Bikes...

Not the scooters; well, not this time.

On Sunday, the high tide was above the lowest part of our dock...

On Monday, it was blue sky and bright sunshine.  A view down the canal...

Time to get out some of the toys to enjoy the beautiful weather...

Joan mentioned that she wanted to check out a beach cruiser bicycle.  I brought back my folding bike when we were last at the storage unit.  Other than some cobwebs, it was looking good.  In our underneath storage area, I got out our 25 year old mountain bikes... the climate here has taken its toll on these: any metal that isn't aluminum has turned to rust; the plastic and rubber parts are showing their age...

My mountain bike and my folder...

I lubed up all the moving parts on the bikes.  Aired up the tires.  Checked 'em out - not pretty, but they seem safe to ride.  Joan rode her mountain bike, I rode my folder, around the resort.  Check out the "big butt seat" on the folder, compared to the pointy thing on the mountain bike.

We went to Wally World to check out some beach cruisers.  Service in our Wally tends to be a bit sketchy... they actually went out of their way to not sell us a bike.  After looking at one on the rack that appeared to be put together as a joke (really - there were tie-wraps holding some stuff together instead of bolts), Joan asked if they had one in a box and said we'd put it together.  "Oh, yeah, we got that - it might take a few minutes."

We did our other shopping, then checked back.  Nope, it hadn't been brought up from their back stock.  We went to lunch, then came back... "Um... no, we don't have any of those."

"Didn't you look it up in front of us?"  She did, and told us there were a couple in back.  This time, "Umm... no, we checked.  There aren't any."

Thanks.

Today, we drove out to the storage unit - mostly to see if our motorhome was under water.  According to the local weather, they had more rain there than we did on the coast.  It looked like it as we got close - most of the fields had plenty of standing water.  Pulling up to the storage unit, there was standing water in the areas that weren't graveled.  We opened the door and... perfectly dry.  In fact, it was dusty.

We took time to sweep it out.  My buddy Timm would be happy to know that, other than a bunch of daddy-long-legs, there were no other critters.  To make sure it stays that way, we put down some more bug spray...

Relieved (that it was all dry) and tired (that is a lot of square footage to sweep), we headed in to Harlingen to check out the beach cruiser bicycle we saw at Sam's.  (Yes, Wally's cousin)  Joan liked it, we loaded it onto a cart, and checked out.

Late lunch at Panda Express.  Can you believe they don't serve panda?  Pizza Hut sells pizza.  Burger King sells burgers.  Not a single panda item on the menu at Panda Express.  But, I digress.  Back home, and I went to work on assembling Joan's new bicycle...

I wasn't posing for that photo - I was reading the assembly instructions.  This was more assembly required than other bikes I've put together.  A scant two hours later, Joan had a fully assembled bike.  Well, an hour and a half later for the assembly, another half hour for "custom fitting" seat height, angle, and the same for handlebars.  Check it out...

I may have to get her a bell and some streamers.  ;-)  It came with the cup holder, the front basket, and and adjustable rear rack.  One speed... no brake levers, you push back/down on the rearward pedal.  We haven't had a bike without gears since we were kids.  Good thing it is level around here.  Hope I can keep up with her with my folding bike.  ;-)