Tinkerbell's Travels

September 2, 2023

We took advantage of the bicycle-friendly roads and paths circling and crisscrossing Coronado Island.

We empathized with the nine-to-fivers who stewed in traffic in the morning rush hour.

Every now and then, we’d see a different kind of traffic…

Not to be morbid, butt…

Since we’re talking about traffic…

One of the conditions that causes some of the worst traffic (and it happened during our visit) is when someone jumps to their death off the 200-foot-high Coronado Bridge.

The police shut down the bridge as they try to talk the jumper out of a “permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

The Coronado Bridge is second only to the Golden Gate Bridge in terms of yearly suicides.

We were surprised at such a sad statistic in such an idyllic (to us) place to live. Butt, we could definitely see how sitting in traffic would wear on your nerves…

We made our way through the traffic… the fog lifted… and we were on the Bay!

We bicycled from the bay side of the island to the ocean side.

As was the case when we were here last time, the ocean waters were “closed” to swimmers due to the sewage drifting northward from Mexico.

In between the bay and the ocean, we stopped at one of our favorite breakfast stops, Clayton’s, and indulged in a humongous cinnamon roll.

We cycled around the Bay and admired a unique, metal sculpture in the park.

San Diego, like many dynamic cities, invests in community artists who then create eye-catching works to share the local culture.

On our ride home, a tiny art gallery, which was hidden in an alley, was open.

We had seen the gallery on our rides during the past few weeks butt we were never able to go inside as the gallery had limited hours.

Today was our lucky day! The Gallery was open!

We wandered inside the small shop, which was the size of our combined living room and kitchen.

It was cozy.

It had energy emanating from the brightly-colored paintings hanging on the walls… and from the metal sculptures that were built to move with the air.

Wait.

Metal sculptures.

That moved with the air.

Metal sculptures of bicyclists whose wheels circled with Bay breezes.

The sculpture we had just admired in the Park… here was one similar!

And… best of all.. here was THE ARTIST HIMSELF!

Amos and Jay became fast friends. Amos is a retired Department of Defense contractor from Washington DC (!). He created a specialized, air-based, decontamination unit for the military.

Amos knows air. He knows breezes. He taught himself how to bend metals to capture air currents to create movement.

And, since he loves cycling, he began creating sculptures that combined his knowledge and his hobby.

Today, Amos Robinson’s kinetic sculptures can be found worldwide. In cities. In museums. And, of course, in the yards and homes of art aficionados particularly in California.

We sincerely enjoyed our time with Amos, learning about his life path and his passion for sculpting with metal and air 🙂

On our way home, we experienced yet another flat tire. Flat tires had become an unfortunately common occurrence during this visit to Coronado.

We learned that a plant prevalent on the Silver Strand was viciously stabbing our tires.

In late summer, apparently, these nasty, dried, balls of thorny seeds attach themselves to any passerby (tires, dog fur) in hopes of being transported and transplanted into fertile territory.

After we replaced Jay’s tires, we rode home to our fellow-thorny-seed-transporters who were patiently awaiting our arrival:

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