January 23, 2012
Shakedown Cruise: The Mother Ship
We may call it a shakedown cruise, but the truth is we have been back from our last tour for over three months. That's three months of a soft dry bed, cheery fires, hot tub, unlimited internet and electricity, any food we want - any time, our van to take us anywhere - any time, friends, family. So, we've had it! We need a hard damp bed, one burner camp stove, dubious internet, scarce power, and no way to get anywhere except under our own steam. Hmmmm.
So even though it's almost 100 days until our planned Europe expedition, we've cooked up a plan to take our Bike Fridays down the coast, somewhere between San Francisco and San Diego, and take them out for a spin.
We feel we need to go South for this. Snow has been even scarcer than usual on South Vancouver Island where we live, but it's still cold and rainy. It has snowed a bit, too. Yesterday I took my (full sized) bike all the way - 600 feet - to the mailbox. The bike went flying on the ice and I did an impression of a stunt man's roll onto the road. Cracked or bruised a rib. Dodie was not impressed. Nothing must get in the way of our get away.
Nothing, that is, but BC Ferries. Perhaps a bit edgy for having hit and destroyed the dock at Duke Point last month, they cancelled all sailings due to wind. When the wind dropped, they were left with a one day backlog of passengers. We got off the Island at 3 p.m. and headed directly to The Mothership.
The Mothership is actually known to Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) as the Flagship. Located in downtown Seattle, it is twice as large as any of their other stores. Way back in 1977 I made a cycle pilgrimage to the Flagship, sleeping in the park and waiting anxiously from dawn until it opened. 2012 is no different. We love REI stores!
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How hard on our little systems, then, to only be delivered by BC Ferries in time to arrive at REI 45 minutes before closing. We had to focus narrowly on our reasons for coming: lightweight but strong duffel bag, waterproof shoes to back up our Keene sandals, avalanche whistle (avalanche whistle??). This focus was difficult, because the Flagship is impressive - multi-story landscaped waterfall, woodsy and eco touches everywhere, and stuff that we have not seen in other REIs or other stores.
Here is what we found.
Duffel Bag. While some airlines impose only total weight limits on checked baggage, most also limit the number of bags. The worst, like Delta, charge $25 for the first bag, $35 for the second bag, and God knows, after that. So we each have two front, two rear, and one handlebag bag, plus tent bag, and other bits and pieces. They need to be aggregated - hence the need for duffel bags. Typical bags are 14 x 14 inches x 30 or 36 inches (large, extra large). Some can be 15, 16, 17, or 18 inches on the cross section. The airlines typically limit the sum of the three dimensions to 62, so the 14x14x36 is slightly over the limit.
An Ortlieb rear bag is 18 inches wide at the top, so fitting them requires something quite capacious. We started with a bag from Walmart, but on just one bus trip the bottom abraded away. That bag also seemed waterproof, but it was heavy too. Like everyone else, we need something the right size, light, and strong. Did I mention cheap? OK, forget cheap. What we found at REI was the Eagle Creek "No Matter What". 14x15x30 seems like it will fit our stuff. Very light, seems strong. Price $85. Dodie flatly balked at that. Did I mention they have it in blue? We will buy it in Portland tomorrow! We will still gamble on one larger, weaker, Walmart bag that can hold the rear panniers. We may be spending our kids' inheritance, but we're not totally crazy!
Waterproof shoes. Last time we used Merrill leather mocs. Other cyclists thought we were nuts, but they repelled water and were easy to slip in to from out of the tent. Their weakness was that water could pour into them from above, after which your feet were swimming. This time we thought we would try sandals - not even try to keep our feet dry. But we would use merino socks to try to stay warm anyway. We got nervous about this, and went to REI to get more mocs. We thought about booties too. Some though are too heavy. All are too costly. But at the Flagship we ran in to several varieties of waterproof socks. Some are thick and warm and some are thin and a bit stretchy. Thin is the ticket for us. Cheapest are $28 a pair. $28! They are called Seirus Hyperlite Storm Socks. You can choose any color as long as it is black. OK, maybe these too will be on the bill in Portland.
Avalanche whistle. While the Danube may run in a valley, we do not exactly expect to get buried in an avalanche. But last year we discovered that Dodie's air horn (Air Zound) was better than pepper spray for dealing with aggressive dogs. Air Zound is too bulky for the Fridays. But on the Forum about Kelly Iniguez's dog encounter, someone suggested that any loud noise can do the trick. An avalanche whistle can hit 120 db. At REI we found the SOL (Survive Outdoors Longer) Rescue Howler. It is small and light and hits 110 db. Now we are searching for a hapless dog to try it out on. (Actually, the level headed Dodie vetoed any such test program!) No animals shall be harmed in the creation of this blog.
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