Bill and Keila's Annual Bike Tour

Well, it's that time again. We usually tour for a week in the spring. We did the Natchez Trace last summer but are returning to Florida this year. We are planning our trip for the first week of November.

Anyone from across the nation is welcome to ride with us, recumbent bike or wedgie, we don't care.

Where: Bike Florida 2008 route. From Clearwater to Chiefland Florida.
When: We camp or find a motel in Clearwater on Friday, Oct.31 (Halloween) and start pedaling the next morning. Details below are lifted from the Bike Florida site and edited.

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Bike Florida “Trail Link” 2008 is a Linear ride starting in beautiful Clearwater and ending at enchanting Fanning Springs! We will use rural roads to link together the trails of Florida’s Gulf Coast including the Pinellas Trail, Suncoast Parkway Trail, Withlacoochee State Trail, Withlacoochee Bay Trail, and Nature Coast State Trail.
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[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]The fun begins as we tour Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, Inverness, Dunnellon and Fanning Springs.

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• Day 1: 35 miles
  Saturday Nov.1
  Clearwater, Florida to New Port Richey
• Day 2: 60.4 miles
  Sunday, Nov. 2nd
  New Port Richey to Inverness
• Day 3: 43.1 miles
  Monday, Nov 3rd
  Inverness to Dunnellon
• Day 4: 56.5 miles
  Tuesday, Nov 4th
  Dunnellon to Fanning Springs
• Day 5: Excursion TBA. We are considering bringing sea kayaks along or snorkeling in the Itchetucknee river, then heading home in the afternoon. [/FONT]

This tour promises to be one of the most unique we have been on. It is almost entirely on bikeways except for some connector roads between the bike trails. This means a relatively safe and flat ride with great scenery going along the gulf coast and through natural areas. The weather will still be hot but starting to cool down in November. Yes, we know that the Catrike/Bacchetta rally is at the start of our tour but we will not be anywhere near their group at any time. If some of you want to tour with them and catch up with us on Day 3 it won't hurt our feelings.

We will be camping at various Florida State Parks. The last evening will be at Manatee Springs State Park. We will need to make reservations for the parks. This will be a supported ride. Keila and I will be driving down in our big truck with a camper on it. We will have a trailer that should be able to accomodate a number of bicycles and perhaps a few kayaks if we decide to do that. We have space in the truck for 4 more adults besides Keila and myself. Please let us know quickly if you are going because we need to plan for campsites and transportation to and from Florida.


Bill


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Bill, I sure wish we could join you on this one. Could even stop in St. Pete and see our Bacchetta friends. Hope you have fun all the way! Have a good trip and take lots of pictures.