A few weeks in Florida allowed us to get outside and back on the bike. After months of riding indoors on the trainer we were more than ready to see some friends and some sights. We reveled in the sunshine, social activities and some much needed warmth.

I’ll admit that most of our rides started when the temps were only about 50 degrees (brrr) but things warmed up and the abundant sunshine (for most of the rides) certainly helped.

We met up with “friends from home” and frequent Silver Comet riding companions Tim and Vickie for our first ride on the Withlacoochee Trail. We were shocked to learn they had never been to the Ferris Groves for their fantastic FRESH strawberry shakes.

A mini-tandem rally broke out on a different portion of the Withlacoochee and part of the Good Neighbor Trail. We spent the day with Eric and Linda and Jose and Sherry. After lunch at the Shamrock Inn (for the second straight day), there may have been another fresh strawberry shake involved.

On a cold morning, Reg and Michele made the long trek to meet us in Inverness. We appreciated their commute and enjoyed the company!

We decided to ride the Santos Trail next and expected to ride by ourselves. Lo and behold – this ride became extremely social when we rode part of it with Cliff and Joyce.

But wait, there’s more – at our ride mid-point we chatted with George and Pat. She was training for the Boston Marathon and he was on his single bike. We will see everyone again in May at the Georgia Tandem Rally.

We also made the drive up to Ocala horse country for a beautiful ride with Earle and Laura. I couldn’t document the stunning scenery because we forgot to charge the camera and it was “exhausted”! This was the hilliest ride of our stay, but it did not leave us exhausted.

The “social” part of our spring training concluded, the weather did get a little warmer and we finished out our stay with a few more rides on various part of the Withlacoochee Trail.

A trip to the area would not be complete without a visit to the Front Porch where pie is the specialty of the house!

Near the end of our stay, on a clear and relatively windless day, Roger got to fly the drone.

One more ride, one more shake.

Spring training was a success – we did 8 rides for a total of about 280 miles (and no saddle sores). Unfortunately we returned home to much cooler temps and didn’t get to ride for another week. But we’ll be flying to the left coast (soon) and resuming the quest for 5000 (miles) in 2025!