Out of the five days of biking planned between Venice and Jacksonville, I only did two - but multiple days of biking in and around Venice helped me end up with over 200 miles of fine riding.  I erred on the side of caution when the bad weather hit on the third day but if I was looking at the same forecast and same radar images now, I'd make the same decision.  My goal was to have a fun tour and I had a bail-out alternative. Thanks to Carole's support for giving me that alternative.

Too much of the routing on the bad weather day was on high speed traffic/small shoulder/non-fun roads, mainly because I tried to make the endpoints of the trip fit the time I had vs. making the time fit a reasonable schedule between the endpoints. With a fixed return, I also had no flexibility when weather hit. I also learned that Google satellite view often makes shoulders look bigger than they really are. 

I'll call my first try at bikepacking a success - the gear all worked fine and I definitely liked the way the bike handled and performed better than the old style panniers and trunk rack set up. I do need a way to mount the Varia radar taillight when using the seat bag pack deal.

Getting the bike on/off Amtrak was a piece of cake, once I figured out that it could only be done at manned stations. I didn't spring for a sleeper car on Amtrak on the return because it would have tripled the price of the ride. But, 14 hours overnight sitting up on a train was cruel and unusual punishment.  The bikes on Metro part was a breeze - so much easier than years ago when you needed an ID card, couldn't get on during rush hour and were limited to certain cars in the train.

The 79 mile Auburndale to Mt. Dora day was awesome - worth a return trip as a two day out and back and spending some quality time in Lake Dora. That alone made the bike segments worthwhile, but from Mt. Dora to Jacksonville really didn't have any return-worthy biking areas that I saw.