Weather
Like the rest of the country, we’ve had our fair share of unusual winter weather. We had an all-time record breaking cold spell in January, and one of the coldest Marches in memory – in fact, it’s been the coldest winter we remember in the ten years we’ve lived here. As if that’s not enough, it’s been the wettest winter in years.
Spring came really late, along with a record pollen year – I’ve never seen anything like it. To make matters worse, we had looong stretches of twenty to thirty mph winds, often gusting up to thirty-five mph or better. Not only did it wreak havoc with the pool, blowing an unending supply of pollen, leaves, and grit into the pool (which then had to be cleaned out), but it made riding really unpleasant.
Riding
Despite the cold and very dark mornings, we have kept up our riding, although intermittently. When the alarm goes off at 6:15 and it’s cold and pitch black in the room, it takes a supreme act of will to roll our feet out onto the floor and get ready to go. Once we get out the door we’re fine, because we really love the riding.
We’ve been so tired with our projects that awakening to a fiercely windy day, or rainy day, or 35 degree day didn’t inspire us to want to ride, especially since we had a huge backlog of tasks to do. We figured that when spring really arrived and the weather got better, or we got rested, we’d start our rides in earnest.
Despite the intermittent rides, we’ve managed to have great fun every time we’ve been out. In late December and early January we only rode as far as downtown Delray; we’d sit in the gazebo at Atlantic and A1A and chat, then head back home.
Check out the photo album – we got some photos of the great chairs in downtown Delray. The chairs sit right on the corner of Atlantic and A1A for the use of anyone who wants a nice rest in a great spot. The chairs are Adirondack style, each one custom-painted to show a unique part of Delray’s heritage.
Haircut
One of the days we sat at the gazebo we met another rider, Jonathan. Distinctive with his cowboy hat, dark glasses, and beard, sporting panniers on his bike, he clearly gave the impression of someone who’s on the bike a lot. We’d seen each other several times, so when he spotted us looking at him, he called over to us.
We chatted awhile – he’s a real character – very opinionated about virtually everything and willing to share his thoughts and opinions freely. During our chat we discovered that he is a hair stylist, in fact, he worked for many years in and with some of the greatest salons and hairdressers in New York. Needing a haircut rather badly, I made arrangements to meet him the following day to have him cut my hair in Veteran’s Park.
Living in the Czech Republic, shortly after the fall of communism, I had some amazing experiences with getting my hair cut. This haircut rivaled those in terms of being an experience. Admittedly wired on caffeine by the time we met him, he talked non-stop. His first step was to pull a large tie-dyed piece of cloth, smelling like oil, out of his pack and fasten it around my neck. He then spent nearly an hour carefully oiling his scissors while he talked about his life in the hair industry.
While he oiled the scissors, he had Chelsea take a spray bottle to the public bathroom to fill it up. She told me later that she cleaned, rinsed and washed it three times before filling it up and returning (I thought maybe she’d gotten lost, it took her so long).
We needed cash to pay him, so before arriving at the park we’d stopped at a CVS pharmacy where we bought a small bottled frappuccino to be able to get cash back at the register. When he finally started cutting my hair (meanwhile I’d been sitting with this oily-smelling cloth around my neck for quite awhile) we saw him eyeing our frappuccino. After all the caffeine he’d already had, he then drank most of our frappuccino.
It was definitely an unusual experience. I sat at a picnic bench in the park, under an overhang, wrapped up in a cloth, for over three hours to get a simple haircut that normally takes a half hour. I was so glad when he finished! The good news is that the price was really reasonable, and the haircut was a huge improvement over what I’d had. I’ll stick to my regular guy next time; it’s only $10 more.
Boynton Inlet
By mid January we started riding up to the Boynton Inlet again. We love to watch our favorite boats go out, especially the Lady K and the Sea Mist III, local fishing charters. One day we saw a manatee in the water entering the inlet, but only got a shadow of it in our photos. It was great fun seeing it though!
Several times we’ve seen the Sea Tow towing in unlucky boats.
We love watching the fishermen, too, especially when the pelicans crowd around begging for handouts. Just last week we sat watching the pelicans watch a fisherman who was cleaning his fish. We had glanced away for awhile when the fisherman suddenly hollered at us, in a heavy accent we couldn’t place, to come over and take a picture.
As he waved a fish head and spine at us, we realized he wanted me to come over and feed it to the pelicans while Chelsea took a picture of me feeding them. For as many years as we’ve hung out near the pelicans, that was my first opportunity to get so close to them, and my first chance to feed them. What fun it was! You’ve got to check out the pictures Chelsea got – they’re hilarious.
Cyclists, Jamie, library
We see lots of cyclists, particularly on the weekends when there are literally hundreds of them riding, primarily in the early morning, coming through in pace lines of two to thirty at a time. The weekend riders are more aggressive and far less mannerly and friendly. We’ve discovered that we like the weekday riders much better; they are much friendlier.
One sunny and beautiful day we headed downtown to meet Jamie, a very dear friend of Chelsea’s. We changed shoes at the library downtown and walked our bikes with Jamie through the downtown area down to the Intracoastal at Veteran’s Park. We spent the afternoon swapping stories and experiences (Chelsea hasn’t seen him since Anastasia State Park in St Augustine in 2007).
We continue to make regular runs to the library, although we’ve been so busy that we’ve not read much lately. When we do want books to read, it’s very easy to stop by on our way back from the Boynton Inlet to check out new books, and drop them off early in the morning on our way up to the Inlet when they are due.
Delray Affair
The Delray Affair is a huge four-day street festival that takes over downtown Delray each year in early April, drawing over 250,000 people. We’ve not been there since we left on our trip, so Chelsea and I did our usual ride to the Inlet, then stopped back for the festival. We spent almost three hours checking out the booths, the people, the street entertainers, and the gorgeous arts and crafts.
It was a quiet crowd – there wasn’t too much to see that was outrageous; just lots of people spending money on arts and crafts and food. I should add that the goods for sale were really, really nice. It’s the oldest street fair in South Florida – this is the 48th year – and it attracts top quality craftspeople and vendors.
One thing we noticed that astounded us was the number of booths for animals, particularly dogs. It appeared to be at least 25% of the booths! And even more astonishing was the number of dogs in attendance, most of which were in dog strollers. I’d estimate the number of dog strollers was easily the same as the number of kid strollers. Amazing…