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Prepping for Adventure Cycling

7/29/2015

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It's been quiet on the blog lately, and anything but at our house. We've been hosting a Spanish course leader while I've been helping to run an exchange student program for the past month. I know I said that I had retired from that last year, but old habits die hard and it ended up being a wonderful (but busy) way to spend July. Probably my favorite part of the summer was watching our Spanish friend take to biking and claim the Linus as his own. On his free afternoons, he'd hop on the bike and cruise over to a quiet beach area along the American River Parkway. He's now back home and has decided he wants to get a bike just like ours to travel around Seville when he lives and works. Amazingly, Sevilla is an upcoming biking Mecca, making great strides to improve their bike infrastructure and encouraging cycling.

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I also made sure to teach him how to properly lock up a bike!
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Much better! Can you spot the difference?

Now, with the students having just left on Monday, life should be calmng down, instead, I'm in the middle of a frantic three-day preparation to fly across the country to help lead an Adventure Cycling family fun tour in Minnesota! I was able to get in contact with one of the main organizers for the family fun trips and they amazingly had an opening for a staff member on the Paul Bunyan tour and the dates just barely worked for my schedule. It was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up. So, I bought someast minute plane tickets, a Bike Friday New World Tourist (although that's part of a larger story I need to tell soon), and decided I'd figure it all out once the exchange student program was over.

Which leads me to today. I leave the day after tomorrow and I've never flown with a bike, let alone crunching one up into a checkable suitcase. Luckily, I had some great advice and a straightforward YouTube video to guide me.

Here went nothing (and a touch of my patience)...

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This bike in that box...sure...
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Packing supplies
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Hardest part so far was keeping the bike from tipping over constantly.
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It's getting smaller!
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Kitties are helpful
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Removing the dérailleur for protection. Fingers crossed...
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Looks about right...
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I did it!!!!!!
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Oops...I didn't do it...
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Wait! Now, I've done it for sure! It's a very snug fit and I'm nervous about opening it back up. Everything is quite well padded and secure, I think. With everything inside and a few extra bits and pieces, it came to about 45 pounds, under the 50 pound weight limit for checked bags. Whew!
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A few hopeful notes to my TSA friends to help them open the case up carefully (if they have to...)

So now the hard part of the packing is over but there's still the carry-on suitcase that will be holding my camping gear, other stuff, and clothing. This is a supported tour so I don't have to worry too much about weight during the trip but I can see how having the trailer conversion kit could really come in handy for self-contained adventures. Hopefully, this will be the first of many great Adventure Cycling and other multimodal bike tours!

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The baby bike! I think I'll call her Bluebell. So tiny!
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