Carless...

 

In case you read that quickly, it is CAR-less, not CARE-less.

I edited the living daylights out of the video I shot yesterday, getting it from 100 gigabytes of data to less than 1 gb.  Yeah, I left out a lot.  But, I was excited about capturing something with the DJI and Insta equipment.  I won't do that again.  Probably not.  What can I say: I get excited when I'm riding fun roads... and I like to share.

That said, here's the video...

 I titled it "A Rambling Solo Ride," because it is mostly just talking while I'm enjoying the ride.  For some perspective, there was over an hour of the basic video, before adding in the 360 footage,  This is about 5 minutes.  And... some blue sky!  Until there wasn't.  As I mentioned yesterday, I rode in the rain the last half hour or so.

Today, it rained this morning.  Not a lot; just enough to wet down everything.  Joan made us a nice breakfast (too wet to cook out on the Blackstone) while I chopped away fun scooting footage.  We worked for a while to try to get a metal stake out of the gravel that Joan pounded in with a sledgehammer on day one.  It is in there tighter than The Sword In The Stone.  She pulled, I pulled, we pulled.  Using some physics, I suggested we try wrapping a line around it and both pull up.  Nope.  We put Robo-Grips on it.  Wouldn't budge.  Every other stake she put in can be easily pulled out by hand thanks to all the rain; I am thinking she pounded this one into granite.  Or, possibly a water line and if/when we do get it out, there will be a geyser.  I pounded it from side to side with the sledgehammer.  Nothing.  Joan pounded it from side to side with the sledgehammer.  More nothing.

And then Joan said, "The sky is looking pretty gray - the hourly forecast is calling for rain by 2:00; we need to think about getting the car back.  (Today is the last day of our 2 week rental.)  We decided to take her bike.  I geared up to ride a scoot to the Enterprise Car Rental place, and then I was told that Joan would be riding there and I should drive the car so I can put "the right amount" of gas in it... at Enterprise, you don't bring it back full, you bring it back with the same amount of gas it had in it when you picked it up.  Which in this case was about a half tank.

I had my helmet and jacket in the car.  I got to Enterprise before Joan did.  The check-in process was fast and easy: the guy walked out to the car, did a once around, then checked the fuel level.  When he came in, he said, "Thanks for taking good care of our car.  Any problems with it?"

"Nope, it's a nice car."  A Chevy TrailBlazer - I liked it, Joan didn't think it was as nice as our Equinox.  Different vehicles.  It served a purpose, getting us out and about during the last two weeks of rain, rain, rain.

Joan pulled in, I went out to the bike and asked, "Who's driving?"

"You can."  I put on my helmet and jacket, she popped out the passenger pegs and got on.  When I got to the edge of the driveway, it started to rain.  Yes, I am serious.  Not heavy - we didn't put on rain gear... just enough for us to be reminded that Mother Nature is always in charge.

Back to the coach; I got out of my gear and put the Xmax away.  Still sprinkling.  It is coming.

Our holding tanks are nearly full, so I went out to dump black and gray tanks now so I don't have to do it in the middle of a thunderstorm.  I could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.  It felt good to get back inside to the air conditioning... it is 83º and seriously humid.

The cloud cover is heavy enough that the cable TV (based on Dish satellite) is going in and out.  It has the potential to be a long afternoon.  Joan is cooking: making salmon for her and taverns for me.  Without the car, it isn't going to be as carefree to go out for a meal.  Good thing we are stocked up on groceries.

2:30 in the afternoon, a hard rain.  The cable TV is back on; we are watching the Olympics.  The sky is so dark we have to have the lights on in the kitchen and over the dinette to see what we are eating.