This years trip to Block Island has, as always, been fun and relaxing, although the relaxing took a bit more work this year. Despite looking forward to a relaxing trip, I had to be a bit pro-active in staying calm.
I’m sure it was mostly because of my mood that I got annoyed at a bunch of nit-picky stuff. We got started later than planned and just made the ferry, but didn’t stop at the nearby Dollar Tree like we have in past years. Should have been no biggie since we didn’t actually plan on it, but I had been expecting the stop even though I didn’t say so.
We usually rent bikes for one of our days here, and I always find the bikes a joy to ride, especially on hills, to the point of inquiring about buying a used one. This years inquiry led us to the right place, and they told us they expected some more in later in the day.
Sadly, this years bike experience wasn’t as good. For some reason (my mood?), the bike seemed older. The first bike they gave me only had the back gears, so it wasn’t going to be as easy doing the hills, but I didn’t notice that until the chain came off and got my hands all greasy (they really grease up the chains and seat posts :-).
Back to the rental shop for a different bike, and off for breakfast at Bethany’s Airport Dimer, which has a fabulous Crab Cake Benny. This is when I determined that I couldn’t get the front gear to shift into low, and the chain came off in the attempt. Since I had used the rental shops Lava soap to wash the last grease off, I tried using some paper napkins I had with me to avoid getting greasy. Dang paper kept sticking to the greasy chain.
After my Crab Cake Benny, it was back to the rental shop for a third bike. This one I was able to get into low, although it took some doing. Our hopes weren’t high for the state of the used bikes we would be seeing later.
Oh, I did title this ‘Block Island Glasses’ didn’t I. Stepping back a bit, when we were checking in, a couple of women who were just wrapping up checking in were searching for a tiny screw to the sunglases of one of them. She was sure she had set it right there on the counter, but they couldn’t find it.
Whenever I am throwing out broken glasses, I take the screws out, as they are so easy to lose. I keep some in my backpack, in a small case with other assorted small handy things. I got a couple different styles out for them to try, and before we left my wife Sandy spotted their screw on the floor. They didn’t offer my screws back, but no big deal as I have plenty. It wasn’t until later I realized they likely didn’t have a small screwdriver, which I could have offered.
At some point early on, Sandy realized she left her sunglasses in the car. I gave her the pair from my jacket, which I carry because the bifocal nature of my regular reading bifocal sunglasses sometimes annoys me. The spare pair are simple black framed sunglasses with purple lenses I got from the Dollar Tree. Heck, the bifocals are dollar sunglasses I got from Target once, without realizing what they were. They have turned out to be very useful, and I haven’t found any others like them since.
Which leads to the next glasses incident. Just after breakfast at Bethany’s, we were sitting in the airport foyer before setting out, and I noticed the left temple of my bifocals seemed looser. Upon closer examination I realized the top tab where they screw onto the frames was broken. A little test and the screw popped out. Again, Sandy to the rescue, spotting the screw. I screwed it back in, and we were off.
We next stopped by the library before riding out to the labyrinth, and on the way in, the temple came off again. It was clear more repair was needed. Eventually, I found the screw to be of no use anymore, and cut up some small strips of flexible fabric bandaid ends to basically ‘duct tape’ the temple on. The glasses were not as convenient, but functional for the time being.
On a positive glasses note, a few weeks ago I had found some reading glasses someone else lost and I thought might be a pair I had recently lost. They weren’t but were very comfortable and the magnification I use. No one has yet claimed them, and they are my favorites. Unfortunately, during a trip to Six Flags, at the end of the day I found a temple had come off. Sure they were broken, I was upset, but stuck them in my jacket pocket for a later repair attempt.
Relaxing in our room, I had some time to check them out, and found that they were just missing a screw. Yup, I still had some left after the earlier attempt to help, so it was a quick fix and I’ve got my favorite reading glasses back. I’m using them now, as a matter of fact.
One annoyance we haven’t encountered as much in previous years is the number of restaurants not open. The first one was more of a timing issue, but was the first of a trend. Froozie’s is a nice little vegitarian place by the library, and we planned to have lunch there when we arrived. Nope, they aren’t open on Tuesdays.
Then there was McPhail’s, a new place that has a location on Martha’s Vineyard. They are listed in the dining guide we picked up on the ferry, and looked good. They weren’t open the whole time we were there.
Harry’s Cafe is another place we have often tried to check out, but never seem to manage it. Sure enough, they are only opened on weekends, at least at this time of year. No Thai for us.
We had dinner at Finn’s, and while there was a cute Golden Retriever outside, the food was disappointing. I love seafood, but this was not as good as I had hoped, or wrongly remembered. Oh yeah, and a personal grouse, BI seems to be a Pepsi haven, so on those rare occassions I want some caffeine, I’m usually stuck with Pepsi. Bleh.
As it turned out, when we went back to the bike rental place that sold used bikes, they ended up having a couple that we felt good with, and the price was good considering the caliber of bike. Needless to say, more bikes, more grease. 🙂
Sandy had been looking forward to getting some clothes from a shop she had had success with in past trips, but it was either something else or gone, as we couldn’t find it. As she said during the trip, it was likely we were suffering from too high expectations of the near perfection we remembered from past trips.
I gave my new bike a good ride, down to the South lighthouse for a photo series, and around the long way back, checking out Painted Rock on the way. It was a nice workout, and helped me relax a bit.
The annoyance wasn’t over though. I bought another magnet ring, like the one I bought last year and lost not long after. They only had one in my size, but I was glad to replace it. Sadly, when I was moving our ‘new’ bikes to a bike rack closer to the ferry today, it somehow got broken. Grrr. No more of them for me.
it sure sounds like we had a miserable trip, but really, we had fun, enjoyed the great weather and had lots of quality time together. As I started this post saying, the annoyances were more annoying as a result of mood than importance. We are headed home, and already looking forward to next year, although we will be glad to see our boys soon.
Perley's Pontificating Place 