Florida: Sarasota to Venice

Day 187 Part 1 - Sarasota

Today was an amazing day, we started the day in Sarasota and ended it in Venice, Florida. With everything that happened today, it proved to be the equivalent of what could normally be four different days.

First, we took a 7-mile bike tour of a portion of Sarasota before leaving the area, and then we took an 10-mile bike tour of Venice after we docked there. With a "nip" in the air, the wind in Sarasota made for a chilly bike ride especially going over the bridge to St. Armands Circle. By the time we went out on our bikes in Venice, it was quite a bit warmer, and we did not need our coats.

We started our bike tour of Sarasota right at our marina. Clark got a kick out of the "tacky" name for this cruise ship.

LeBarge Cruises

LeBarge Cruises Mermaid Adornment

A short way down the road we came to an exceptionally tall statue labeled "Unconditional Surrender" named for the famous kiss in Times Square after WWII.

Unconditional Surrender Statue
incredible detail right down to the seams in her stockings

Clark is dwarfed by the height of the statue

We were told by friends that if we did nothing else before we left Sarasota, we needed to go over the bridge to see St. Armands Circle. We did not get there yesterday, which was our last full day in town, so we decided to bike over there this morning before getting underway. It was well worth the bike ride and time!

We had to go over a tall bridge to get to our destination. Below are pictures from the bridge.

Overcast skies and a Strong Breeze Made Crossing the Bridge Chilly

View from the Bridge

Another Bridge View

As soon as we entered the St. Armands Circle section of Sarasota, we knew we had found a place of interest and charm. We found two distinct but related themes in the area - Greek Statues and Tributes to the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Seven Virtues of Sarasota Statuary 

The seven virtues include Music, Flora, Sculpture, Bounty, Medicine, Water, and Learning. A statue was made to represent each virtue with one of Michelangelo looking on.

Bounty

Music

Just beyond the 7-virtues statues, we came to the Circus Ring of Fame honoring circus performers and associated persons. The number of circus wagon wheel plaques were too numerous to count and encircled an entire park. We took pictures of a few samples shown below.

Wagon Wheel Tribute to Circus Members

The 5 Ringling Brothers

Plaque Honoring P.T. Barnum

And One Honoring the Flying Palacios

We continued on from there to Lido Beach / Lido Key where we found yet more statues mostly of Greek gods and goddesses.

Lido Beach Area

After a quick look around at Lido Beach we decided we should head back to the boat, but there was still plenty more to see along the way like the four seasons statues shown below.

Fall

Summer

Spring

Winter

The St. Armands Circle section of Sarasota had numerous shops to explore. One we found of particular interest due to its unusual nature was the Stadium Gallery selling pictures of sports stadiums. I saw one picture for Cleveland and one for Dallas Cowboys, for example. I also saw special artworks for the 2015 Stanley Cup and the 2015 World Series. Both were on sale at reduced price for the holidays - they did not sell however!

The Stadium Gallery .com

Peeking in the Window at The Stadium Gallery

We needed to move the boat from Sarasota to Venice today, so we watched our time carefully on our bike ride. Clark allotted about two-and-a-half hours for our Sarasota bike tour and we used every minute of it.

Here I am hitting the trail back to the boat.

Dolphin Water Fountain along the way

View of Sarasota and Marina from Bridge

Our last view of Sarasota before going on our way

Day 187 Part 2 - Boat Ride to Venice
NM Today: 16
NM Total: 3545
Hours traveling 2.45

We got back to the boat at 11:00 which was just about perfect, and we were on our way to Venice by 11:30. Distance-wise Clark thought the trip would take about two hours but added in an extra hour for bridge openings and slow / idle speed zones. Our estimated time of arrival in Venice was 2:30.

Due to the Manatee population, we encountered large numbers of slow speed / idle speed zones. I drove for a very brief period of time and as I looked out over the boat I could see a manatee swimming in the water directly in front of the boat. Many manatees have been injured or killed by damage done to them from boat propellers. The slow / idle speed requirements are to keep the manatees from harm.

Manatee Zone - Minimum Wake

Some pretty nice real estate along the water
We saw one empty lot on the water for sale for $1,550,000.

One of the bridges that we needed to have opened today.
It is a swing bridge and rotates 90 degrees to let boats pass.

An Osprey in its Nest on a Marker
which is a quite common place to see their nests.

Views along the Gulf ICW as we approach Venice

Another view coming into Venice, Florida

At dock at Fisheman's Wharf Marina in Venice, Florida

Day 187 Part 3 - Venice, Florida

As soon as we got to Venice, we tied the lines securely, pulled out the bikes and headed out for our second ride of the day. The predicted weather for Friday is rain, so we decided we needed to do our exploring today. We arrived at port at 2:15 just 15 minutes shy of the captain's estimated travel time - pretty good guess on his part!

Docked at Fisherman's Wharf in Venice, FL

 We had a couple of destinations in mind. The first took us over a tall bridge right into downtown Venice. Our first point of interest was a small park with a beautiful mural.

