We had a busy week around the 4th of July holiday.
As I said previously, my sister, her husband, their dog (mini-Schnauzer) and Ural sidecar came up to visit and play. Things are sort of tight here on the rancho (as in only 1 bathroom, with 2 dogs and 5 cats trying to get in to watch whenever you go in there) so they stayed down in Old Town at the former Youth Hostel which is slowly becoming a hotel. Very slowly.
It's a great location right on the little harbor with the best Mexican restaurant on one side and a great coffeehouse on the other.
Their dog especially loved walking around the Old Town area. She's a bird poop inspector and had plenty of bird poop to sniff and classify.
Susan's friend, Susan also came to town. She's allergic to our cats so she stayed in a motel just above my sister's place overlooking the harbor and Old Town. Seems they gave out free ice cream to the guests over there.
The motel is like 2 blocks away so The Susans were able to hang out a lot.
I took Tom on a motorcycle tour of the back roads and logging roads in the area. It was great fun. I even got the hack up to 45 mph on one logging road. I never did much riding in the dirt but with 3 wheels under me I wasn't much worried about sliding and crashing.
The next day we loaded up the hacks with guns and went up to my favorite shootin' spot in the woods.
Now, Tom competes in long range target shooting with a WW2 Swiss Army rifle. By long range I mean 1000 meters. I can't even see that far. He's a damn good shot!
By contrast, I follow the Jet Li formula of shooting. You know, firing 2 pistols at once while sliding along a warehouse floor with burning trucks exploding all around me. I also specialize in suppressive fire with rifles which keeps everyone ducked down so I can make an escape.
Needless to say, practitioners of each style think the other is a weirdo.
But we had fun.
Next up was the 4th of July parade. I had planned to enter us in the parade (all you have to do is get in the line) but didn't get up and out early enough. So we drove the hacks down and watched. It was pretty short but enthusiastic.
After that we went to the City Park and listened to an acoustic all-girl band, ate Lions Cub hamburgers and talked to various citizens. Nancy & Tom had to move from the hotel to a beach house that day too.
That night, the city shot off the fireworks show. I stayed at home with the dogs and cats because they get freaked out but I can see some of them from the back porch.
The Susans watched the show from the motel balcony, probably the best seat in town. It was quite spectacular.
My sis & hubby gave it a miss as they were pretty tired. They're not used to the sea air.
On the 5th, Tom & I entered our hacks in a car / bike show down at the shopping center parking lot. We had a ball.
I put some camo netting on mine and had military stuff all over it. Binoculars, compass, a web belt with canteen and flashlight, my airsoft rifle, gas mask, a fake German helmet and a walkie-talkie.
You should have seen the old vets faces when they saw it! I heard more war stories than you could shake a stick at. I also had a few kids sit on the bike while mom took their pictures.
Meanwhile, Tom started taking people for rides around the parking lot. That was a big hit with the hot rod ladies.
When it came time for prizes, a 1950 Schwinn/Whizzer won the motorcycle prize. It was a real beauty and had a lot of modifications like dual pipes and a racing cam.
Actually, we both knew we were toast when he pulled the Whizzer in. But we had a good time, ate excellent BBQ tri-tip sandwiches, met a lot of fun people and got sunburned.
Everybody left town on Monday and I started getting serious about getting the garage squared away. I made good progress but now I'm going to re-arrange it all again and build some shelves and stuff.
I think I'll throw a party to celebrate getting it done. Throw some burgers and brats on the grill and play my collection of outlaw biker movies.
Yeah!
