I had met a gal, Karen, in spin at the Estero LA Fitness when I was visiting my brother back in February. We have stayed in touch since that time. She suggested that I come along on a very mellow ride with her husband, Mark, a gal who is just getting back into cycling ( and is originally from Medford, NJ), Kathy and herself. With all the crazy fast riding I have been doing it was a welcome opportunity to enjoy a slower paced bike ride for a change.
We met at Naples Cyclery on Vanderbuilt Road in Naples at 8 AM. We said our hello's, got our bikes ready and off we went across the street into Pelican Bay. Pelican Bay is a series of home developments....surprise surprise.... Some of them are high rise condo's along the water and others are single family homes. This development stretches for five miles or more. It's a safe area to ride as there are bike lanes and most of the traffic there is residential traffic. There is a small retail center in the development which blends in with the design of the homes and could easily be missed if not pointed out. It's located near one of the Florida hills.....a bridge!
We crossed the bridge and made a left onto Gulf Shore Drive. This is where we began to see a lot more cyclists in the bike lane. Some where going pretty fast while others like ourselves were meandering along looking at the views...or at least I was. I saw one house that was decorated for Halloween and decided to stop and take a photo. ( how many fancy house photos can I subject you all to??) As I was taking the photo a walker on the sidewalk called out to me....."Do you know who's house that is?" Nope I said. I was thinking it was some celebrity but I was wrong. It was the mayor of Naples home. His name is John Sorley III and he must be Republican because there was a sign out on his lawn to vote for Rick Scott who is the Republican govenor currently up for re-election.
The red sign on the lawn off to the left is the election sign
We continued on Gulf Shore drive looking at all the expensive homes. Here is a gated entry to one I thought was unusual. Very Japanese looking.
We continued along until we arrived at Naples Pier which was suppose to be closed for renovations but the town decided to postpone those renovations due to tourist season. Renovations will now be done in March 2015.
As we were heading back a man yelled to us that bikes were not allowed on the pier. Really....we didn't see that sign. He said that it would $117 fine if we were caught by the local police. That was enough for me. I high tailed it off the pier and of course saw the sign prohibiting bikes on the pier neatly tucked away next to a larger sign detailing all the rules for use of the area. Sure are a lot of rules in SW Florida don't you think?
We continued on Gulf Shore Drive to the end and turned around and headed back to Naples Cyclery. We went a different way home leaving Gulf Shore Drive for another residential street and slowly returned home. Kathy was getting tired and was having trouble with her elbow so the ride slowed down to a "turtle's pace" until we arrived back at the start location.
Breakfast was part of the deal and once the bikes were secured we headed over to Skillet's for breakfast. It was Sunday and there was a line but the wait was only 15 minutes and we were seated inside for a not-so-healthy breakfast.
I had pumpkin pancakes as did Karen. Only two of them but they were monster size so I was pretty uncomfortably full at the end of the meal. Hey....gotta live sometimes. Breakfasts like these are why we ride as much as we do.
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