Florida Ramble Day 3 - Brooksville to Tarpon Springs

Day 3 of the Florida Ramble - Brooksville to Tarpon Springs!  Had a nice breakfast and chat with some other cyclists at the B&B while we waited for it to warm up, it was 63 inside the house when we got up 😬.  Headed out with ‘all’ the clothes on and easily found our way out of Brooksville today (it was a lot more difficult last time!).  Up to the Suncoast, stopped for a coffee and then 29odd miles down to the Starkey Trail.  

Some definite dragging as we had a ‘very’ carby breakfast and ran out of steam early in.  Bumped into lots of cycley types to chat to on the way.

After the loud, boring Suncoast along the 589 highway, Starkey Park was a peaceful, quiet treat.  And Havana Dreamers for the promised Cuban sandwich - another treat.  This was great after we’d seen a really big gator and 12 gopher turtles!

A bit less of a treat was the puncture as we turned onto Keystone!  We are a bit tired of punctures!  

But then it was smooth pedalling to our overnight place just outside of Tarpon, right to one of Steve’s favourites, Cody’s!

Florida Ramble Day 2 - Brooksville Inverness and Back Again

Day 2 of the Florida Ramble, Brooksville to Inverness and back again, 62 miles in total.  Chilly, a northern edge to the wind today, mostly a headwind.  

Left Brooksville on the Good Neighbor Trail, 10 miles to the Withlacoochee Trail which we followed up to Inverness.  It’s a great trail, well paved, straight and you can get some miles in.  Mostly people on e-bikes and e-trikes today.  We played dodge-ems!

Tried a new breakfast place, Bree’s Riverside - made the list!  Split the obligatory Cuban sandwich in Inverness.  30 miles back to Brooksville and enjoyed a Florida Cracker place for dinner.

Florida Ramble - Day 1 - Home to Brooksville

Up and off early this morning, 50 miles to Brooksville and it’s supposed to rain by the afternoon - Florida rain!  Managed to get all the gear on the bike.  We really need panniers over here, everything is crammed in the top box, behind the seat and in various little bike bags, but it all fits so we’re going!

Home to the open part of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, quite a bit is still out of commission from the hurricanes in the autumn.  Then a very, very fast pedal down Gunn Highway with its no bike path, no shoulder - close to 20mph on that section!  That turns into the Suncoast Trail which runs alongside 589, the Veterans Expressway for the next 30 odd miles.  The Suncoast is a great trail, but as it runs next to a highway is a tad noisy and that combined with the final stretch along Route 50 into Brooksville made it a trafficy day.  

And it rained.  Perfect timing for the first deluge, we’d just stopped for lunch and pretty good for the second, made a quick dash for a shelter and only got sort of soaked.  We and the bike got very dirty - need mudguards too!

Tomorrow should be virtually a no traffic and no rain day - woohoo!

Last time we pedalled through Brooksville was on a Sunday so almost all the restaurants were closed.  We have a good selection this time so we’re going to try The Bistro.  Staying at the same B&B, Ardendales - very ‘old Florida’!