Lunch

3:46 PM -- Having a late lunch at a place called Toojays after riding a short 15 miles, finding both bike shops in the area and getting registered for the rally. Tomorrow the real riding begins!

Early Morning Transport

I'm at a Starbucks in one of the "squares" at The Villages -- a place where there are shops, stores, restaurants and outdoor areas for many different forms of entertainment. Pictured is one of the preferred forms of transportation around here: an electric golf cart. Cheaper to use than a car, and legal on most of the roads within The Villages. Where there's a busy road that the carts aren't allowed on there will also be a parallelling trail for carts, cyclists and pedestrians. The cart in the picture??? It's what I drove to Starbucks this morning!

The Bike...

9:40 PM -- The picture was taken while the tandem was still in the case. It took a couple of hours to put together, then a shower... out to dinner and then a run to the store for groceries and we find ourselves back at the house surfing the available channels on the TV.

Tomorrow we'll get up and take a ride to a local bike shop as I'm having a slight problem with the front brake. It's nothing too serious, and something that a bike mechanic will wonder why I couldn't figure the answer on my own. I guess that's why I'm not a bike mechanic... sigh.

The Eagle Has Landed...

3:38 PM -- We've arrived at The Village and are now driving around to get a feel for where everything is.

Am I Dead?

9:00 AM -- Am I dead, or are the vultures just hanging around the neighborhood in case I might decide to expire while I'm here? There were four of them making a mess of someone's trash, but two of them flew away before I could take the picture.

They tend to like to perch on the top of lamp posts or rooftops, and with their backs facing the sun they spread their wings like a feathered solar collector to warm up in the early morning.

There's a Starbucks about a mile down the road from here, and her Majesty the Valerie sent me to fetch her morning coffee. It was about a quarter to nine in the morning and when I stepped out of the air conditioned car into the warm, humid morning air... My glasses fogged up! We must be in Florida...

End of the Day...

8:00 PM -- We were met at the airport and whisked away to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory where the portion size seems to be a little above the normal limits of the average man.

After that it was off to the Home Depot to replace two of the fours casters that came off of the tandem case somewhere between Boise and Tampa. The airline (of course) takes no responsibility for damage to the wheeled parts of luggage. Yet they're more than happy to extract $300 from you for something a little oversized and overweight.

Whining aside, we're now "home" for the night. Tomorrow we'll look into what UPS will charge to ship the bike back to Idaho... We're hoping to find a cheaper alternative to the airline's fees. I don't know if one exists but it's certainly worth checking into.

On to Tampa...

10:28 AM -- We've just boarded a 757 and will be taxiing for take off in a little over 10 minutes. Rich had a "Sunrise Sandwich" at Wolfgang Puck's Express, and Valerie is dining on some cinnamon pretzels from "Auntie Annie's Pretzel Perfect". This flight was a little late getting boarded and the crew is now trying to rush everybody through the plane so they can hit the runway.

The photo was taken looking out from our gate toward the main terminal in Denver.

11:10 AM -- Still on the ground. One of the food service carts couldn't get unlocked from its docking station, so maintenance brought out a replacement. In the mean time the crew got the cart fixed, but procedures required that the cart be swapped out with the replacement anyway. Wow, but I'm starting to really love United!

11:57 AM -- Must have dozed off right after take off as I notice the guy next to me has a drink. Wonder if I'm out of luck or if I'll get a second chance at liquid?

2:20 PM -- advance the time ahead 2 hours as we're now on Eastern time AND we've just landed in Tampa and are taxiing toward the terminal.

While in Denver...

What to do once we land in Denver, before getting on the next plane to Tampa? Why, I believe I hear breakfast calling my name! You'd think that they could at least feed us a stale bagel on the plane, especially after the horendous baggage charges!

The photo is simply us glued to our seats, unable to get up at the moment due to turbulence.

On Our Way

Boise, ID -- sitting on the plane, 6:48 AM.

This trip is not starting out well. Road construction delayed us getting to the airport, and checking the bags in was an expensive proposition! The bike's case was "oversize" and "overweight", which cost us just under $300 -- one way! The tandem is going to cost us more than our tickets did!

Florida in October...

Greetings to those who actually have enough spare time on their hands to follow this nonsense. This little flurry of writing activity will cover our latest adventure, a trip to Florida to participate in the Southern Tandem Rally. This is the first time we will have flown with our newest tandem bicycle, which breaks down into pieces and fits into its own suitcase. I'm anticipating undergoing some major surgery at the airport when United Airlines charges me extra for this case... either for the weight or the size. There's little doubt in my mind that I'll be paying through the... uh... nose... for checking this particular item.

The Southern Tandem Rally is being held in The Villages in Florida. Valerie's mother's husband (stepdad?) has a place there which he's allowing us to stay at during the rally. (He also has a home just outside of Tampa, which is where we've always stayed on our past trips...) The beauty of this is we're going to save a bundle on lodging! The downside? United airlines will suck up all of those savings (and then some) through the fees they charge on checked baggage, and whatever the bike runs us.

Here's a little sidenote: Southwest Airlines apparently still allows you to check a couple of bags before the fees start to tear into your budget, and their oversize and overweight fees appear to be half that of United Airlines. So if I'm gong to be travelling with more than just a carry-on bag, guess which airline I'll be checking with first?

I'm going to try something different when it comes to posting to the blog this time around; I'm going to do all of my posts via e-mail through my Blackberry. So the photos probably won't be as good, and the posts might not be as wordy as some folks would like -- it's a lot harder to type on a tiny keyboard using your thumbnails than it is on a full sized keyboard!

I haven't decided whether I'm going to take my laptop with me or not, but I don't think I'll need it this time around. Have Blackberry, will travel!