Slurpee 7-11 Day

Free Slurpee on 7/11  

A free Slurpee at 7-11 on 7/11 is a family tradition. One year, my younger son and I went to several stores to sample the various flavors. Now it is just me on my way home from a bike ride. Still fun, and a way to savor memories while enjoying my blue raspberry treat.

I'm celebrating finding my mirror which I bought in North Carolina while I was on my Key West to Washington, D. C. bike trip a few years ago. Grant had been using it on his commute to work and lost it two days ago while riding home in the rain. He dodged around a low-hanging branch on the nature trail, and the dang mirror flew off. Not enthusiastic about looking for it in the rain, he came on home. Yesterday, I rode to work with him, and we stopped to try to find the mirror and to trim back the branch. No luck.

As most things go, the day before, I had called the mirror maker to get some more little rubber covers for the prongs that keep it clamped on our glasses. I decided to ride again this morning and look again. Perhaps it had gotten caught up in the branch. I tried to figure which way it might have flown off. After searching for about 5 minutes, I gave up, then, as I mounted my bike to ride home, I glanced down one more time and spotted it. It had landed about 6" off the asphalt trail into a bed of leaves. No harm done.

I have reclaimed my mirror for nostalgia's sake and given Grant the new one we ordered. I had forgotten how much more comfortable I feel when I ride with a mirror and can see what's coming up behind me. So I raise my Slurpee to toast to whoever invented bike mirrors and to the wonderful people in Colorado who make them. And to my mother who encouraged me to look for things and find them. Salude!