Tour Pinellas

Today after church we decided to go for a ride. We've been tossing around the idea of doing some extended touring in the future, so what better way to start than right in your own backyard? For the cost of things we went rather inexpensive, just a short trip from seminole to gulfport and back. We tested some theories and learned a little. Perhaps we will be better prepared for the next trip... but today was a very fun trip.

My brother Christopher decided he wanted to get a tan today so i had to stare at his pale chest the whole ride. The wind was fairly calm, but with all that extra weight from the trailer, and the things we packed in it, the ride was fairly slow going. I used Calebs bike trailer to haul all of our supplies(including Caleb and his bike for a few miles when he got tired). Caleb actually rode most of the 26 miles we ended up traveling but he provided me with some training resistance for a little while. He really is a trooper. He still managed to pull of a few stunts.
We stopped for lunch at our turn around point in the beautiful historic Gulfport. It was a busy day down there and it was flourishing with peeople enjoying thier weekend. It was almost as if we were being greeted at the end of a tiresome journey. The beach was beautiful, the town quaint, and there was some eyecandy as well ;). We decided to have lunch at the Beach Side Grill, a little bar on the south west side of town across the street from the public beaches and the casino. They have a nice outside veranda area so we just parked the bikes and ate outside, threw back a couple brewskies, reveled in todays accomplishment, and dreamed of new trips yet to come. As well as helping an old man with some ideas for his yet to be invented kayak/bike trailer invention... to which i am owed some serious credit if he ever gets that thing of the ground.
All in all it was a great ride, and we do plan to do some more rides of this nature. Next weekend we plan to hopefully ride the Van Fleet Trail to Withlacoochee Trail route. We have been talking about doing this for a while. It would be an over nighter so much more thought and planning would have to go into this trip.

For more information on the Pinellas Trail go to http://www.pinellascounty.org/trailgd/ we put in at the North Seminole Trailhead and went down to the Gulfport spur through the City of Gulfport to Dowtown at the beach and back.