Crazy Weather and Nice People

30 Days of Biking begins tomorrow, April 1st, and I'm ready! I'm actually on vacation right now in Florida. We're in a darling little rental on Anna Maria Island. Normally it's sunny here but today it's raining like crazy. Tornado warnings. Extreme winds. It's weather we are used to having in Minnesota. Oh well. We're hoping things clear up by tomorrow so I don't have to bike in the rain. If it's still raining I'll still be biking. And when it's time to ride I have a nice little island cruiser ready for me. I rented a nice little ladies bike from Fun and More Rentals for Day 1 and Day 2 of 30 Days of Biking. It's pretty - and it even has a basket!

Even with the rain we're having a fine time. We've had to regroup a bit on our plans - instead of hitting the beach today we played games indoors. Rose and I planned to take the island trolley to the store but we haven't had the rain let up enough yet to go anywhere. Granted, the kids are disappointed and Rose was pretty grumpy about the weather this morning. It's hard not to be disappointed - it's her first time to Florida and she was looking forward to spending hours in the sunshine. But, even in the rain, the kids spent some time in the pool today. And now we're settling in to an afternoon of more game playing, maybe some reading, maybe a movie. We'll see.

We love the island life so far. We took the trolley to Gulf Coast Cafe for dinner last night. Good food. Nice view of the ocean. Then we took the trolley to the grocery store to pick up food for breakfast and lunch. It was raining when it was time to leave. Pouring, actually. And there we were waiting under a little shelter for our trolley. And waiting. And waiting. Then a passenger van did a u-turn and pulled up in front of us. A woman rolled down the window and asked if we wanted a ride. We hesitated a moment, we didn't have any idea who these people were, after all, but said yes. The family of six, Mom, Dad and four boys age 9 to 14, welcomed us inside and gave us a ride to our rental. Nice people from Minnetonka, Minnesota of all places. They've had to wait for the trolley before, they said, for a long, long time. Mom said the boys saw us and said "There's a family waiting for the trolley. Let's give them a ride." So they did. And we are so grateful. And really, really wish we could somehow thank them but we didn't even find out their names.

So, to the family of six from Minnetonka, Minnesota, who were kind enough to give us a ride - Thank you!!! And we promise to pay it forward and help someone else soon.

Here's hoping tomorrow is a nice, sunny, day! But really, how can it not be a nice day when there's such nice people around?

P.S. I want to publish some pictures but can't for some reason. Probably because I'm using my iPad for the first time to update my blog. I'll try to post some later. I'm sure you'll want to see a picture of my Island Cruiser bike :)

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