Sep 22 - I should always carry a camera

On my bike ride today, at one of the malls along US 1, I could see in the distance that the big electronic billboard that faces up and down the street was flashing. When I got closer I could make out the words -- Phoenix Award Bios, Copyright etc. etc. -- ha ha ha -- the computer that was driving the billboard has rebooted itself and stuck part-way through re-boot. I can't blame this one on Bill Gates -- it hasn't gotten as far as Windows yet ! It was still flashing on the way back, perhaps I should have offered assistance ?

I rode north today, into a headwind naturally. I rode north the other day too when I got soaked, but that day I stayed on US 1 the entire way. Today I turned right at mile 24 to cross over to A1A at Ormond Beach and ride along the ocean. It's a great ride although there are sections with no shoulder.

1.5 miles from my 35 mile turnaround point I got a flat. I believe that this is the first flat since early in the ride across the country -- so that would be almost 15,000 miles -- that sure is a testimony to these tires that I use ! Upon inspection I could see what appeared to be nail-heads, two of them, but turned out to be glass once I had the tire off the rim. Oh well, that's why I carry spare tubes.

So ... I put the new tube in and tried pumping it up -- nothing. Darn, must be a dud tube. Off with the tire and then on again with the second tube -- nothing. Whoops, is my pump not working ? Next I used the CO2 cartridge but whoosh -- the frozen air came out at the valve stem. Darn again -- both spare tubes are duds ! I checked both -- one with a leak around the valve stem, that's a useless tube -- the other with a leak at the seam, which is more difficult to patch. So ... I decided to patch the original tube that started this -- patched it, hand pumped to save the CO2 cartridges and rode home without incident.

Of course in all this I wasn't saying "darn" -- but I'm fairly mellow about these things, no need to get angry at inanimate objects. I had a fleeting thought about calling Sandy when the second tube proved to be a dud but that would have been really copping out -- perhaps if I had only been a couple of miles away, but it would have taken Sandy the better part of an hour to get to me.

The good news is that it was hot, sunny and dry. Patching in the wet would not be fun and might not work very well. Ormond Beach looked like it had had rain earlier in the day but I was dry the entire time. It's mid afternoon now and there are a couple of threatening thunderclouds but they may or may not hit us.

I wanted to write the piece about the billboard before I forgot about it. More later ...

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It's morning again. We finally got some rain late in the day, but it only sprinkled. Once it's light I'll be able to see if we got anything more substantial overnight. Weather permitting, we'll go out in the boat today.

Sandy did some more gardening, spreading some mulch on the gardens to re-cover the drip hoses. She also took Abby to the beach, which was not busy this time, being a week day. Abby had a good time as usual.

We had the leftover chicken for dinner that was cooked last April and has been in the freezer ever since. It was fairly dried out, as you might expect -- not exciting, but edible.

I continued to research replacement propellers and found that the Quicksilver brand -- Mercury's own brand -- of prop would cost me $169 at a local Bayliner dealer or $110 through "West Marine" which is also local. I'm not going to do anything about it right now. I'm not even convinced that it would make a difference -- and certainly down here it would not because we're more often putting than anything else -- too bad I can't "try before I buy" with a new prop !

I also continued to research hitch carriers and found that I've started this too late to order anything online. Since the units even when disassembled are in oversized boxes the shipping charges for expedited service are as much or more than the units themselves. I'll call around today to Target, Walmart, Bass Pro and Pep Boys to see if anyone has anything in stock but I don't think this is going to happen. All of these are local except for Bass Pro who which is in Orlando.

We have a few more days here and then we're on the road again. It seems that we've been down here much longer than 10 days because it takes so little to "start up" as it were. Up north, with stores so distant, there are a few days startup as we restock the larder, pickup the mail and re-engage with the "environment". Once it's cold outside it takes 2-3 days for the house to completely warm up and the dampness dispelled. Here, once we empty the counter of several months mail and pick up milk in the morning we are good to go since we buy each day's food that day and very little needs to be planned in advance. Life is easy down here and less expensive.

So ... on with the day. We'll play it by ear, depending on the weather.