Day 260
Manatee Springs
Our Warmshowers host Bob was happy for us to stay as long as we needed, but though sad to leave we had the next three nights booked, so after a busy morning catching up with our blog we hit the road. We only had about 22 miles to ride to our WS hosts for the night, Pascal and Debbie.
The day before the last few miles had been hard, Bob’s road was a sandy track and we had ridden five miles on a busy highway to get there. What a difference a day makes, the sandy track we had struggled on was easy and the busy road quiet.
From there we were onto near deserted back roads. We stopped at Rainbow Springs for a swim, and timed it right to see the young conservation volunteers releasing dozens of turtles back into the wild. The larger ones were marked, so future volunteers could monitor their progress. Then it was an easy few miles zig-zagging through the Rainbow Lake estate. This felt a great area to cycle and Pascal and Debbie confirmed that it’s a fantastic area for cycling, running and walking. Two more cycle tourists were expected, so we spent the time chatting to Pascal and studying his fantastic photographs of wildlife from all over the USA. The shots were breath-taking.
Suddenly we saw two cyclists fly by, so fast that Pascal decided to give chase in the car, however they weren’t our guys but two tourers aiming to ride 250 miles that day. I think they were tempted to stop and join us though. Ryan and Sam, our guys arrived shortly after. We are cycling in opposite directions so over dinner we exchanged route details and tips. Sam is aiming to circumnavigate the USA, via a few stops to drink some decent beer and listen to live music, we loved his relaxed style. We may meet again when Tom and I head down from Canada to Mexico.
Now Tom had been set a challenge be Mr Lee before we left to hunt down his favourite beer, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter. The brewery is at the top of a very big hill in the Rockies, fortunately for us Pascal is a porter aficionado and he produced a bottle for us to try! Thanks Pascal, you’ve saved us from suffering up a great big hill!
In the morning, refreshed after a good meal and a great night’s sleep we continued on our way. Once again we had quiet roads. We stopped for lunch at a traditional small town diner. Free refills of coffee and Sprite, we ate loaded hash browns with biscuit, a scone by any other name. It was great, as we ate we peopled watched, locals were greeted by name, I scanned the diner for Jack Reacher but he was clearly fighting the good fight somewhere else, he was missing dam good coffee mind!
For the next two nights we have a pitch at Manatee Springs campground. It is simply fantastic, one of if not the best campsite we have stayed at. We have swum in the spring, seen at very close hand so many buzzards, literally just a couple of feet away. Tom spotted a manatee, I saw my first ever woodpeckers, heard them many a time but today I could almost touch them! Our neighbours are providing a steady stream of coffee, pancakes and Smoreos. The sun is out and we’re off for another swim. Back on the bikes tomorrow, but today we’re relaxing!
