Co-motions and calmari

It was a weekend all about tandems.
On Saturday,Jerry and I joined the monthly Positive Pedalers ride in Orinda. It was a 40 mile ride through some east bay bedroom communities, with a lunch stop at a cute little cafe in Moraga or Lafayette or one of those little towns. I admit I don't remember which one. Jerry and I split a turkey sandwich.
As we were leaving the cafe, I saw a disturbing site, but what followed was even more disturbing. A family arrived on bicycles, and the preteen son, with his bike, tromped through shrubbery outside of the cafe. I shot a look at his father and asked if he saw what his son had done. He shrugged and said he didn't care. I said, I admit a bit snidely, "oh, you don't care-- they're not your bushes." He shot back, "They're not yours either."
With a dad like that, I hate to imagine how that young boy and his sister are going to turn out. Maybe fine, in spite of their father.

Anyhoo, back to the lovely ride. Lots of rolling hills, but Jerry and I both felt a tug in our heart after riding that Co-motion tandem last weekend. We decided we really need an upgrade in our tandem.
And I decided, after the ride, I needed ice cream. There was an ice cream place near the Orinda BART station, and I got a sugar cone with caramel cashew ice cream. It was heavenly. We sat on a bench in our matching Pos Ped Supporter jerseys, when another couple approached us and asked if the tandem up the street was ours. We told them indeed it was. After all, who else would be wearing matching jerseys. They were former tandem riders, and we had a lovely chat. Maybe we even inspired them to ride again.

Saturday evening we headed over to the new place that Leslie, owner of Theresa and Johnny's Comfort Food Cafe has opened. It's a sports bar of sorts with lots of fried food. We ordered the fried calmari and it was perfect. Tender, not overly coated with batter. Leslie came out of the kitchen and was surprised to see us. I told her how good the calmari was. She told me that calmari, no matter how good it is cooked, can get chewy if you don't buy the best stuff. So, I learned something that evening. Always buy the good stuff. But I think I knew that already.

Sunday took us back to the east bay, this time to a tandem shop, of all things. They carry Co-Motion, Santana and DaVinci. We ended up hanging out there for quite a while, and we'll go back at some point to do test rides. The owner was really pushing us toward the Santana. We guessed that maybe he gets a bigger commission on those, or he really thinks we'll like it a lot. Hard to say, but we'll give them all a try. Buying a new one will be a huge investment, so we may see if we can find a fairly new-used one. We want one with couplers so we can get it in and out of the Cessna to take on little trips.

The prospect of a new tandem is exciting, but a little scary. I'm pretty attached to the Green Machine, but it's time to move on.