Last minute odds and ends

It has been raining and raining and raining. This is not typical Colorado weather. My plans for riding a lot in the last few weeks leading up to the trip have been thwarted.

I've been having a hard time deciding what sort of container to use to pack my gear. I can't put too much in the bike box without going overweight. Since this is a one way trip, I want something I can discard at the start. A cardboard box is an option, but clumsy to handle. I ended up buying an Ikea storage bag. It was cheap and seems strong enough for checked luggage. It's a little too narrow for my rear panniers, so they'll go into the bike box (empty). I'll make a decision in Malaga about whether it is worthwhile to keep the bag (which is lightweight and folds up small), or whether to just throw it away.

Ikea storage bag, not yet packed, but to be checked on the airplane. 7 ounces of weight, 27 x 10.5 x 13 inches. I hope it holds up to the baggage handlers!

I picked up a cardboard bike box from the bike shop. It has all sorts of bits of foam and cardboard for protecting the bike, so I hope I can do a decent job packing it. Once I had the box and it's dimensions, I reserved a rental car to drive up to the Denver airport. The rental agent wasn't too helpful about what size vehicle I need to fit the bike box, and just suggested I get the largest SUV, like a Chevy Suburban. I ended up calling the local Ford dealer to get the dimensions of the cargo space in their vehicles, and then reserved an intermediate SUV, like a Ford Escape. I'll double check the dimensions when I pick it up, and upgrade if necessary. I hope I'll find a luggage cart at the car rental return to get my bike and baggage to the shuttle from the rental return to the terminal, and another to check-in from the shuttle. Luggage carts are not so easy to find these days at American airports, especially at departures!

I had some business cards made with the url for this journal. I hope they will be helpful in explaining my trip. I'll admit that I had similar cards on previous trips, but printed on ordinary paper, and hesitated to share them. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't confident in sharing my journal unless asked.

Business cards for the trip. I wanted 100, but the minimum order was 250. They accidentally processed the order twice, so I have 500! What am I going to do with that many?

I contacted my credit card company, and also my debit card company with my travel plans. I'm using a Schwab debit card to withdraw cash from ATM's. It has the benefit of no foreign transaction fees, and reimburses ATM fees. It also isolates my primary bank account from the trip transactions. It worked perfectly on my last overseas trips. I updated all of the related apps on my phone.

I loaded some GPS tracks onto my Garmin. They included the route from the Malaga airport to my guesthouse. I'm not sure whether I'll assemble my bike at the airport and ride, or take a taxi It will depend on how I'm feeling and how long it takes to get through immigration. My plane is scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon, which should be okay, allowing time to assemble the bicycle, but I don't want to end up riding and finding the guesthouse after dark if there are any delays. Google says that sunset on October 11 is at 7:46 pm. I also loaded some tracks for the first few days, but don't necessarily expect to follow them. And I added the Eurovelo 1 route up the Portuguese coast. I don't necessarily expect to follow that, either!

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