DAY 71

May 24, 1999

I woke up early while everyone else was asleep.   Finding my way upstairs, I found some bike magazines to read in the upstairs living room.  Jock, the 4th roommate, (and yes it's spelled correctly) got in very late from his job as a nurses aide at the hospital, so I've yet to meet him.  Chris got up shortly after me and asked if I wanted some pancakes.  "Yeah, that would be great" I said and thanked him for offering.  He fixed two giant wheat pancakes with almonds and berries.  Mmmmm, good stuff!!  Kristen opted for a bowl of cereal and after eating, she drove me around so I could purchase some stuff for my bike.   First we went to Adventure Cycling where I met Paul.  He was a bit taller than me, wore a Carrhart hat and had eyeglasses similar to mine.  He showed me the racks and panniers.  They didn't have the Ortlieb waterproof panniers I was looking for.   But he did show me an Ortlieb waterproof bag for the B.O.B. trailer.  It was something like $90.00 and my $2.00 tablecloth has yet to leak a drop of water.  What I was interested in were the booties to waterproof my shoes.  They had some for warmer weather and a pair that zipped up the side and had a Velcro strap to keep water from making its way into the shoe, but not walkable, bottom easily wears.  The other pair was neoprene for 40 degrees and below and are a walkable pair that seem very durable.   Paul was cool, he took time to show me everything.  We talked about his experience hiking up the Appalachian trail. 

Wanting to find the panniers, we drove to Open Road Cyclery, where I met Lyn, or Lin, or Lynn?   Not sure how to spell his name, but he was very friendly.  Hey, at least I remembered his name!  Ya know I very bad at names :-)  Anyway, they had a set of Ortlieb Backroller waterproof panniers for $145.00.  I also got a Janna Rack for $40.00 pair of defeet socks for $8.50.  My old Kokopelli defeet socks are getting warn out.  After my purchases, and no sales tax :-), we drove to a health food store where I bought some bulk food for the road:  Chips, papaya spears, raisins, and raspberry granola, $5.38 total.  Next stop lunch!  We stopped at Warden's.   Excellent!!  Highly recommended!  Good sandwiches with homemade bread and a good selection of vegetarian food too.  We both got a different sandwich, one turkey the other a veggie.  Then we went outside and sat at a table on the sidewalk.   The day was incredibly nice and I still couldn't get over all the people bikin' everywhere.  Along the sidewalks there were bike racks throughout the whole city.   I was really beginning to like this place as we traded halves of sandwiches and talked about the town.  Then Kristen rubbed her foot on my leg and winked at me.....Just Kidding!!!  Her boyfriend Drew is reading this and I just wanted to get a reaction, Hee Hee!!  :-)

After lunch we went to Wal-Mart where I found a 6 pack of powerbars for $4.85!  Wow, that was an excellent deal.  Kristen bought some large storage totes since she's moving out in a couple of days.  She will be in that ALA bike ride and didn't want to pay rent somewhere while she's away.  I think she said it starts on June 14th.  And she still doesn't even know how she's getting to Seattle.  Of course, getting home from DC isn't something she's worried about yet.   If anyone reading my journal is going on that ride, look for Kristen and say Hi to her :-)  And what the hell, give her a hug and tell her how wonderful she is.   If you saw the movie "Holy Man" you'd get the joke, hee hee...

When we got back to the house I met Jock as I attempted to install my rear rack.  Unfortunately, I had the wrong adapters so Kristen and I went back to Open Road Cyclery for a larger size.  This time I decided to get a better pump, one that is capable of fully inflating my tires.  They had a Zefal HPX for $32.00 that says 160psi but that may be a little over rated.  I was told it would definitely put in 90psi no problem.  Also, I decided to get two new bottle cages which I later attached to each side on the rear of my B.O.B. trailer with hose clamps.   My last purchase was a new tube for the 16" B.O.B. wheel.  After we returned, I installed the rear rack and washed my bicycle for the first time since I began this trip.  Then it was time for dinner....Pizza!!  :-)

Kristen and I rode our bikes to McKenzie River Pizza Co.   This is definitely excellent pizza and the micro-brewed cold beer on tap was the perfect thing to wash it down with.  When we went to leave, I had a little difficulty with the lock but managed to open it.  The thing has been through hell and it sticks sometimes.  Next stop was at Cyber Shack to check my email real quick.  When we tried to lock the bikes up, my lock would no longer open so I just wrapped the cable around them.  Good thing this didn't happen when they were locked together.  I spend more time deleting the 50+ daily junk emails and find it difficult to read all of them let alone form any sort of a reply.  It was very hot in there with most people playing games like Heretic II, Half Life, and Quake II.

Back at the house I messed with my bike some and Kristen used duct tape to tape up a pair of rain pants someone gave her for the trip.  They looked at least 20 years old and after taping the many tears and holes, I think the predominant color changed from blue to the gray color of the tape :-)

By this time it was hmmmm, well past 11:00pm and we all went to sleep.

Today - 0 miles

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