Another journal? Yep. Another tour? Yep. While the winter months tend to keep me inside, I'm unshackling myself and my bonds to the Atlanta area and heading to Florida for an 8-day adventure. Why Florida and why this trail?

The Florida department of parks (probably in association with a lot of volunteer effort) has linked together trails across the peninsula of Florida traveling from St Petersburg to Titusville (https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/240aa2b64192472da9ffb371a986d3bd). It's about a 250-mile effort so certainly a good one for a few days worth of riding. And the temperatures should be in the mid-70's during the day and lows around 50 at night. Thank you, and yes, I'll ride there.

But since this trail is a one-way (unless I want to backtrack over the trail I arrived on) I'll have to make it a loop. Challenge accepted. I'm making the <7 hour drive to St Augustine, parking my car in their downtown parking facility (about a $35 charge for the 9 or so days) and then riding counter-clockwise on this route. I found a trail that leads from St Augustine about 2/3 of the way to Gainesville, and then roads to Crystal river. Then, outside of Crystal River I have a path all the way into Tampa, and ride a network almost exclusively of paths until New Smyrna Beach, where I pick up A1A and ride north back to the car.

I'll try to write every night since this is an inn-to-inn ride and I don't have to worry about camping. That also means I'm traveling light and once I get into the room all I have to worry about is finding some place to eat each night.

So come on along and join the fun as we cover these 600 miles in 7.5 days!