Wait..WHAT?! I can bike my own neighborhood?

Yes, you can.  You can walk some of it, too.  Many of us are children of suburbia. If your parents were like mine, we bough a 60s ranch home near the edge of town and settled down into the model atomic family life.  Our home was dominated by the garage, which was the largest and most prominent feature.  The large asphault driveway curved gracefully up from a wide street lined with purple plum trees.  Nowhere in our small town was out of our reach because we owned cars--everyone owned cars.  The town was designed around the concept of the automobile.

Seminole Heights was built just as cars started to become affordable to the average worker.  We were built as part of a young Tampa Electric Company (TECO) effort to expand their customer base by building electric trolley lines into the hills around Tampa.  People still expected to walk and take the trolley and our area was designed around this mix of transportation choices.

So yes, we can bike and walk. Ella's is darned close to Publix and a nice walk down the streets, especially in our wonderful Spring weather.  It is 1.5 miles to walk from Lake Roberta to 12th street and up 12th to Patterson park at the Hillsborough river.  That's a nice walk on foot and practically nothing on a bicycle.  From the perspective of a kid who was born the same year the first Mustang Fastback came out, it's sometimes hard to imagine that 1.5 miles is close and that getting to the park can be just as fun as being there.

I know you're probably wondering if I'm crazy, drunk, high, or all three.  So don't take my word for it--experience it yourself.  This coming Saturday, from 3pm to 5:30, get on your bike and bike to not just one Seminole Heights restaurant, bike to eight of them.  There is no better way to get a real understanding for the scale of our neighborhood as seen from a bicycle. The Seminole Heights Bicycle Club is hosting their first Hub Grub Ride to introduce people to bikes as a means of leisurly travel and to the good food we have right here in our own neighborhood.

The Details:

Meet prompty at 3pm in front of the Garden Center - 5800 Central Ave.

Visit Reservations Gourmet-to-Go, the Taco Bus, Starbucks, the Front Porch Grill, the Refinery (was Bungalow Bistro), the Independent, Cappy's Pizza, and finish up at Ella's around 5:30pm.