Withlacoochee Weekend 2012 - Scouting the Rail Trail

OK, so where was I?

Oh yeah.  Bonk recovery.  Ahhh.

After our Croom ride, the bike shop team of Popeye and Cap'n Bligh went right to work fixing my pedal. 

Miraculously, all the pieces had hung on for the entire fifty miles.  They just had to be coaxed back together. 

An hour later, when the hammer comes out, I make for the showers and follow with a drink.  I can't believe how lucky I am to have such excellent (and tenacious) mechanics in house.  They finally got it - in slightly less time than it took to do the ride.

Popeye and Cap'n Bligh

 in the captain's La Casita Bike Shop.

  

After the pedal repair, the guys got right on the air mattress problem.  Hole located.  Hole fixed.  Tire patches sure come in handy.

Then, hooray, time to light the campfire and bring out the snacks.

One of the many excellent reasons for riding is eating.

Zucchini Bread fit for a vegan.  But omnivores like it too.

Scout and Pie Man have the fire going, so we mosey up to their site.  On the table is a jar of pretzels the size of a pony keg.  PieMan and Breeze are dipping them into peanut butter.  

One of the most frequently asked questions of the evening is "So, what's this about a detox?" 

My reply, around a mouthful of Sailor's delicious hummus, is, "The most important thing to remember about detox is, don't do one."

The snacks just kept coming.  I don't think anyone but Popeye and me took a break to eat an actual dinner.

It's amazing what eating as much as you want, and the luxury of a well inflated air mattress, can do for ones ability to ride.

After a nice alarm-free sleep, we get up with the sun - not before it, for once.  Birds sing.  Coffee steeps.  Sailor comes out of the camper with a big pot of steel cut oats, laced with nuts and cinnamon and cranberries, and we all dig in.

Popeye and I will be packing up soon enough, but for now it sure is nice to sit around in shirt sleeves, sipping our coffee, watching someone else do it.

Cap'n Bligh and Sailor

Ready to go with the sweet new bike rack on the sweet new Tacoma.

    

Scout and Popeye are ready to go too.

Go ride the Rail Trail, that is.

Geographically, the off road trails and the rail trail are adjacent to each other.  But this Sunday ride on the Withlacoochee State Trail could not be farther in character from Saturday's Croom crush.

Did I ever mention how Pie Man got his name?   How about Scout?

Wherever Pie Man goes, there is spectacle.  He can't help it, his outgoing personality just seems to draw a crowd.  I'm sure Scout could tell this better since she was there and I wasn't, but the bare bones of the story is this: 

Once, on a multi-day ride in Wisconsin, Pie Man (who weighs maybe... 120? 130?) stopped in at Gina's Pies Are Square Cafe, and ate several enormous pieces of Guinness pie.  As usual, a crowd gathered, cheering him on.  For the rest of the week, riders all along the rail trail kept pointing him out.  "Look!  There goes the Pie Man!"  

Scout, on the other hand, is the quiet one.  She is the one with the plan, always scouting out the next job, the next purchase, or the next great adventure.

Today Popeye and I have no mileage goals and no agenda.  Except maybe to head north toward the little bakery in Floral City.  We tag along after Scout, along the trail, then off the trail, as she checks out the local real estate possibilities.  We not only follow along, but egg her on shamelessly, since we'd love to have a place to come visit in this neck of the beautiful Withlacoochee woods.

Scouting for land.

The property along the Withlacoochee River has my vote.

6 baby alligators flop into the water as we wheel up.

Scout says from here you can get all the way to the Gulf of Mexico...

...in a shallow draft vessel, of course.

Back to the trail and on to the bakery. 

Why I didn't think to take one picture at the bakery, I don't know.  Could have been the distraction of freshly baked brownies, though.  

The very nice lady who owns the place is out front on the porch.  She puts down her newspaper to come inside and wait on us.

Speaking of real estate regret, I realize this appealing little bakery is literally one house south of a property that Scout and I scoped out a couple years ago.  We had decided then that it would make the perfect, trail-side, square-pie type shop.

Potential Pie Shop - 2009

When the brownies and streudal are history, we go to the next block and see that the beautiful potential pie-shop, along with its beautiful oak trees, has been bulldozed.  Coulda shoulda woulda....  sure hope this isn't a condo next time we ride here.

Back on the road again.

But which way?

It really doesn't matter which way you go.  The trail is full of surprises.  On the adjacent horse trail, these (Menonite?) folks stop to chat with Scout.  They are on their way home from church.

Off they go...

One thing there is no shortage of along the Withlacoochee is variety. 

Pie Man calls to tell us he is on his way to a biker bar called River Ratz for lunch.  OK, now we definitely know which direction to head.

We find paddlers, motorcycles, cars, horses, and Pie Man already there.   Neither Popeye nor I ever thought to bring locks.  We just don't normally stop when we ride.  Luckily both Pie Man and Scout are well equipped for this sort of relaxed riding, and we add our bicycles to the  assortment of rides in the parking lot.

As I am taking pictures, the horse lady comes over.

Her half-Arabian, half-Chincoteague Pony gets a root beer to slurp.

Bridge over the barely moving Withlacoochee.

Pie Man, bless his heart, has found us trail-bikers a table

far away from both the vroom-vroom variety of bikers, and the band.

After a couple weeks of eating carefully, the salad and burger I split with Scout sits pretty heavy on the ride back to the campground. 

This is the part of relaxed riding that I would need to come to terms with.  I can barely bring myself to pause for a sag snack, let alone a full-stop lunch of sandwiches and beer.

We will need to practice though.  We had such a good time on our relaxed ride that day that we went and committed to the week-long Bike Florida in March. 

Yikes.  Although, it's good to have a new and different goal. 

Six long, relaxed, 60-something mile days.  Camping. 

And don't forget lunch.  

You can come too.  There're still openings for a few more good eaters.  I mean, riders. 
http://www.bikeflorida.org/bf2012/2012.php

So.  Who's up for a lunch ride?

Gosh, it's good to be back in training.