Day 171, Jan 12, 2017. Kissimmee,FL to Lakeland, FL

Another beautiful day for a ride. Are you getting tired of hearing that? We got an early start, leaving our Warm Showers hosts about 08:00. A little over a mile later, Margaret spied a Denny's; we spent an hour there having a large breakfast. We were riding 58 miles today after all.

Route for today:  https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18382343

I find myself wondering about the history of the places we travel through. About 16 miles into today's ride, we turned onto Old Tampa Highway. This was a narrow road with deteriorating black top overlying red brick. Not a great road. Certainly not a main road.



About a mile in on this road, we came across this.



It says:
"Oct 1930, Welcome to Polk County, Citrus Center"
Looks like there may have been plaques attached in the past, but they appear long gone. What was so important about this little road that it rated a monument like this 86 years ago?

We did see LOTS of citrus groves today, all of them after we passed this point.



We also saw some really tall mangroves. Margaret was wondering if all mangroves were bush like. That was the only kind we saw along the Indian River. Not so much apparently. Notice the knees, the lumpy things coming out of the water near the trunk. They help to supply oxygen to the tree so that it can grow in standing water.

 

We did about nine miles today on rail trails, and saw a dinner plate sized turtle on one of them.



Tomorrow we ride 50 miles to Sun City Center and a motel. We are actually seeing a few hills. Today we had a 2.8% climb, tomorrow one of 2.0%. Yeah, I know, not much. Goodnight.