Wow! To those of you back at home in Wisconsin and North Carolina and all our family and friends in the cold climes, we aren’t sorry for ducking out of it all, but sorry you are having such a cold winter to date. Unless you like that of course, and then enjoy, enjoy! It seems there is really nowhere for us to drive off to that has mountain biking and is warm enough for us camp out at, or to drive through to get there, so here we stay. West a bit of Tampa, in Florida’s winter, which seems to fluctuate from about the mid-fifties to the high seventies during the day, to the high 30’s to the high 50’s at night, with lots of clouds, a shower here and there and some sun. The days are mostly mountain-bikeable, so we are happy.

We are re-visiting some of our favorite finds from last year and adding some new ones. Our favorite beach last year was the beach at DeSoto State Park.  A warm day at the beginning of the month got us back for a visit with swimming and paddle-boarding. A nice man on the beach, a winter local, if there is such a thing, tipped us onto a restaurant nearby called The Wharf. Taco Tuesdays, with fish tacos! Peel and eat shrimp! And dolphins from the deck, if you are lucky.