Day One, Ride to Venice

Our first day’s agenda was fun and simple. We’d ride down the Legacy Trail to Venice, take a detour down to the Jettys, eat downtown, and then finish up our ride on the Venetian Waterway Trail to Shamrock Park and Granny’s house.

Only five miles in - The Legacy Trail in Sarasota

Investigating at the train station in Venice

A dolphin (left) popped up while I was taking this photo

Well, that worked great, until we hit our first big stop, the Venice Train Station. It was then I saw that I had four voicemails and five emails. Work was tracking me down. Wireless digits are faster than wheels. I had a client whose site had been “hacked,” and he needed my urgent help to fix it.

That immediately derailed our plan. We adjusted though, heading straight for Granny’s house and my laptop, which was waiting for me. I skipped lunch, remoted to my workstation, and fixed the problem. It wasn’t real hack, but some dudes or dudettes in Sweden caused me some serious angst and delay.

It was late afternoon when I was free. We had already logged 22 miles, but my oldest and I took off for more adventure. And this is when the fun really started. He and I rode down the Venetian Waterway Trail again to the South Lookout, near Caspersen Beach. I was taking a quick shot of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), when a dolphin popped up. You can see him on the far left of the photo above.

We also spotted a gopher tortoise, a little blue heron, and some other wading birds.

Gopher tortoise on the Venetian Waterway Trail

We rode down to Caspersen Beach, then along the shore to the Venice airport, the old Ringling Circus area, and then across the Circus Bridge, back to our night’s resting spot.

Caspersen Beach, Venice

Venice airport