We had ridden a paltry 12 miles in 2024 when we left for our Florida “spring training” trip. Now, as we head towards home, we are feeling pretty good about getting close to 250 miles during our seven rides.  I am not happy at this moment as we drive into rain in middle Georgia and the temperatures continue to drop.  The good news is that my saddle sore will have plenty of time to heal thoroughly while we wait for more cycling weather!

The “mint retreat”, in Inverness, Florida was once again our home base for ten days of fun in the sun.  We stayed here two years ago and it was welcoming and comfortable once again.

Our house is less than a mile from the Withlacoochee State Trail. We start with a ride that heads north on the trail.

The next four rides were visits (and rides) with tandem friends who live in, or winter in the sunshine state. It was such a treat to catch up and enjoy some companionship on our rides.

Reg and Michele were kind enough to make the drive to Inverness to spend some time on the Withlacoochee with us. We even got to celebrate Michele’s Birthday with delectable strawberry shakes from the famous Ferris Groves fruit stand and shop.

We took the next day off, did a little walking around our neighborhood and checked out the “newish” Nine States Brewery in town.

Next up on our friend hit parade: Laura and Earle, who were set up out in Chiefland with their Airstream for a few days in “the country”. We enjoyed around thirty miles, great company and lunch out during our visit.

On Sunday we donned our (new) UGA jerseys and met up with Eric and Linda for some more challenging terrain in “Howey in the Hills”, as the name portends, it’s one of the hilly parts of central Florida. We lunched during the ride (with about 7 miles to go) at a fantastic German Bakery called Yalaha. It was so good and the day was so perfect that the entire world wanted to eat and enjoy Yalaha’s beer garden. It was very crowded and we had a 90-minute lunch/rest stop, which certainly felt like forever.

A word about the bakery where we lunched. Much to the chagrin of both Eric and Roger the line (and timing) prevented us from getting a dessert treat, but I did photograph the extensive choices. And we DID have a huge pretzel as part of our lunch!

We finished up our visits with an unexpected, but very fun ride at the Santos trail with Lonnie, Carol, Steve and Pam. They are Ohio transplants who winter in The Villages and enjoy the peacefulness of Santos.

Our second “off” day featured a walk on the newer part of the trail near Dunellon and a visit to our fave lunch spot – the Front Porch – where pie is always the star!

We finished up with two more rides by ourselves. We ventured North again on the trail all the way to the start of the Dunellon trail. After the ride Roger had some time to fly his drone before the winds got out of hand.

Finally we did the Gobbler loop ride, with a shake stop at the Ferris Groves. We started the ride in arm and leg warmers and wearing our yellow glasses – but things cleared and it turned into another glorious day.

Terrific weather and friends made our time in Florida worthy of a return visit next year (spoiler alert: we already booked a place)!

Next up: It’s going to be a busy year if all of our travels go as planned. We head west to SoCal and Tucson (with guest stars!) for adventures on and off the bike!

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