Getting There
Before the tour I flew from Eugene to Albuquerque. Weeks before departure I salvaged a huge double-thick cardboard box from a local car dealer's body shop. I cut down the box in all 3 dimensions to fit tightly around the bike. The box construction is two mating clamshell halves. The box is very stiff because the overlapping edges have two layers of double-thick corrugated.
For the first time I removed the right crank to reduce the length of the box by 3 inches. And I removed the front wheel to reduce the height of the box by 4 inches. The box was 70 inches long, 26.5 inches high, and 9.5 inches wide. 9 inch inside width is necessary for the Bacchetta Euro-Mesh seat turned sideways.
The reduced height allowed the box to fit inside my wife's Subaru Forester. Previous boxes had to go on the roof rack.
20 hours before the scheduled departure I received a text message from Alaska Airlines informing me that my flight is cancelled. Alaska Airlines rescheduled me on a 5 AM flight a day later. That would cause a sleepless night and ruin my schedule of lodging reservations. So I hurriedly found an American Airlines flight that departs earlier instead of much later. The price was amazingly cheap considering I bought the ticket 17 hours before the flight. But the bicycle cost $150 instead of $25.
I flew from Eugene to Phoenix, then from Phoenix to Albuquerque. The layover in Phoenix was only 47 minutes but the bike made it onto the flight to Albuquerque. I was stunned to see that the box suffered no visible damage. Kudos to the baggage handlers in Eugene, Phoenix, and Albuquerque.
Bike boxes didn't fare so well during my previous tour. The bike box was much more mutilated after flying to Jacksonville, and another bike box was much more mutilated after FedEx ground shipment from Atlantic City to my home in Oregon.
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The box and I got a ride in the motel's shuttle van from the Albuquerque airport to the nearby Super 8 motel. In my room at 6 PM giving me plenty of time to assemble the bike in the evening.
So far so good. The flights were on time. The bike arrived undamaged. I feel good. The weather forecast is good. Let the tour begin!
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