or Butts, boxes, and bikes
After a good night’s sleep, the five of us set out to assemble the bikes, assemble the bike rack, purchase food and other necessities for the trip, and build a shelf to hold such necessities in the back of the van.
Here are Terry, Dave, and Robin setting up their bikes.
Dave, “Let’s see, insert tab A into slot B….”
Dudes, what dance is this, eh?
The van, mostly loaded on top with the rack and the bikes. Robin, Dick, and Terry did the vast majority of this work. While fastening and aligning five bikes to the top of a car can be a bit of a struggle, these guys made quick work of the task.
Thanks for not forgetting those front wheels. My skills at balancing on the rear wheel isn’t quite perfected.
The derailleur cage problem on my bike turned out to be a tad more serious. After fiddling with the cage for an hour, I took a closer look at the derailleur and found that the pivot barrel was not parallel to the dropout. Oops. Hammer? Mallet? Pipe wrench?
I thought better of my ideas and called (or more precisely, had Rob call) a bike shop. A quick trip to the local shop and viola! They straightened the dropout in 30 seconds and adjusted the derailleur in 90 seconds. They had a tool I didn’t have!
Okay, back to packing. Dave and Rob ‘crafted’ a shelf for the back of the van to hold food and other necessities. Travel bags were stashed below the shelf.
Yes, Rob, the shelf is finely constructed.
We also took a quick prologue ride — 20k. Right. The map used by Dick ‘The Navigator’ Venes turned out to be about 25 years old. Just a bit has changed in Geneva since then…
“Damnit, Dick, we’re lost again! Oh, wait…. We’re lost in the French countryside. Hmm. Can we do this again tomorrow?!?”
No problem, 35k later we roll back into Rob and Sandy’s yard.
Done for the day. More beer, food, and sleep…