The day started out predictably chilly but warmed up quickly. We grabbed breakfast at Denny's, about a mile down US 19, which had a fairly decent bike trail in addition to the bike lanes that started 1/2 mile from the hotel.
Ah, beautiful US 19 . . . but they have a bike trail for at least part of the way.
Of course, with bike trails, you are still subject to all those side streets and curb cuts to businesses. But at least it was a Sunday morning, so traffic would be light . . . but NOT so! So even after breakfast, I kept my yellow jacket on for visibility, shedding it at the turn onto the Pinellas Trail, about six miles from our hotel and five from breakfast.
The start of the Pinellas Trail. We will follow this for about 25 miles of today's ride.
So this is another great trail! Imagine trying to find all of the great trails I (and we) have ridden before we had Google Maps and facilitating websites like RWGPS. It would have been a real chore. We are very fortunate.
So the Pinellas Trail follows 40-plus miles through a number of local jurisdictions in . . . Pinellas County, Florida, a highly urbanized part of Florida, so the trail is a most welcome relief and a great transportation aid, even with all the cross streets. And the locals are very familiar with the heavy usage. Two police cars yielded to us at crossings even though we had "Stop" signs. The "civvies" behaved the same.
So here are some pics:
The trail, located in the median of a street within a well-established neighborhood in Tarpon Springs.
The trail was very crowded (it was a Sunday, after all), and it passes through many neighborhoods, parks, and local business centers along the way. This is a couple that Happy met at one of his stops, Elaine and Mark, and their dog Charlie (in the buggy!).
The only problem I had was a slow leak in my rear tire's tube, a problem exacerbated by the rough curb transitions (on the older trail sections) and the bridge approaches pictured above. My frame pump of many years did fine, but at the first bike shop, Dunedin Cyclery, located about 16 miles into our ride, I stopped and was lent a floor pump! That helped a lot, as I was not inclined to switch out the tube, not yet anyway. But it would get squishy again, and I would stop and add air again. But it was a minor inconvenience, as I only did it maybe three more times. We were only doing 34 miles today; it could wait!
Adding air to the rear tire. This was at a local bike shop. I counted at least three along the trail. I went through this exercise maybe four times. It was a slow leak.
At MP 31, we exited the trail onto a busy road, Seminole Boulevard, with only the sidewalk to ride, and then navigated an interchange to get on Tom Stuart Causeway, and from there, over the bay. The Gulf was now clearly in sight!
But we weren't on Treasure Island yet! One more bridge, accompanied by the dramatic opening of dual, double bascule spans! That's pretty exciting for a bridge engineer (and others as well, I would think!).
And later, over Johns Pass, where we were able to get a close-up of the opening and closing.
From there, it was an easy ride up Gulf Boulevard to our hotel, Treasure Island Ocean Club, which sounds fancier than it really is, an aging 1950s-era hotel/motel. But perfect for us. And friendly! And due to some "administrative" error, they had to relocate us poolside. No complaints here!
Arrival at our hotel, the Treasure Island Ocean Club.
And I took the time to locate the slow leak and change out my rear tire's tube. There was a single pinhole in the sidewall piece. I didn't find the culprit, and the replacement stayed inflated overnight, so good to go!
