Posts Tagged ‘beach trip’

Bike Dreams

Wednesday, June 25th, 2014

Forever.  That's how long I've been dreaming of a pink beach cruiser.  Many years ago, I found a nice cruiser at a Dick's Sporting Goods store only it wasn't pink.  It was a blue-green color.  I bought it….but it never filled that void.

This year, after the big move….I started thinking about that pink cruiser again.

Since I am a practical kind of gal, I pushed my desire back over to the side.  I reasoned with myself that —  I already HAD a bike, just be happy with it!  Even though it was older and not what I "really" wanted.  Then, one of my girl's mentioned needing a good cruising bike for zipping around town and I had a eureka moment.  I volunteered up my old bike…so I could pass it along for "good reasons" and finally find my pink baby!

Guess how easy it is to find a pink beach cruiser?  IT'S NOT EASY!!!  Just Google it!  Many will pop up, but getting them to Indiana…..without practically making a car payment is tricky.  My hubby and I planned to TAKE OUR NEW BIKES to Florida with us for this last vacation.  Both of us searched high and low for weeks trying to find my bike (he wasn't picky) and ended up driving away last week with an empty bike rack in the back of the jeep.  We had reached the point…..of paying whatever it cost to get that danged bike!

On the long trip to Florida we had one agenda in mind.  FIND THAT BIKE!  We stopped at a million stores.  We tried Walmart in every state between here and south Florida, we tried sporting good stores, we even stopped at Pawn shops…..bike stores too!  I can't tell you how many times I almost went ahead and purchased a bike I did not want (green, lime colored, yellow….several different colored bikes) there were no pink beach cruisers anywhere!  And just about every bike I found had hand brakes.  I did not want hand brakes either! 

Is it really too much to ask…..for a pink grandma beach cruiser with pump brakes?

Once we reached the beach, my hubby went ahead and purchased a bike for himself.  Since he didn't really have a preference, he bought a bike off the rack at Walmart.  Then, he regretted it.  He made me call every bike store between that Walmart and the hotel at the beach searching for a pink cruiser or he was taking his back.  Every store either wanted up to $500 or had hot pink bikes, no one had what I was looking for.  One lady told me, "pink bikes were popular like 4 years ago!".  I asked her if she ever shopped for something she wanted really badly?  Did she settle?  She admitted she understood and I told her, "ok, I'm going to find my bike!".

Reluctantly, my hubby put his bike on our beach front porch and we went to dinner with friends.  The next morning I woke up feeling horrible (it is no fun being a girl) and we decided to take a tour of some of the bike stores down near the beach.  Just to see…

The very first store (from the outside) looked like a fancy pants racer bike kind of store so I didn't have my hopes up….until we walked in and the clerk offered to show us the ONE PINK BIKE he had for sale.  As soon as I laid eyes on it, I knew!

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He wheeled it to the back door and set me off to "test drive" it and as I whizzed around the parking lot…..I yelled to my hubby, "THIS IS MY BIKE!".  I pulled up to the doors and they pulled off the price-tag and boom!  IT WAS PAID FOR not only with blood, sweat and tears but with over 1067 miles of stopping and searching….and internet scouring!

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Notice behind me, all the serious biking bikes.  Yea, I'm not embarrassed!  I found what I was looking for, y'all!

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Finally, he could put that bike rack to use with more than just a dude bike.

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Look at him, being so careful!  He knows my heart and does whatever it takes to make my dreams come true.  Even for silly things like pink bikes!

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I've thought about that bike lady a hundred times (the one who said, "pink bikes were popular like 4 years ago") because everywhere I rode my bike people complimented me!  Like, went out of their way to say something sweet about my bike.  Everyone (EVEN GUYS) loved my pink bike!  My hubby got a great laugh out of other driver's on the road passing us on our way back up to Indianapolis.  He could see wives tapping hubby's shoulders and pointing at my bike.

He said, "You're the envy of the whole interstate!". 

And to think…..pink bikes were so 4 years ago!!!

me and my sweet bike

Bike dreams…..do come true!