The old rail line

When the weather breaks in October, the Legacy Trail fills back up. It's one of my favorite things about this place.

It's an old railroad line that got turned into a long paved path running between Venice and Sarasota. It's flat, of course, because this is Florida and we don't do hills. It's shaded in the good stretches and wide open in the rest. All summer it's mostly a few very determined people at six in the morning. Then one weekend the air changes and everybody remembers they own a bicycle.

What I like is the mix. You get the serious riders in matching outfits and the retirees on three-wheelers with a flag on a pole. There are parents towing a trailer with a toddler asleep in it, and one guy on rollerblades who has clearly been doing this since 1994 and sees no reason to stop. Everybody waves, and I mean everybody. It's the friendliest few miles in the county.

There's a stretch where the trail crosses water on an old trestle bridge. I've stopped there more times than I can count, for no reason except that it's a good place to stand still for a minute. You can watch the water go under you, and it feels like the town is taking a breath.

You don't need to be in shape. You don't need a nice bike. Rent one, pick a direction, and turn around whenever you feel like it. Nobody's keeping score out there.