Stationary bikes on a beach: get your morning exercise here!

Our island is famous for a bike in a tree.  There is even a Bed and Breakfast under that name– and I believe it’s run by the family whose bike it was in that tree.  When people come here– they often want to see it.  It’s interesting.  Occasionally untrue rumors circulate on the internet about said bike in a tree, which are pitiful to see.  The bike was not left by a young man going off to war, it was left by a kid who abandoned it because he didn’t like it.  How it actually got into the tree is still a mystery, which somehow does seems to fit our misty island.  Recently someone actually vandalized it, or took the front wheel off, which is so lame.  But contrary to the way I’ve been going on about it, this post is actually not about that bike!

Because if you live here, what is likely to feel more near and dear to your heart than the bike in a tree, are the bikes at the beach. Stationary excersize bikes that are located along a section of land that faces (like all beachfront here) the Puget Sound.

No one ever uses them.  Except for fun and goofing off.  Once some girlfriends and I were doing a photo shoot on them wearing wigs and crazy spandex outfits (to use for a friend’s workshop brochure) and one of the neighbors brought us a blender full of smoothies to drink!  What I mean is, I’ve never seen a person actually trying to get exercise on them.

Still, I love these bikes.  Every time I pass them I feel, I don’t know, a satisfaction in my hear
t about how weird the place I live is.  Not too long ago (a couple of years or so) a new owner bought the building across the street from the bikes.  He decided to turn the bikes in for scrap metal.  I was so sad the day I drove by and NO BIKES!

Apparently so were others.  A local resident put out a call on one of our island list serves– a call to action for the community!  Probably something like, “EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! More junk stationary exersize bikes needed at Tramp Harbor!”  They showed up in droves.  And brought a friend: Treadmill.

And now everything is peaceful again– for the invisible beings who put bikes in trees and get their morning exercize facing the Puget Sound.  And the likes of residents like me, who feel a certain pride in such an absurd thing!