a great float at 3 knots or so, and the occasional paddle.  Every once in a while, we just paddled for awhile to get some exercise.

A dragonfly sat on the dry bag long enough for me to get the camera and find the macro setting.  Not a great photo, but fun to see up closer than usual. They are certainly amazing flyers.












 For awhile, the wind came up and we had to paddle against it.  But it wasn't too bad - in fact, much better than the Alatna River when we nearly killed ourselves paddling.


By the time we got to the final bridge just before the take-out, it was calm again.  Paul was there to meet us and back to the car we went.



But, to a degree, my response to ML's question about how long I could do this, was a bit different after just 24 hours.  Along with other trips I've taken, the rhythm of the river and the sun and moon and daily chores was already starting to take effect.  It was hard to get in the car and face the traffic.

Day 2: Canoeing the Blackwater River

On the second evening, we were hanging out in the dark around the fire, and ML says, "How long do you think you could do this?"  It was a good question.  I love to be outside, away from people and cars and houses.  Even retired without a whole heck of a lot to do in my "normal" life,  I felt impatience with the first half day of canoeing.  The second day started about the same way, but less so by the end of it.  But neither of us could see ourselves doing it day after day for weeks at an end.  It was fun to dream and imagine and talk about, but not to really do.

  
It was cold during the night!  I would guess the temps were in the low 40's or upper 30's.  Despite the written advertising on our sleeping bags of 30 degrees or less, we had to put all our clothes on except our heaviest jackets.  Even then, it was touch and go. I even made a morning fire to warm us up.

But the sun soon cleared the trees and made a huge difference.  I tried to get a photo of a shaft of sunlight glowing through a thin veil of rising mist.

At this point, the river is still fairly narrow.  The current ran at roughly 2-3 knots.  The day before, there were quite of few obstructions like downed trees and overhanging branches that we had to test our dormant canoeing skills to get around.  But as we alternately drifted and paddled down, there were fewer obstructions and the river got wider.

I enjoyed looking down into the river.  The fall leaves were beginning to turn.  Every once in a while, the wind would initiate a shower of red, as if it was snowing leaves into the river.  The leaves would get caught on snags and branches in the water.  The water made them glow with color. 

I tried to get a photo of the cypress growing in the middle of the river with the maple behind it.  But, I was too slow and opportunity passed.

At least I can remember the beauty of the missed opportunity.

Canoeing on the Blackwater River in Northwest Florida

I think we were both a little tired of the humdrum retired life!  We had built some custom cabinets for the kitchen, tiled the backsplash, and installed the finish lighting.  ML had really made the yard look great - not much thanks to me on that one.

But it was time for a trip.  A couple of years ago, we had read an article in the local paper about canoeing on the Blackwater River in northwest Florida.  I called Paul at Blackwater Canoe Rental.  He said call him a day ahead and he'd rent a canoe and take us up to the "3 day" launch, and then pick us up and take us back to our car - all for $90.  It was a deal.

Now that's what I would call a red clay road.

We packed some stuff in the car, including our bikes, and headed off for the 7 hour drive.  The camping gear seemed to explode out of the car, but we got it ironed out to some degree.

Watch your hats and sunglasses!  After a ride in the back of the truck with the canoe behind, the launch site beckons.

Are we going to get all that stuff in the canoe?

Sure!

In fact, it looks pretty good.  I just hope we have all of the important stuff like matches and toilet paper.

On the eastern end of the Central Time Zone, it was going to get dark pretty fast. We pushed off about 2:45 p.m. in bright sunshine.  But it wasn't long before the light started to fade.

But it wasn't long before the light started to fade.

Make sure you see the moon in this picture.  We felt like we were paddling to the moon.

The river is known for its quartz white sandbars that have washed out from the Appalachians over the years.

It was so nice and clean that it made squishy grindy noises every step we took on it. 

This sandbar made a great first campsite and we stopped early enough to get the borrowed tent up.  One year I nearly froze my youknowwhat off with a borrowed tent when it was snowing like hell.

I love the sky. 

As you "winter" campers know, it's a long time from 5:30 p.m. when it gets dark to the next morning at 6 a.m. - or later and longer in higher latitudes.

I liked this photo of ML reading with her headlamp in front of the fire.

I'm very atavistic about fires, and really enjoy a cold night with a good fire.

