Bikers at the Beach

So there was this big biker rally in town over the weekend. The population swelled by about 400,000 (a little less than expected), lots of noise, lots of people, but only two people died, and not on the island. Not even many arrests, which was nice. Lots and lots of gorgeous bikes. Lots and lots and lots of bikes.

They blocked off most of downtown, except to motorcycles, and set up all kinds of booths and stuff, and people paraded their bikes up and down the streets. Mostly the Strand. We went out pretty early on Saturday morning, because we wanted to park closer than ten blocks away, so the pictures are before things really started filling up. Lots of interesting people to watch.

That's pretty much what I did over the weekend. We went out a couple of times--they also blocked off a stretch of the seawall, and had events in a couple more places in town, and I'm sure there were folks off on the beaches. There were campers parked all up and down the seawall, with people in their lounge chairs on the sidewalk, cooking in their little hibachis. Read a book or two. Probably more than necessary.

Monday, the fella's cousin came by to visit while he was in town on business. Hadn't seen him in a very long time. So we got to talk, catch up on things, went out to eat seafood, etc. That was nice too.

I think I've managed to get a partial written of my shaman and warrior princess story. Now I need to come up with a synopsis before I can revise and send it off. I sort of know what's going to happen, but not exactly. Guess I ought to figure it out, huh? All these trips out of town are messing up my schedule, and it's not likely to get much better before the end of the year.

I'll probably set the White Elk story aside for a little while, to let it rest, and work on the SF story I've got in mind. Really need a title for that one. Maybe I can find some catchy phrase from the pages (of which I have a grand total of four, so far.)

Beach report: Okay, I went yesterday, rather than today, but yesterday was busy, because of the cousin's visit. Didn't have time to blog. (Today, I need to remember to go vote.)

Anyway, the beach. Lots of little tiny rocks and shells. The half-inch size, mostly. Lots of gulls. I thought I saw a one-footer, but turned out, his other foot was just hiding.

I collected 5 cans (4 beer, one diet soda), three bottles (one beer, one water, one soda), about 10 plastic bags, ranging from ziplock to shopping, a couple of bottle caps, 4 fast-food cups used for shaping sand castles (actually, I think one of them was a yogurt container), and a couple other pieces of sundry junk. I did not pick up the diaper, though I should have. But I didn't have a picker-upper other than my hands. Ick.

I took a plastic shopping bag with me, because I've often intended to, given that I pick up trash anyway, and this way I could pick up more. I emptied it out once, and re-filled it. Then I walked back to my car along the sidewalk, so I could knock most of the sand out of my shoes. And I encountered some people I knew whilst walking on the sidewalk, which was a first. There was actually a lot less trash than I expected.

The weather was gorgeous. We haven't had rain for a week or so. (And I forgot to water my ginger, even though I'd brought it in, and I'm hoping I haven't killed the poor thing. It looks as if it might, sorta kinda, recover.) But we're expecting another cold front today.

I shall close with a picture of the spiderweb & the spider that keeps spinning it over the sidewalk leading to our driveway. We can't walk down the sidewalk these days, without walking into spiderwebs. I think the spider that spins it and sits smack in the middle there is a totally funky looking little critter with his spiky points and his black spots on his yellow exoskeleton, so I thought y'all might like to see him too. (Or her. Who can tell with spiders?) There are two of them now. And they both seem to have a thing about our sidewalk... (The actual spider is a little more than a centimeter across, about 3/8 of an inch.)

I'll try to get back this week, but don't know if I will. The rest of the week looks REALLY busy.