Mousepedals

I've not updated in a while so, let's see...

First is the happy news about my happy place. In trying to wrangle a way to get the free dining plan that Walt Disney World is currently offering, I was digging around in their reservation system and something extraordinary happened. For once since I've started going to the Happiest Place on Earth, staying on site is cheaper...and I mean SUBSTANTIALLY cheaper than staying off site. In the past, when you factored in the price of the rental car, the difference in cost was, admittedly slight but with a car comes the freedom to hunt down cheap eats and to buy forgotten items (like sunglasses) at reasonable prices. When the difference comes to just short of $300 in favor of the mouse, things change. Now we are more excited than ever. Neither one of us has ever stayed at the resort and I very much enjoy the idea of not seeing the wrong side of the welcome sign until we head back home.

The other big thing was finishing up Doreen's Craigslist bike. This all started with the Catfish Triathlon. Doreen decided that a sprint tri was something she was interested in doing. It wasn't particularly obnoxious at any stage of the contest but combined was a thing worth doing. So, a proper road bike was in order. She drove up to her mom's to reclaim the bike she bought as a girl. An old school road 10-speed. The intervening 30 years wasn't kind to the bike. Compounding the rust issue was finding parts from a time when many parts were bespoke and tire sizes were dodgy at best. So we gave up and started keeping an eye on Craigslist. A few weeks ago, someone announced that they had given up on a project bike and left it on the curb. It was a 1972 Schwinn Varsity ladies bike...the bike that hers (and most bikes of that era) was based on. It needed tubes/tires, brake cables and a LOT of TLC. This weekend I had the time and all the parts. There were some missteps...like when I cut off the wrong end of a universal cable and had to go get another one. In the end it came together. The rear derailleur might need some tweaking still, the handlebars need covered, a more up-to-date saddle needs to happen and there are still some cosmetic issues but the bike works...and my goodness is it fast. I have a hybrid bike, a bike not good at any one particular thing but works well enough at everything and I had forgotten what a pure road bike feels like. It's even more astounding to me since, compared to a modern road bike, this thing weighs a ton but if it was fitted with some clips, this bike would be capable of downright frightening speeds. Beyond all that, there is something incredibly graceful about old-school ladies bikes and this one is no exception.