Day 25 – Hot Wheels

Friday, November 14th

Clearwater, FL

I went to work on the blog this morning after having breakfast, but found my website down.  Even my login page just gave me a 404 error!  Mike Wilkerson had just posted an entry about Dad and me on the Bacchetta blog this morning with a link to my site, so I was pretty disappointed that fate would pick now to shut down the site.  But I contacted my boyfriend (who originally set up the site for me – thank you Lee!) and both of us began to look into it.  Eventually, Dad reminded me of the time and I had to pack up to go to the nursing home.

We took the bikes to see my grandpa (and brought our camera this time).  When we went to sign in for our visitor’s passes, the lady at the front desk informed us that we were celebrities.  Since our last visit, several of the residents had asked about us and minutes before we walked in today, she received a phone call from someone wondering about us.  Who knew fame would find us in a nursing home?

We wheeled Grandpa outside to enjoy the overcast, but warm morning by the bay, and after chatting for awhile, took the pictures we had promised:

The sun began to come out and (in his words) since he didn’t have a tan like mine or Dad’s, he figured he should get back inside before getting sunburnt.

We took him back to his room, said goodbye and stopped at a nearby grocery store to grab some lunch … and more of our favorite food/drink:

With no place to sit and eat, we rode home to have lunch and were greeted by the good news that the website was up an running again (thank you Lee!).  Apparently the company that hosts the site decided to shut down their server and move everything to a new one in that order.  Oh well.

Dad decided he wanted to pick up an extra folding tire for the road (his current one is sliced in a few places) so after lunch we called around to see who carried Michelin 650s.  Luckily, Chainwheel Drive at Drew and Keene stocked the tires he needed, so we jumped on the bikes and made the short ride to the shop.  We picked up some extra tubes as well – two for Dad and one for my back tire – since they had a wide variety in stock, and when the cashiers found out about our travels, I had to take the opportunity to plug the website.  Now it’s their turn. To the guys at Chainwheel Drive: we’re so glad you stock the parts we needed and it was a pleasure to meet you!  Glad we got to visit the store!

We rode home then took the car to the nearest post office (which shares a room with a pharmacy and jewelry shop) to mail home some clothes and stuff we wouldn’t need on the ride back.  It’s going to be a cold ride back, so we’re trying to make some extra room for a few warmer layers we still need to purchase.  After running some more errands (and purchasing a small box of ice cream sandwiches) we returned home and have spent the remainder of the evening watching TV, eating dinner, watching TV, eating ice cream, moving a huge desk for my uncle, and watching some more TV.  ‘Twas a busy day, no?