MY NEW BIKE...

and a ride to the beach

Just like the white lines in the above photo, many main roads around Vero Beach have bike lanes.

However, the town also has lots and lots of aging snow birders (like this bike rider) and riding a bike on the road's surface can be hazardous.  In fact our very first advice at the bike shop last year was ride on the sidewalks. 

That's largely how this ride was accomplished.  It was about 2 1/2 miles from our RV park on the sidewalks along US 1 into downtown then a right turn on 17th Street's sidewalks to the causeway bridge in the above photo--and another couple of miles east to the beach.

Largely folks are courteous and readily give way to pedestrians.  I'm not too sure that civility is always extended to bikes.

As a matter of fact, I also yield to pedestrians by stopping until they have passed by on the sidewalk, as I was doing one time this day--when a bicyclist buzzed right between us.  The lady pedestrian in this case seemed to appreciate my courtesy all the more.

In another incident a panel truck motioned me to cross a very busy continuous turn lane which gave rise to a howl of blaring horns from a couple of big SUVs behind him who were entirely put upon by this 3 second delay in their endless pursuit of personal gratification.

Vero has two of these bridges over the inter coastal waterway which passes about directly beneath my bike in the top photo.  You can judge a bit how high this bridge is by noting the pontoon boat below and just to the right of my bike's seat.

The little photo top right is looking straight down from my bike's parked location.

Sue bought an older, conventional bike earlier so I began to search for a ride for myself.  You can imagine my delight when I encountered this recumbent in a bike shop at a relatively modest price.  The original owner couldn't ride it according to the salesman and it isn't a popular design down here so I benefited from it's being a little showroom worn.

It's a Sun Easy Rider just like my bike back home, but a noticeably smaller model.

I did both bridge climbs on the middle chain ring and in third or fourth gear--about in the middle range of the bike's 24 speeds.

In fact, I almost caught up with the kid who blasted between me and that lady pedestrian.  About half way up the bridge he began to walk and push his bike.

I'm really kind of glad he beat me to the top and was long gone when I crested the hill.

The conversation might have been a bit lively--about like my animated, lip gestures to the horn blaring SUVers.