It was only a 75 mile move from Clearwater RV Park to the Oscar Scherer State Park but it took much longer than planned due to an unexpected detour off the freeway, only 10 miles away from the park. Pieces of concrete from a freeway overpass had fallen onto the I-75 causing the need to reroute the southbound traffic. Once we saw the mess of traffic slowed to a crawl, I was able to get the info and make driving changes thanks to access on the iPad. So, doing the smaller streets we finally arrived at the park about 3:30. We had site #37 for 5 nights but luckily we were able to get two more nights later in the week to make a wonderful stay from Monday through the following Sunday.
The park is located right along Sarasota's Legacy Trail with an easy entrance on the east side of the park. It is one of our favorite kind, "rails to trails", so we are off all main streets into the beautiful natural Florida environment.
Its a very well used trail with walkers, leisure bikers like us and also racing bikers using the 10 miles between Sarasota and Venice. Our first day we rode south to the old Venice RR Depot, now a history museum.
The trail has benches for resting, markers describing information of local interest and distance markers to reflect location in case of an emergency. Just a fantastic ride, even with the soaring bridge over the highway!!! We did continue on along the waterway for another couple of miles before turning back for home. What a gorgeous day to be on our bikes.
Riding back into the Oscar Scherer Park we stopped to look for the local alligator said to reside in the park lake. All we found was this sign:
and this lovely, though very empty Lake Osprey.
We had a few chilly/rainy days so we took advantage of a little Consignment Store-Thrift Store shopping, my new hobby! We learned that the Goodwill shop in Venice is referred to as "Macy's on the Island" by the locals. Lots of fun finds, especially a new light rain jacket for me, and a lovely wooden salad bowl set.
We'd had some brake problems on our way down from Clearwater so our week here also gave us a chance to have the brakes on the motorhome replaced while we were in the area, costly but necessary!
Friday we had so much fun with the local Jazz Club of Sarasota attending the jam session held at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Amazingly talented jazz musicians performed with a back up trio or, as in this photo, with a larger group. It couldn't have been better; fabulous jazz classics while looking out at a lovely enclosed garden. The Jazz Club presents music most Friday afternoons at 2:00 during the high season. How I wished we would have been in the area longer; we'd go to these every week!
We went back to the bike trails several times changing our direction and changing the views.
Always beautiful, some days less crowded than others.
I loved this combo of the Legacy Trail sign near the old RR crossing bar.
These little kiosks were all along the way with local train stops listed on the side.
The weekend brought sunnier skies and warmer days so it was time to put our new SnapOn kayak to use in South Creek, a backwater stream that flows to the Gulf of Mexico. PK's idea of transporting the 3 pieces of the kayak in the basket that attaches to our hitch worked out perfectly!!!
Once we got the 3 pieces snapped together it was time to put into the water and enjoy a lovely day on the river. So much fun…and the kayak didn't leak! It made for a wonderful afternoon in the sun and quiet of the waters.
Couldn't beat this view!!! Still water, mangrove trees and birds everywhere.
We loved this park!!! It had a very active group of "Snowbird" campers and PK joined them several mornings for coffee and sweets or pancakes…me??? I love to stay in bed in the morning and read. I've already made reservations to come back to this area next winter for Christmas holidays. We loved being in the Sarasota area and there's so much more to see and experience there!!!!
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