Mural at Michael Biehl Park showing the birds and water life

Shortly thereafter we came to the main street in Venice.

Welcome to Venice!

Looking down the street at the shops in Venice, FL

Pink is a common building color in Venice

Water Playground for children
(I am sure Sierra would love this place.)

Historical Marker for the City of Venice

Venice - main street

Venice again

Stop at Home-Made Ice Cream Shop for Energy

Bikes parked in front of ice cream shop

After our ice cream treat and exploring the main shopping street in town, we headed back towards the boat (or so I thought). Instead of going back up and over the bridge to to towards the marina, however, Clark diverted and took us on the Venetian Waterway Bike Trail which was flat and fun to ride.

Bike Trail - Nice and Flat!

View from the Trail

 Clark and I will be coming down this stretch of water with the boat when we leave Venice. It was interesting to see the sights by bicycle first, since it is often hard to see what is on land from the boat.

Venice Water Tower

Beautiful Mural for Airfield next to bike trail

Same Mural - Circus Train? I think yes.

Still part of the same mural

We followed the trail for quite some distance. I had no idea where I was going; I was just following the trail. When we got to the water's edge for a second time, Clark announced that we had gone far enough out of our way, it was time to turn around and cover the same territory back again to get back to the bridge. Normally I dislike backtracking, but this trail was flat and fun. With exploring a section of town plus the trip along the bike trail, I am sure we covered at least 8 miles in the Venice downtown area.

Clark took a very nice picture of the marina as we crossed back over the bridge.

Fisherman's Wharf Marina and on-site Restaurant

 But wait, there's more ... we were not yet done!

Our bike ride did not end when we got back to the marina. I need to do laundry and we heard we could find a laundromat about a mile or so down the road. We decided to go check it out without the burden of laundry to see how manageable the ride would be to get some wash done.

We found a laundromat in a plaza that only takes about 15 minutes to bike there sans laundry. Since it will be raining in the morning per current forecasts, I am not sure about getting the laundry done then as neither of us want to take our bikes out in the rain. We will have to 'play it by ear' to see how the day plays out.

Also at the plaza with the laundromat was a store 'calling Clark's name' - Batteries and Bulbs. He said he would "pop in / pop out". Instead he was in the store so long I thought he had taken root in there! The good news is he eventually came out and he had not bought any bulbs or batteries today.

Coming back from the laundromat, Clark decided we should try the overpass to avoid crossing the highway to get back to the marina. It turned out that the trail we ended up taking is called the Legacy Trail.

Bike Trail

The Legacy Trail Overpass

 The overpass turned out not to be our friend as it dumped us on the wrong side of the major, busy highway. Clark decided that we should cross over to get back on track. I had to wait for the traffic to clear some and then ride my bike as fast as possible to get across three lanes of highway to the middle and then do the same to get across the next three to get to the side where we needed to be. So instead of crossing at a crosswalk with minimal traffic, our overpass put us at a place where we had no crosswalk and high-speed traffic. Anyway - we made it across the road, so that is the important part.

Day 187 Part 4: Disaster Strikes the Boat Inverter

We sat just relaxing on the couch after our bike ride and before dinner. At some point I looked at the microwave and was surprised to find no display. I asked Clark, "why is the microwave not on?". That simple, innocent question led to a whole lot of work. I just thought the breaker was turned off. Silly me! It turns out the inverter failed while we were gone on our second bike ride of the day. Because of the way the boat is wired; the inverter is a pretty critical component of the boat's electrical system.

The inverter converts DC power on the boat to AC power, so we can run electrical appliances and use electric wall outlets without running the boat generator. It hides behind the sofa, so of course we expected we would have to move the sofa to get to it to see what the issue is. But first we took down the boat's electrical panel, and Clark checked all the connections to verify that nothing had come lose. No such luck, so plan A here we come!

Pulled the sofa out to get to the inverter for repair
our sofa is mounted on the floor to prevent skidding or movement, so
we had to unbolt the sofa to move it.

Photo of the other side of couch to offer an idea of the clutter

Clark behind the sofa with inverter taken apart. He is trying to clean the contacts to see if a better connection can be made with the current inverter instead of buying a whole new inverter.

When we needed to move the couch, we knew we had to unload all the materials stored inside the sofa. We put things inside and outside. Unfortunately it started to rain, so I had to rearrange the items outside to try to keep the rain off. Meanwhile I am inside working on my blog on a too-short table.

With my bad posture leaning over the laptop, and Clark's contortionist act behind the sofa to work on the inverter, we both need to stretch our backs / muscles regularly to get the kinks out!

Clark is still diagnosing and trying to decide if the contacts are dirty or if we need a new inverter. As I finally conclude this long blog entry, the current time reads 1:05. With the exception of a quick break for dinner, which I threw together while trying to work around the rubble, Clark has been working on the inverter situation since we returned from the bike ride around 6:00 p.m.  What a terrible end to a wonderful day!