GoldenGate/Naples,Fl//Cycling Tourist//SouthEast
 

Can I get a "Shout Out" from my touring brothers/sisters in the SouthEast ?? Thanx,mate

Hi, I live in Atlanta.

tour
 

Nice country up there. My Dad lives in Rome,Ga. I'm planning on riding up there as soon as work permits//711miles. How bout your touring..

Tour
 

Happy Thanxgiving.

North Georgia has great riding! Too bad south Georgia is nothing but endless tree farms. I rode to Tallahassee this summer, then to Savannah. This summer I'm planning on riding across the U.S., ending up in San Fransisco. Lemme know when you plan on coming through Georgia, maybe we can ride together for a day. Anyway, happy Thanksgiving!

Vero Beach, Fl... Used to live Plant City, then to Vero then to Daytona then back to Vero then down to Miami then back to Vero Then to St. Augustine now back in Vero... Planning on moving to Gainesville.

I really like North GA too... Black Rock and Dillard especially.

Where does anyone tour round in Florida? I just do day trips.

Florida touring
 

Check out the journal : "Touring the real Florida" WWW.crazyguyonabike.com under//search..

Tour
 

Thanx,mate

Bradenton FL just south of St. Pete the home of the newly wed and nearly dead.

Hmmm. When I was a teenager, my family lived in Golden Gate, and I went to Naples High. So odd to hear of a cyclist around there. I certainly remember sometimes having to wait 30 minutes to cross the damn street to the sub shop, because every road has 45,000 lanes and no crosswalk! Unless things have changed, I can only imagine it utterly inhospitable to cyclists...

I'm in Tuscaloosa (Roll Tide!). Rode from here to Savannah last May. Next May I'lll be riding from here to Charleston, and then from there to D.C.

touring
 

Thanx, I'll leave a post when I'm heading that way..

touring
 

I live out in Golden Gate Estates, Which is a whole other world than Golden Gate//City. Naples has actually made great strides for the Roadies. Let me know if your coming to Naples..

I live in Cape Coral and commute across Veteran's bridge every day into Ft Myers....today is commute day 174 of this year.....10.1 miles to work and 9.6 miles home...I take different routes to change the scenery....am on my 4th year of commuting in via bike....

About twice a year I ride from JAX to Cape Coral.....A1A to Ft Pierce, then cut across to Okochobee (SR70), then SR 78 to Alva and then into Ft Myers on SR80. (Daughter & grandkids are in JAX)

This past July, we went from Ft Myers to Clewiston on Day 1 (76 Mi) (great dinner at the Old Clewiston Inn).....Day 2 was to Homestead (109 mi, beastly hot with a headwind, ugh!).....Day 3 was to Marathon (84 mi., light ocean breeze, a glorious day)....Day 4 to Key West (51 mi.) and then on Day 5 took the hi speed ferry back to Ft Myers Beach...if you reserve ahead, they will take bikes....just plan on hosing off the salt water spray the moment you get off the ferry.

Hope to do this trip again soon!

I am 62....

HI Bill,
 

Your quite the tourist..Maybe we could meet up in La Belle when your out that way. I ride out there from Golden Gate//Naples sometime on Sat's..

Sure....will let you know when we plan that way again....maybe in a week or two...

This Saturday or Sunday is our Sanibel/Captiva run....lv Cape Coral and go over Cape Coral bridge, down Mcgregor to Iona....turn at Iona and work our way to the back of Miramar Mall. Over the Sanibel bridge, being careful to use the bike turnout at the toll gate...bikes don't pay the $6 toll.....then we go to the beach side of Sanibel and head north until Rabbit Run....cut back to the main Sanibel/Captiva road and continue heading up the Island....cross over to Captiva and continue up to the business district, where we stop for a sandwich, and maybe a Yuengling or two....sometimes we skip the sandwich....turn around there and head back to restaurant row in Sanibel....sometimes have lunch there or we continue on to the marina past the bridge, but before the lighthouse to Grandma Dot's for lunch (at the marina).....then we head back over the Sanibel bridge, back to Iona to Macgregor and back over the Cape Coral bridge.....it is about a 66 mile ride.

We often will have people meet us at the Miramar Mall, park their cars there and join us...

The ride thru Ding Darling on Sanibel is very pretty...they do charge a $ or 2 per bike.....this time of year, the wildlife is spectacular. The road thru the reserve is paved now, but with chip seal......very rough on thin road bike tires.....think I may have left a kidney by the side of the road last time last summer....but this time of year, there are so many birds, that you won't be going very fast anyway...bring binoculars and a camera with a good lens.....if you ride thru Ding Darling above 10mph, you are missing a lot....plan on slowww!

The "we" by the way is my son and his girlfriend and myself....when we did the Key West trip, Sherri rentred a car one way and joined us in Homestead for the Key's portion.

Bill
 

Very cool..I just got in from a hard day's work. I will respond to your latest post in the AM..France

Bill... you cut right through my neck of the woods on that A1A route. I live in Vero, right off of A1A just 10mi north of Fort Pierce.

You make moves man.

La Belle
 

Hey Bill,

I'll keep an eye on this forum to see when you will be passing thru La Belle.....Thanx,mate

Looks like we will be coming down the A1A route at the end of the month. We are all going up to Jacksonville to my daughters for Christmas, then my son, John, his girlfriend, Sherri and I are going to ride back...haven't decided which day we will leave Jacksonville, nor our mileage plan per day. We definitely will by daylight constrained, compared to a summer/early fall run. We do run with very bright headlights and Dinotte taillights, but we will try not to ride at night. Will post our trip plan as we get closer!

On our first trip, 2 years ago, we stayed a night at the Howard Johnson's in Vero Beach......had dinner at the Outback............had stopped going to Outbacks a few years previously because of quality issues in our perception......the Vero Beach Outback was back to the very good quality of years before! (For a chain operation).

Labelle
 

Thanx,Bill

We lived in Golden Ghetto from summer of Hurricane Andrew until late 1997 Lake Sapphire I think it was called was across the street from us.. We also owned a lot in the estates. I think it was on 19th street. We were going to build on the lot but decided to leave the area for more northern environs. My only regret was we did not hold onto the estates lot longer as the price of them as you may know more than double in the next 5 years we had sold it. Oh well we did not lose anything on it though. I am just glad I am no longer running a lawn my care business anymore. That work was grueling and a drag after ten years.

But that being said I really have no idea where on would ride down there now. My wife and I would ride the beach areas but that was on cruiser type bikes. I did not become a roadie until moving north. We will be flying down there over Christmas in the next couple of weeks. I still have family down there.

You are right being in the estates is completely different. Is the big T still an area people can go to or is it all built out there now. A lot of those canals were filled with stolen cars that kids would joy ride and then dump them in the canals for fun I guess. Some dang big bass out there to catch for sure. UP here people think three pounders are good nothing less than 7 down there is acceptable.

I went to Lely High for all my high-school years.

Naples Routes
 

Bicycle Dad,

There's a lot of great riding out towards T Canal. Let me know when you'll be here and what type of riding you'll be doing..

France

I doubt I will do any riding at all. We will be between to families and Disney world. I could use my father in-laws Trek 7.9 (carbon I think) if I decide to get a few miles in but doubt I really will though. Thanks for the heads up though.

I cannot wait to show my seven and five year olds some florida gators while there and do some fishing maybe in grandpas boat. This might entail a run down to Stan's in Goodland.

I live in atlanta when not at school.