Sadness reigns . . . last day of iGoogle

It's a sad day today.  A great product meets its demise . . . 

Book Review: "Chasing Alaska" by C. B. Bernard

 I don't write too many book reviews on this blog. Those I do write, I write to etherspace – which means maybe my wife, brother, and sister might read it. When I do enjoy a book enough to write a review, I believe it is the connection between the author and myself: maybe the subject matter, the great story that I imagine myself in, maybe just the links between us, or even a similar mindset. This is certainly the case with C.B. Bernard in “Chasing Alaska: Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now.”

Like C. B. Bernard, ML and I moved from the east coast to Alaska (but in 1979). (In fact, he lived in Sitka while we lived there too. I remember him falling asleep at School Board meetings.) In 2009, we started spending time in Tampa, ML's ancestral home. I had one hell of a time adjusting – and to be honest, I still have difficulty even though we go back for a third of a year. Why? There's no excuse!

I've spent a lot of time thinking about it and what Alaska is and means, but C. B. nails it. But I'm not going to tell you about it. You'll have to read it and figure out that part of it yourself.

I will make some overall generalizations about the book. One, I really like the organizational structure surrounding himself and his relatives, Joe and Peter Bernard – who were arctic explorers around the turn of the century. Secondly, I thought it was very well written – great details and description. Thirdly, the author didn't try to make it something it wasn't. In my opinion, it is absolutely impossible to write a book about all of Alaska and C. B. didn't try.

OK, you're it!  Read the book and tell me what you think Alaska is and why you love it or might love it. We'll see if C.B and I are right. One way or another, you'll have a much greater understanding of what Alaska is all about.

Great job, C. B. I loved it.

PERU: Walking the Saltankay Route to Machu Picchu, Conclusion

Home again, home again.  Up at 4 a.m., we caught a flight to Lima and then from there through Miami and then Tampa.   We were both sorry to leave Peru.

Here are a few overall thoughts and opinions. 

For one, the trip reviewers on the REI website are correct.  It was a 5 star trip in all ways: enjoyment, organization, food, housing - all of it.  Expensive?  Yes.  But worth it.

Secondly, I felt that we had a great group of people.  Not one person was obnoxious: everyone was pleasant and fun to get to know and fun to be with as a part of the group.  I really enjoyed everyone, which I would say is fairly unusual not to have at least one obnoxious person (but maybe I was that person!!!!)

Thirdly, the best trips for me are ones that combine some physical exercise in the out-of-doors.  This was especially true as we walked through different ecosystems: from high mountain passes to jungle.

Fourth, the Incas and "modern" Peru were fascinating to me - as always, at least some part of it is personal preference.  As someone who enjoys building and construction and mountain hiking, the Incan building, design and construction, fascination with the mountains, and trail system kept my interest.

So there you go.  Since my camera up and died, I'll leave you with some of ML's photos featuring food and flowers and lodging.  You're lucky - she usually takes a lot better pictures than I do!

All of the lodges had "towel figurines" waiting for us. 

This is the group area in the Lucma Lodge (the one down in the coffee/avocado area).   All four lodges were just fun to stay in - possibly because they were built for 12 people.

Doesn't this look like a great room to hang out in?

The flowers were amazing in color and configuration.

And the food!  This is what is left of "solterito," a bean and corn salad.   It was great.

Quinoa chicken with a brown rice and vegetable salad, and the "presentation" of the meals was excellent.   I confess that I can't tell you what the red sauce is.

I'm not sure what this is called either, but it's an avocado salad that we had up at our lunch spot overlooking Machu Picchu for the first time.   Talk about fresh and perfectly ripe avocado.  Wow.

I love salmon, and even though I was pretty sure that this is farmed fish from Chile, I had to try "pisco" cured salmon.  And I was glad I did.  It was outstanding.

REMINDER:  DO NOT EAT FARMED SALMON.  EAT ONLY WILD CAUGHT ALASKAN FISH. 

And don't forget the beverages.  This was an Andean brew that tasted mighty fine. 

We also loved the Peruvian Tacama Tinto, which was a "full bodied" red wine blend.

You can see that Tom is enjoying himself in the back.  Cheers!

And don't forget - if you get hungry, there's always the Peruvian treat wandering around you're kitchen floor enjoying the treats thrown on the floor from cooking dinner.

Enjoy!