August 12, 2015
On Wednesday, I decided to venture into some unexplored territory on my ride. I’ve wanted to explore an area called Terra Ceia, a small island north of nearby Bradenton that includes a lot of wetlands and a large aquatic preserve. I calculated it was about 50 miles to get there and ride around the island, so I arranged with Nancy to meet me for lunch at a restaurant close to the island. This has all the makings of an excellent day!
I left from the house just after sunrise, to get as much riding as possible done before the heat grew too intense.
I took the now familiar route westward toward Bradenton. It has rained a lot here lately, and I was a little concerned that I might get rained on. As I got near to downtown Bradenton, it did start to sprinkle a little, but then the sun broke through, and gave me a glimpse of the beautiful day to come.
Once into downtown, I turned North, crossed the bridge over the river and headed through Palmetto and onto Terra Ceia itself. Soon after I rode over the bridge onto the island, a pedestrian on the other side of the road called out to me “Hey! Where’s your bird?” I was moving pretty quick, the guy was on the other side of the four lane road, and this seemed a little strange to me, so I chose to smile, wave, and keep on riding.
Terra Ceia has a long and storied history here in Florida that covers more than five hundred years and includes tales of Indians, Spanish Explorers, soldiers, immigrants, and pioneers. It remains a small, rural and agricultural community. All of which make it a pretty darn nice place to ride a trike! Lots of quiet, shady, small streets with little traffic. Big old houses on large properties with pretty views of the wetlands and the bay beyond. A fun place to ride for sure.
Near the center of ‘Town’ are some of the older historical buildings. There isn’t much town really, just a couple of buildings along Center Street.
As I headed out-of-town I admired some of the big old houses on huge bay front properties.
It’s August in SW Florida. Temperatures are in the low to mid 90’s and I’m starting to get pretty hot and tired and hungry! So now it’s time to head back and meet Nancy for lunch.
On my way off the island, a woman is backing a truck out of a driveway in front of me. Being the cautious guy that I am, I stop and let her pull out before I continue. Her truck comes out of the driveway and turns toward me. As we are passing, she rolls down the window, leans out and asks – “So, no bird today?”
Seriously? This is a pretty weird comment to get twice on a single ride. So I started up a brief conversation with her.
Turns out there is somebody who rides a recumbent trike here regularly with a parrot perched on his shoulder. It’s a small town place, and he’s apparently such a character that people remember him.
I guess everybody on a recumbent trike looks alike, huh?
Anyway – it would be fun to meet the bird carrying triker in the future (if only to see how much I look like him :>)). If anybody knows who he is, please let me know.
I’ve arranged to meet Nancy at the Riverhouse Reef and Grill, at the Regatta Point Marina along the north shore of the Manatee River in Palmetto. The marina has located the restaurant at the end of large pier, and it offers incredible views of the river and the marina from the dining room and outside decks. One of the best parts about going there is a wonderful shuttle service that can take you out to the restaurant if it is too hot or if the walk is too far. They will even take you back your car! That was just great!
This is our second time visiting this restaurant. On the weekends , the outside bar area is open and we ate there last time. The burgers were quite good.
Since Mike was pretty warm from his trip, we ate inside with a beautiful view of the river. I had the mussels appetizer for my lunch and it was certainly enough to eat. It was delicious and the sauce it was in was so good you wanted to eat it like soup or dunk the bread they give you, anything so you could sop up the delicious sauce.
Mike had the lobster pot pie. It was delicious as well with a light flaky crust. It wasn’t big but it was pretty rich. The service was good and they refilled our glasses as often as we needed without asking. The prices are reasonable for the food. We know they have a Sunday brunch but haven’t been there for it. One day, we would like to go for dinner.
