Emma has officially learned to ride a bike, at the Can Opener Rally here in Miramar Beach, FL!

Bill and Wendimere arrived today, and Bill immediately got to his task of teaching Emma to bicycle. In July he removed Emma’s training wheels in Aurora, CO. In November, he and Emma practiced in a parking lot in Haines City, FL. And today, the final breakthrough occurred. After a patient hour or so, Emma suddenly became proficient and comfortable at turning her bike, and began cycling madly through the streets of Topsail Hill State Park.

Bill and Emma working on riding skills

The problem was, we couldn’t get her to quit. We took turns riding with her on our folding Birdy bicycles as she circled the block again and again, yelling, “Woo-hoo! I LOVE bicycling! Bicycling ROCKS!” She rode everywhere, shrieking with excitement and attracting plenty of attention from our fellow campers. I was hoping she’d learn to like bicycling, but I never expected anything like this. She has begged us to take her for a long ride tomorrow, so we will ride the one mile (no vehicles) road to the beach, if the weather isn’t bad. Thank you, Bill!

It was “open house” all day, so besides practicing cycling with Emma, we were busy all day with visitors and occasionally getting to see someone else’s trailer. There are three Safari 30 bunkhouses here (including ours) and so I’m interested in swapping notes with the other owners. We’ve already discovered a few bugs common to all of them. Since there are so few of us who own this model, sharing ideas and solutions is really helpful.

In the afternoon, our friend Joe and I did a little talking about our March (?) trip to Mexico. I wish I’d had a chance to view a few trailers, but we were so busy I never got breakfast or lunch. By the time dinner rolled around, I was starving …

Wendimere chills by our trailer in the early evening

… which turned out to be good thing since dinner was a massive potluck event. There was a huge buffet line of everything that people had brought, which included at least fifteen entrees and a dozen or more desserts. One table was dedicated only to Cajun entrees. We had about 80 people attend and there was enough left over that everyone got to take a little home if they wanted to.

The evening’s entertainment was “Raiders of the Lost Ark” projected on a huge white sheet of plastic in an empty campsite. (We “edited” the movie for Emma by covering her eyes or distracting her during the scary parts. At one point I looked over to see her crawling across the pavement toward a dark lump on the ground. She was capturing a frog.) It was a spectacular evening, warm, windless, and bug-free, except for a brief light misting toward the end of the movie. This has been a good time.