Hank – Last night I tried to see the comet 46P/Wirtanen in the night sky. I had three strikes against me. The half moon was high and very bright, it was partly cloudy, and I had no idea where the constellation Taurus was. So I went to bed.

We woke to a bright but cloudy sky and I boiled water for tea. In an hour the clouds disappeared and the day warmed quickly. We had a light breakfast and hit the road. On the way out we saw a ton of swallows flying around in a swarm.

The day and miles went quickly. After passing through West Palm Beach we stopped at Howley’s Restaurant for lunch. The food there was great.

We arrived at our hotel, the Atlantic Hideaway in Delray Beach, right at check-in time. Hailey fixed us up with a room. We got cleaned up and walked into town.

First we checked out the beach. Unlike the pristine and clear beaches we’ve seen along the way here this one had lots of chairs and umbrellas all set up for tourists. We left the beach and headed into town. Dinner was at a great Italian restaurant, Vic & Angelo’s. After dinner we walked around some more.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a place that had a great mural on the side of the building. Two guys came out and saw us. One told us we should see the inside and invited us in. We followed him in and he told the guy at the counter that we were to get a VIP entry on him and then told us to have a good time. A VIP entry to what?

It’s the Silverball Museum. An arcade/bar with pinball games, video games, skeeball, and other classics and the games are all free to play once you pay to get in. Happy hour is from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. The manager, Mark, told us the owner, Rob, was the person who gave us the VIP entry. Mark gave us a quick tour of the place and told us to give him a yellow if we needed anything. 

The original Silverball Museum is on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, NJ. We went by there!

I found a pinball machine that was the same game I played at the Rec Center at Minot AFB in 1975-77. It was Royal Flush. Playing that brought back some memories. Kathy and I had a great time there. We are very grateful to Rob for covering our entry.

The birds!

Kathy – It was a gorgeous day to ride 40 miles! Sunny with overcast clouds at times with temps in the low 70’s, absolutely perfect weather.  We remained on Highway 1 most of our ride today with a nice shoulder to ride on.  The best part of today’s ride (unlike yesterday) was the reduced amount of traffic.  We were warned about North Palm Beach and parts of West Palm Beach being somewhat sketchy.  Well, it was not bad at all.  Maybe I’m comparing it to some of the other REALLY sketchy neighborhood we have ridden through in the past.  We appreciate any heads up with areas to avoid, but today we were totally fine.

We got to the hotel (since no camping is available around here), cleaned up and headed out on the town.  The beach was pretty, but too commercialized.  I enjoy the natural beauty and simple state of the Atlantic Ocean the best. We had a lovely dinner and explored the town of Delray Beach, Florida.  This is a great city.  The best part of our day was our free evening of fun at the Silverball Museum.  I felt like we went back in time.  We loved playing all the pinball machines – for free!  No need to keep adding quarters like the old days, you simply just hit the start button again and play another game.  I love playing skee-ball too. Mind you I had a few drinks but my high score 320 points.  I realize that’s not very impressive in the grand scheme of things, but I was kicking butt compared to everyone else playing last night.  At one point, I had some guy trying to talk me up as I was playing. (Hank was at the pinball machines).  Other than a hello, I totally ignored him… and just beat him four games in a row. He left not long after that. It was a great few hours of fun. A big shout out to Rob the owner for treating us, thank you!!

Our day consisted of 40 miles of riding and 7 miles of walking.  That makes for a good day.  Adding perfect weather, yummy food, and great fun at the Silverball Museum made it a pretty sweet day.