Bicycle Madness

"Somebody has a case of the Mondays."  That was two days ago when everything seemed against us.  Kate did the South Beach patrol, without South Middle due to the loss of our ATV.  I went to Bradley, and timed my patrol so that I could rush south, across two tidal creeks at low tide and hit the north end of South Middle.  There I  checked the few nests we thought might emerge, then rushed back across to patrol North Middle, and then finally (and just barely) crossing back over to Bradley.  As I was driving north, Kate called to ask me if the storms she saw to the north were upon me.  I said "not yet", and that I couldn't talk, I had to drive fast.  It was a mad race to beat the tide.

Once I was back on Bradley, I took a five minute breather.  I looked north and saw thunderclouds building.  A few raindrops hit me, but nothing bad...yet.  I drove north, checking nests along the way, and stopping at one nest to do an inventory.  There was one little straggler, and I release it into the ocean.  Then it started to really rain.  Patrolling wet isn't much fin, but it's doable, so I continued north.  Then came thunder and lightning.  I was just south of a secondary road that comes out to the middle of Bradley.  Checking the few nests that remained between me and it, I sped to safety.  Pulling off the beach, I parked under a large live oak to wait out the storm.

Kate called to check on my status.  I told her I was hiding from the rain, but that I couldn't escape the onslaught of mosquitoes that came with the rain.  She offered to meet me, so that I could at least wait in the truck, instead of the open Mule.  Half an hour later, she arrived, just as the skies started to clear.  Together we headed back onto the beach to finish my patrol.

A few minutes into our drive we received a call from Adam.  He was out shopping and wanted to know if we would be okay with the bicycle he had picked out.  Bicycle!  We were dumbstruck.  The original plan was to get us a small motorized scooter to patrol South Middle on.  Now we were getting word that we would have to peddle it instead.  Protest as we might, we couldn't sway Adam and Mark.  The 6 km (3.75 miles) of South Beach would have to be peddled, both ways, everyday.  We were disappointed, to say the least.  We finished our patrol and headed home.  Adam arrived later with the new bike.  By now it was getting late, and by the time we fed the horses and Andy's animals, ate dinner and got ready for bed, we were spent.

I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like.

Yesterday Kate and I developed a plan to try to minimize the effort now required to run the beaches.  The plan was to wait for low tide and drive to North Beach in the Mule together.  We'd cross over to North Middle, pick up our bike, and take both to the the south tidal creek.  I'd cross over to South Middle and then patrol that beach.  In this way, we'd set up the middle beaches so that we'd only have to ride in one direction, leaving each of the bikes at the end and switching between riding south one day, then north the next.  Kate would patrol Bradley and then drive down to the South end to meet me.  If I wasn't there yet, she could patrol South Beach, then come back for me.  If I was already finished, she'd pick me up and we'd work together.  It was a good plan, and we set off to execute it.

After a half and hour driving, just before we made it out onto North Beach, the Mule started acting funny.  It was getting slower and slower.  It didn't take long to realize what was wrong - we had a flat tire.  We took out a can of Fix-a-Flat and tried to inflate the tire.  The hole was just too big, and it couldn't be fixed.  Unable to patrol the beach this way, we were forced to turn around, drive all the way home at half speed, swap the tire out with a replacement, drive another half hour back, and then finally begin our plan.

By this time we missed low tide and couldn't drive the Mule onto North Middle and therefore couldn't get both bikes in the right place.  Instead I carried the new bike across the creek, rode North Middle, then carried across to South Middle and patrolled that beach.  When I was done, hot and tired, I walked to the kayak crossing and went for a swim.  I built a quick shelter from the sun and waited for Kate to show up.  When she arrived, we headed off to run South Beach together.

Beat the Heat

We finally made it home in the late afternoon.  There we ran into Eric and Cody, who told me they were planning on trying to fix the old broken down Mule.  Without the ATV, and with added pressure on them to hunt on South Middle, they wanted a way to drive it just as much as Kate and I did.  I quickly changed and met them at the shop to help.  Once again, Eric proved to be awesome!  After an hour or so, he had the old rusted out frame welded back together.  Together we got it to crank up.  Cody and I put a new tire on it and finally I took it for a test drive.  It was alive!

Two is Better than One

Early this morning we got a text from Wini with a request to go over to the main house and feed the horses and Mrs. West's dog Toby.  Mrs. West was still in the hospital, and Wini, who'd been feeding the horses every morning has returned to her regular life, leaving the Main House empty.  And so, this morning we woke up, went over to feed the horses and Toby, then went to Andy and Amanda's to feed and water their cats and dogs, then back the horses to let them out of their stable (they get locked in while they eat), and then finally off to the beach.  When we were finished and home, I finalized the work on the old broken Mule.  It's alternator is broken and it doesn't charge.  The good Mule has this problem too, so we plug it in every night to charge the battery.  But with no electric out on the beach, the old Mule needed a big battery that would last a long time.  Some time in the afternoon the work was complete.  The old Mule is up and running.  The only problem it has is that it won't shut off by the key - so you have to pull the spark plug wire off to stop it.  Still, it runs, and that's good enough.  Tomorrow we'll take it over to South Middle, and bring that brand new bike back.  We're extremely thankful for Eric, he's saved us from bicycle madness.