Isles of Capri and Marco Island Ride

Friday 2/13

The Thursday ride was moved to Friday due to my dog Tracey's dental surgery. 16 teeth were removed so I didn't want to venture far from home the day after surgery just in case she had a problem.

 The weather was good and we decided to meet at Rookery Bay along Collier Blvd going into Marco Island at 8:30 AM.  Here is a link for information about Rookery Bay

https://rookerybay.org/about-us.html

I plan to go back and tour this estuarine research reserve some time in the near future.  It looks very interesting and I am sure that you can spend several hours there as it covers many acres.

Dennis and Bruce rode 11 miles from their condo's on Marco Island to Rookery Bay to meet Al and I for the 8:30 AM start.  It was a cool morning but still warmer than the northeast! 

We headed out of Rookery Bay on to Collier Boulevard towards Marco Island.  We made a right turn onto Shell Pt Road which took us through a section of Rookery Bay and out to the boat launch area.  There was a guide there getting kayaks ready for a tour.  Bruce knew the guide from a previous kayak trip in that same area.  What are the odds that would happen?

Since the road dead ended into the bay we turned the bikes around and headed back out to Collier Boulevard.  I asked Bob Smith about Isles of Capri and if it was worth a detour and he said yes....that I had to see it at least once.

I had heard of Isles of Capri because of this story.

http://www.inquisitr.com/1676853/15-foot-burmese-python-found-near-florida-restaurant-in-island-of-capri/

Yes besides alligators there are panthers, bears and pythons.  After all .....this is the Everglades.

There was one road out and back at the Isles of Capri and we cycled through the town.  

Here is one of the houses we saw.

All of the streets were named after marine life or something related to beaches.  Surprised?

We cycled back to Collier Boulevard and headed to Marco Island.   We had to cycle over this to get on the island.



Now that's a Florida hill!!!

Al had not been to Marco Island so we cycled to the marina where the Key West Express leaves from and then cycled back to the main area and continued riding around the island.   We ended up at Bob's house for our rest stop.   Coffee, honeybells ( a type of orange available during a limited season in FL) and smiles were served.  I needed the rest stop as we were already at mile 32.   Tom Hammell knows how cranky I can get when I don't get a rest stop at or before mile 25 of any ride!

After such a nice rest stop, the bad news was that Al and I had to cycle back to Rookery Bay on our own.  It was now near noon and traffic gets very heavy on Collier Boulevard at that time of day.   It was a white knuckle ride over the Marco Island Bridge and back to the ride start.   Note to self......start the ride on Marco Island next time!!!

 Thanks to Bob for being the tour guide around Marco Island.