GTD 2016 - Day 8

Clearwater Beach, FL to Lake Wales, FL

After breakfast and saying goodbye to my sister and her family we set out for Clearwater Beach.  As I mentioned yesterday, today was an add in ride.  I needed an extra and extra miles.  To get the miles needed for today it was best to start at Clearwater Beach.  Plus, I look for any excuse to get to or near the beach.  This excuse was legit.

The ride on the Bike Trail into Clearwater and then across the Bay to Tampa is one of my favorites!  Other than the city section in Clearwater the ride is awesome.  Once I got into Tampa I had to work my way to Columbus Drive, that would take me to the south side of I-4 and connect me with Broadway Ave. which would drop me off on 574.

Once on 574 it was small town riding.  I went through Mango, Seffner and Dover before arriving in Plant City, the home of the Strawberry Festival.  In Plant City I picked up 92 which took me to A.

Lakeland is such a big, spread out, busy city.  I decided to get on 540 and ride the south side of Lakeland so that I could go through Winter Haven before passing by Cypress Gardens and arriving at the Holiday Inn Express in Lake Wales.

I have driven and ridden this route several times so nothing was new.  The traffic from Winter Haven to Cypress Gardens to 27 is always crazy.  Fortunately I did not have any traffic issues.  Qinggela got to the hotel before me so he was ready to load up and lock up my bike when I arrived.  He has been such a great help!

We got cleaned up and went to dinner at Chili's, it was great!  At dinner we talked about tomorrow's ride back to Clearwater, we would take a different route into Tampa before connecting with the Bike Trail to Clearwater.

Looking forward to getting back to the water!