Pedal and Play in Paradise's Mystery Ride!

Richard, the Mystery Ride Creator!

Richard volunteered to create the Mystery Ride for this year's Pedal & Play in Paradise Bike Event in Punta Gorda.   This event is very popular - most years more than 500 people ride the routes as follows:

Joanne gets ready to check out the Mystery Ride



• Casual Ride around town with the City Manager
• 10 mile Mystery Ride
• 15 mile Ride
• 30 mile Ride
• and 60 mile Ride!

For an entire year Richard developed the premise and videos were developed to entice people to participate in the exciting Mystery Ride.  Richard even collected prizes from local merchants.

See Event Video by Bruce Tompkins

See Mystery Ride - The Final Explantion

See Mystery Ride - Source of the Coded Message


So the Mystery Riders sought answers to questions provided by signs, murals and other objects as the peddled Punta Gorda's pathways. The answers created a cipher to decode the mysterious M's message,  The Fountain of Youth lies in the hearts of the people with the spirit to build a community of love and beauty.

Mystery Riders also received a free bottle of Fountain of Youth Spring Water!

On Saturday, March 25th, Richard rose at 5:30 am to put out the directional signs and supervise the fun.  He was not disappointed.  Over 100 riders enjoyed the adventure and he received lots of compliments about the event. 

Proceeds were donated to the Leukemia Foundation and to TEAM Punta Gorda, a wonderful grassroots organization that makes our town a better place to live!