Busy Fall Weekend

fall colors

This past weekend was pretty busy - in fact every weekend in October is packed for us this year. Saturday was the Second Annual Fall Festival at Imagery. It was rescheduled from the previous weekend due to Hurricane Ian, so some of the vendors were unable to attend. But it was a beautiful day, and I think the sellers who were able to come had a good day. About half the tables were artists from our community, and there are some very talented people here. I always think that I'll have a booth with my photographs of Mountain Island Lake, but then I don't get around to making it happen.

Sunday was the Second Annual Imagery Rides show. Last year we entered both Jim's car and motorcycle. This year they added the category of electric bikes, so in addition to the car and motorcycle I brought my Trek Townie e-bike along. That required some juggling of vehicles on our part, but we made it happen.

me & my minion

On Saturday evening the Mount Holly Community Development Foundation had their black tie fundraiser. As an added bonus for attendees, the Lantern Parade Chair asked if anyone would be willing to bring a lantern and do a short walk through the event venue. I took one of our minions from last year and joined a dozen or so other lantern makers in the parade. It was fun, and the guests seemed to enjoy it. We were also able to then promote the upcoming Mount Holly Lantern Parade, which takes place on October 22nd. 

Our community is again participating, and we are fairly close to having all of our lanterns completed. It was so much fun last year, and I am looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with for this year's parade. The theme is "Written in the Stars", and that is just broad enough that it stumped a lot of people. We are up-cycling our minions from last year, and they will be in spaceships, riding rockets, looking like astronauts and chasing stars. We even added a girl minion this year! We may not win our category again due to the reuse of the lanterns, but it seemed like a good way to get another year out of all of our efforts from last year. 

Bicycle Built for One

Our new neighborhood has many hills, which makes it great exercise while walking but a real bear when on a bicycle. I finally got to the point where I could ride my bike to the pickleball courts without having to get off and walk the bike. But going anywhere beyond that in the community was not happening. There is a bike club here, but I could never join in the fun because I wouldn't be able to keep up.

So for Christmas my husband got me an electric bike. There are probably a couple dozen people here who have one, so I was able to see different models and even ride a few. I listened closely to what they liked and didn't like about their bikes. We have a Trek store nearby, so we went there in December to see what they had. I really liked the look of the Townie 7D, which was redesigned for 2022. But they didn't have any that I could ride. They did, however, have a 2021 available. I took that one out for a spin, and rode a different style bike as well, and I really liked the Townie. It is pedal assist, so you must be pedaling to use the power.

We put a deposit down on a Tahiti Blue bike that was supposed to arrive in mid January. Like many other things during Covid, that didn't happen. They finally got the bike in last weekend and assembled it, and I was going to pick it up on Monday. But Monday was a rainy day, and I knew I would want to take it for a spin to make sure everything worked fine and didn't want to do that on wet pavement. Tuesday was sunny so we got to the store shortly after it opened. 

By borrowing the neighbors bike rack we were able to take my old Trek in to be evaluated as a trade in. When the sales guy looked at the rack, he said there was no way we could put the Townie on that to get it home. It just wasn't substantial enough for a 45 pound bike. Fortunately the front tire on the new bike is a quick release, so we were easily able to get it in the back of our car.

I've taken the bike out three days in a row, and I absolutely love it! I mostly have the power off, just engaging it when I'm going up a hill. I can ride with Jim now, so I know we will motivate each other to get out and get fit. I'm also eager to join the bike club and meet some new people. Merry Christmas!