In Palermo: Quickly using up our nine lives

April 22, 2016

(Note - I see that I failed to caption most of the photos on this page. I'll get back to it after I complete the rest of the journal.)

About a month ago, Rachael and I took a four day training weekend around The Dalles, in Central Oregon. On the second morning out, I woke up early and discovered that I had left my meds back home in Portland, 80 miles to the west. This counts as an emergency for us, because I have a controlled racing heartbeat condition that can quickly become serious if I miss a dose. Amazing that I failed to pack them - I had them out to take with us but left them on the counter somehow. Rather than scrap the weekend l drove home and back again - a frustrating waste of time, but just that. On a real tour, it would be disastrous, and possibly a tour ender.

I forgot them again.

I can hardly believe it. They're the first thing I packed, but they're not here. Who knows why, but pretty unbelieveable. I do know the exact name and dosage for each medication though, so we left the hotel on a pharmacy hunt, hoping to find a pharmacist who would sell them to us without a prescription. After breakfast though, which was great.

Pausing before breakfast in the lobby of Harmony B&B. Rachael has been smelling the wonderful croissants awaiting just around the corner (chocolate, apricot, pistachio) from upstairs through our open window.

We tried the first three pharmacies we came to. All three were glad to help, but it took us three tries to find one that had them in stock with the right dosage. Trip saved, but one of our nine lives used up already, and we're only one day out. Not the best.

With that crisis behind us, we moved on to the remaining items on the agenda for today:
Find a bank.
Find a pair of walking shorts for me since I apparently failed to pack those too.
Find a new outfit for Rachael, because.
See a few things that we came to Palermo for in the first place.
Eat.
Reassemble the bikes.
Eat some more.

I'm happy to report that Palermo does have banks after all, and the one we were looking for last night was right where it belonged. We had just walked past it in our jet lag haze. It's because we're explorers in the wilderness, like Lewis and Cark failing to find the great Willamette River their first time through:

Rachael modeling her new outfit, Harmony B&B

I'm happy too to report that I didn't forget to pack my walking shorts after all, because I feel a bit less like I'm losing my mind. I had just forgotten where I'd packed them - in the suitcase with my bicycle, where they were waiting for me as soon as I opened it up, and caused me to rue the purchase of shorts that I didn't really need.

I'm way beyond happy to report that Palermo does have an incredible lot to see, and that even though we just scratched the surface today, it is obvious that the guide books got it right. This is one amazing city, and we could probably still be scratching the surface if we had stayed here all next week. I hope we can return some year in the future and scratch again, and that you are fortunate enough to come too and see yourself. Come to Palermo - it will blow you away.

A bit of what we were fortunate enough to see is in the photo dump below, which I'm not going to try to describe now because I'm out of time and the guide books and folks on Wikipedia will do it much better. I can and will at least come back and caption them some day soon, after I'm caught up on my sleep and have a bit more time in the day.

I'm happy to report that assembling my bike went well and smoothly, and it works great. I'm glad that after a few years of practice I've finally got the routine down.

Lastly, I'm sorry to report that we killed another cat today and our trip is down to seven lives. The good folks at the airlines that broke the handle off our suitcase also laid waste to Rachael's bicycle. It looks like they had opened it up in a safety check, and replaced things - badly. One of the bicycle pumps was out of its storage bag and wedged between the spokes of her front wheel, which fortunately wasn't damaged. What was damaged, crushed in and possibly beyond repair, was the collar at the top of her frame where the handlebar stem fits.

This has never happened to us, and I harbor very bad thoughts now about someone out there in the world; I just don't know whom or where. It is way beyond my skill level to touch this thing without fear of permanently ruining it, so I picked up the frame in one hand, the stem and handlebars in the other, and walked about eight blocks to the nearby bike store we stumbled across yesterday. I'm fast getting tired of carrying her bike long distances in an awkward manner.

I was too distressed about the whole the situation to think to take a picture of it before I left or to take a camera, but trust me - it looked grim, to borrow one of my father's favorite phrases. You can at least page back to yesterday and see the bicycle shop though.

Luck is with us, and the trip is still on. I found the right miracle worker, who had suitable tools at hand and knew how to properly use the most important one - a small sledge hammer. I'm so eternally grateful that there are folks like this in the world when you need them. It took him about ten or fifteen minutes, and he charged me all of five euros.

So that's two. We'd better pick up our act a bit though - at this pace we'll be lucky if we make it out of Palermo safely, much less all the way around the island. Please wish us well - we need some positive vibes.

It works! Rachael test rides her Bike Friday after its emergency surgery. Also, here's your last look at her new outfit for a month because it's staying behind at the hotel.

It will give you a second look at her new outfit, but that will be it for now - it's staying at the hotel until we return in a month, along with my new and already redundant walking shorts.

Palermo photo dump begins here. Captions will arrive in time.