Deju Vu all over again…

Back in 2013, Jane and I were headed to Europe to ride a bicycle Camino, from Barcelona, Spain, to Santiago de Compostela. We arranged with the cruise line to allow us to take our bicycles onto the ship. They were going to keep them with the crew member bicycles.

Everything was in place and the day before we left Jane called the cruise line, just to confirm all was still okay. If it wasn’t, we would have to very quickly find a way to leave the bikes in Miami.

When she reached the cruise office, nobody there knew anything about the arrangements. The person she had arranged everything with was off that day and left no record. Panic!!!

Since we had to leave very early the next morning, there was no way to contact the person responsible. The only alternative was to take off all of the bicycle equipment from our bicycles, such as luggage racks, panniers, tools, spares, odometers, bells, in essence, everything. I rushed out to our bicycle storage shed and spent several hours taking everything off and finding sufficient old suitcases and bags to put everything in. This amounted to an additional seven large bags we had not intended on bringing, 11 bags in total.

We ended up having to buy two bicycles in Barcelona, Spain when we arrived. Expensive? Yes. We didn’t have much choice.

Leaving the bike store in Barcelona, Spain

Later, after the cruise, we did contact the person responsible and there was a document allowing us to bring the bikes, but it was a little late at that point.

Tonight, I checked the tracking number at Fed-Ex for my bicycle that I shipped last Friday, five days ago. For reasons I cannot imagine, even with the holiday, it didn’t go out until this morning. This means it won’t arrive in Oregon until July 12th. This leaves me only a few choices:

  1. Change my flight that leaves in a few hours, early tomorrow morning. Delta will charge me $200+ to change the flight.
  2. Take the scheduled flight and hang around in Portland, Oregon for five days. No offence Portland, I hear you’re a nice city, but that could get expensive, even more than the $200+.
  3. There is no “third” option, at least not one that I can think of.

Two of the boxes that I shipped via USPS to a wonderful couple in Lincoln City, OR arrived today and they were going to pick me up tomorrow afternoon. I had to contact them and let them know I won’t be there. Bummer, I feel like an idiot.

How I miss those carefree days, back in the sixties, when one could just run into the airport, grab a ticket and hop a plane. Some things have just not gotten better with time and flying is one of them. As I write this, I have a call into Delta to speak with a representative. The automated answering service told me there is an “over” two-hour wait for the return call. Two hours! If they’re that busy, they might consider hiring more people to answer phones. Two hours.

Dennis’ Epic bike ride across country

ant-garage-full-view

I’ll be posting from a long bicycle ride that I’m taking in July/August/September of 2016. My intention is to ride from the coast of Oregon to the coast of Massachusetts. Tentatively, I will be riding across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

From Wisconsin, I will take the ferry across Lake Michigan. After that, my plans are not definite, but I will probably ride across Canada for a few miles and then re-enter the US at New York, then traverse New Hampshire, and finish at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

A lot could change along the way. If I get too behind in my schedule, I could head south from Missoula, Montana and go down through Colorado,  and head through Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama and into Florida and home.

In any case, I will be carrying a ham radio with me, since I never leave home without it. I will be active on Morse code, single sideband and a digital radio mode known as PSK31. This will prove useful in places where there is no cell phone service. There are still vast areas where there is little or no cell service. In the summer of 2015 Jane and I hiked the length of Vermont and for most of the hike had very little phone service.

Follow along here as I post when I can. It should be quite an adventure, a proper way to celebrate turning seventy!

Dennis Blanchard
K1YPP

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