Today’s ride:
Left the house at 7:00 AM this morning and met my friend Jim at the Seminole Wekiva Trail Head. We rode to Panera Bread for breakfast as usual. From there we went north through Heathrow to SR 46A and then north on Orange Ave. to SR 17/92. We crossed the St Johns river and turned into Lake Monroe Park where we picked up the Spring to Spring Trail. This trail is about 5 miles long and is very pretty and ends at the DeBary Mansion in Volusia County. From that point we turned around and headed back to Sylvan Lake Road then west to the SWT northern trail head for another break. About a half mile before we got to the trail head it started to rain and continued to lightly rain on us all the way home. It was still a good ride and gets me off to a good start for this month.
History lesson:
DeBary Hall was the winter retreat of a European-born wine merchant who chose the St. Johns River country for his hunting estate. Beginning in the 1870s, New Yorker Frederick DeBary acquired lands near Lake Monroe, built a large vacation house, and tried his hand at orange growing and commercial steamboating.
But above all, this Florida estate became a center of sport hunting and hospitality. Entertainment,” said one relative, “was a very simple matter at DeBary Hall. Most guests were asked because they enjoyed the out of doors, with swimming, hunting, and fishing
When DeBary’s last American heir died in 1941, the retreat had grown to more than 6,000 acres with many outbuildings. Today’s historic site is a little smaller—ten acres. But it still includes the 8,000-square-foot main house, stables and other structures, plus artifacts from a kind of working farm, even if the crops were bobwhite quail.
Statistics for: 06/01/2011
Miles today: 58+
Mileage this month May: 58+
Mileage this year: 4035+ (57.6 % of my 2011 goal)
Over/under riding days 2011 vs. 2010: +7
Over/under miles 2011 vs. 2010: +1101 miles
Average miles per ride this year: 39.7+
Average miles per ride this month: 58.8+
Number of rides over 50 miles this month: 1
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 2964, and an 8,500 mile year (would be my best ever) is not out of reach.