Biking In Stuart Florida Once Again!

I went biking along the St. Lucie River here in Stuart, Florida yesterday afternoon for the first time in over 20 years, and it was just wonderful. When my mother Mary lived in Stuart, I bought a bike from Walmart, kept it out on her porch, and would ride it around town whenever I visited. When she came to live with me up in Denver and we decided to rent the condo out for the season each year, I had to get rid of it (people who rent for the season and pay a premium for it are notoriously picky). And so, it was a special treat to be able to bring my bicycle down from Denver and be able to once again enjoy riding along the water in such pleasant weather. I took the self-portrait on the left at the Colorado Avenue Mini-Park, one of my favorite spots right in the heart of downtown Stuart.

I biked from our condo to downtown Stuart and then past the homes (many of them mansions) along the water, and then pedaled up to the top of the first of two bridges leading to Stuart Beach (one across the St. Lucie and the other across the Indian River). And then, running out of time, I biked back downtown and then home along river on the west side of town, past homes from the early 20th Century, many of them very modest cottages, no doubt selling for very immodest prices. And I could not resist biking past the Sunset Bay Marina, seen in the photograph on the right, along the way. I have always been fascinated by the many yachts docked there.

While we were renting out our condo for the past 15 years before taking it back, I fantasized about buying a used cabin cruiser, docking it at a marina just across the street from that condo, and living aboard, embracing the Travis McGee lifestyle (and if you don't know who Travis McGee is, author John D. McDonald's tarnished knight in shining armor who lived on his houseboat at slip F-18, Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale, and pursued a life of adventure, definitely google him). In any case, I even when so far as to call about a used cabin cruiser for sale at a very good price and asked if it was seaworthy. The guy on the phone told me that you get what you pay for. In other words, it would probably sink within months, or a hurricane would come along and blow it to pieces. So much for that idea. The dock space at the time would have been about $600 a month, which I could have afforded if I rented out the condo. But evidently, a lot of boat owners moor their boats out on the river, at a much cheaper cost, and shuttle out there on a motorized rubber raft, as seen in the photo on the left, or even just row themselves out there. No doubt a popular choice for cheapskate millionaires.