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May 10, 2005
One Bike, Two Shops, Many Uncertainties
PALM HARBOR, FL -- May 10
It seems that my parents' house lies an equal distance between two authorized Honda dealers. We decided to hit the one southwards in Clearwater on the optimistic theory it was closer to other errands my parents normally run in the greater Tampa area. In hindsight, it would have been nice for West Coast Powersports to actually tell me they didn't have my tire type in, and wouldn't have it in for 3-5 business days. It would have been doubly nice for them to tell me this before the close of business today. It would have been triply nice for them to tell me this proactively without me calling first.
Not being one to despair, I called the other Honda place and was gleefully informed they had front and rear tires in Diana's size, and could fit me in tomorrow if I brought her down after lunch. Other than the annoying amount of riding in suburban sprawl that would require, it surely beat the hell out of being a sitting duck for a whole business week.
Nevertheless, the day still amounted to the ultimate midpoint of the trip, as I figured in my previous musings. Things almost settled into a routine of eating three meals a day, taking a run around 4 pm (I made it the full 4 miles this time in the blistering heat at a nice 32 minute total), and trying to break the woefully short record for longest conversation with my mother that doesn't turn into an argument somewhere along the way. Probably nobody's fault in particular on that one.
The monotony was broken by a nice dinner out at Landry's Seafood restaurant right on the Causeway that connects Tampa with Clearwater, where I fixed my martini withdrawal and enjoyed some good chilean sea bass cooked Madrid-style. I took home a chocolate cake so rich I had no cake left to buffer the last few bites of pure morsel-laced icing.
With dad back from his business trip, we conspired to set up tomorrow's bike transfer. The plan tomorrow is to pick Diana up from Shop #1, take her to Shop #2 to get her tires replaced, and then prepare for a Thursday departure across the state through Miami to West Palm Beach. As I struggled to come up with material for this blog, I was, er, distracted by my parents' barrage of weekly TV Shows they watch backlogged on TiVo ranging from House (good) to American Idol (bad). There's a rule about not complaining about that which you willingly subject yourself to, so I'll leave it at that.
Here's the Gallery for today:
Posted by Todd at May 10, 2005 11:21 PM