New Motorcycle Friends - Englewood

The man in the center is Padre, group leader.

When we went to Burgerking the other day, we met Dave, who was there on his Gold Wing bike.  We introduced ourselves, and after chatting for a while, he invited us to join his group for a ride on Saturday.
The group is perfect for us!  No membership rolls, no commitments, no dues, no guilt.  The leader, Padre, is the minister of the Methodist church in Englewood.  He added our name to his ride list, so we will get word when a ride is planned. 

We arrived about 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the ride.  About 50 bikes were already there, and about 25 more arrived before we headed out for the first stop at the Englewood WalMart.

Where we all lined up bikes in front, riders by the wall, to have a picture taken.  WalMart was presenting a check for $2,500 to the Helping Hands charity that the group supports.  A ride in two weeks will again add to the coffers of the charity.

We then rode out King's Highway nearly to Arcadia, back along Charlotte Harbor, and out to Gasparilla Island, where the final stop was lunch at the Riverside Bar and Grill.

We discovered a few new roads and lots of new friends on a perfectly lovely day for a ride.

Manasota Key, Florida

Manasota Key, sits about half in Charlotte County and half in Sarasota County in SW Florida.  Our house in Englewood is about halfway between the southern road onto the Key and the northern road.  Today was a beautiful sunny day so we went out to the Key.  Unlike "the season" when you can barely find a standing place, let alone a parking place, the Key was nearly deserted today.

The waves were high enough to attract a few surfers, but most of the  people on the beach were collecting shells, swimming or just basking in the sun.

Here is a close up of the shells:

Great for shell seeking, not so great for barefoot beach walking.

The canopy road up the island is beautiful with lots of interesting houses and plants to view.

Many houses are "Gulf to Bay" with the house on the gulf side of the island and the dock on the bay side.  Definitely "lottery option" homes to drool over.

Now this is a fixer!

Walls of bougainvilla and palms

This looked like a Christmas Cactus plant growing up a host tree.

The plant was covered with gigantic yellow blooms.

Manasota Key - something for everyone - one of our favorite places.