Clearwater II
March 31, 2008
Today's ride was another one mostly on the Pinellas Trail for 42 miles to Tarpon Springs and Honeymoon Island. We rode to tent city for breakfast of eggs, grits, and biscuits. We ate with a couple of women who were being pampered by Bubba. Besides the luggage service for motel users like us, he has a camping service in which he sets up a large tent and sleeping mattress and hauls bags.
After breakfast we then headed north on the Pinellas Trail toward Dunedin. We stopped at Wall Springs Park, once a popular mineral spa that is now a county park. Many tilapia fish were floating near the mouth of the springs with a few gar as well. The water was crystal clear.
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| Do Not Feed Wildlife | Honeymoon Island | Wall Spring |
From there we rode to Dunedin and the turnoff to Honeymoon Island. Just as we turned to ride toward the Dunedin Causeway we were all bunched up at a crosswalk and a few locals were fighting to ride upstream. One guy was really pissed, calling us a bunch of morons who didn't know how to ride and that we'd ruined his day. He was right; routing Bike Florida on sidewalks was a bad idea.
Later the trail turned into a narrow sidewalk over the causeway bridges and cyclists were competing with pedestrians and other cyclists for the limited space. That's when we got on the road and had no problems riding to Honeymoon Island State Park. There were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and excellent grapefruit slices at the rest stop.
In Tarpon Springs we found an uncrowded Greek restaurant (there are no others) and split a vegetarian gyro and a baklava that we ate on a bench next to the water. The tourist ships were doing a good business giving rides to demonstrate how sponges are harvested. Years ago Dad and I did the same. We took a few photos and headed back. On the way we stopped in Dunedin for a smoothie and to walk around the town where several art and gift shops are located adjacent to the trail.
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| Tarpon Springs - Sponge diver statue | Tarpon Springs | Sponge diver |
Dinner was one of the better biker meals we've had in a while; greek salad, spinach pie, pita with hummus and yogurt/onion dip, and baklava for dessert. After walking back to the room there was a heavy downpour. We learned that about 35 cyclists were stranded on Honeymoon Island. A suicidal man was in a truck with a gun threatening to kill himself. Police have blocked the road and the cyclists cannot ride out. We just learned that people are now able to leave the island but no one can enter. It will be a long day for some cyclists.