Late at night, we had pulled into the Tahiti near Tarpon Springs and enjoyed some much needed sleep. In the morning, the weather was still not looking the best but after a nice hot breakfast, we decided to stick around and try to get a trip along the Pinellas Trail when there appeared to be a break in the weather. Our first stop on our way to the trailhead was at a fruit stand to pick up our initial supply of Florida citrus fruits. The stand that we stopped at had a nice selection to choose from and the prices were reasonable.
Since, today, the weather was marginally better, we optimistically started off on the Pinellas Trail heading south toward St. Petersburg. The Pinellas Trail is one of a series of “rail trails” in Florida which have been developed into walking/cycling trails where railroad lines used to be. Nice flat, paved cycling conditions if the weather cooperates.
The Pinellas Trail passes through a number of smaller towns between Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg with plenty of intersting things to see and lots of food outlets.
My faithful 1970’s vintage steed and I were making good time until we began to encounter sprinkles and then a full course rain storm at about the 30 km. mark. It wasn’t one of those nice warm rains but more of a bone-chilling type, so John and I soon decided that we were wet enough and turned around and headed back to our truck at the trailhead in Tarpon Springs.
On our return route, we stopped at a cycle shop to get some parts and then ate at the Covered Bridge Restaurant.
Food was good but most interesting were the hundreds of post cards and photos of covered bridges which decorated the walls of the restaurant.
When we arrived back in Tarpon Springs we still had a bit of time to tour the area and sponge docks.
