Spring ahead

March 3, 2025

Well, let’s just say that the trip to RC Bicycles wasn’t all it was hoped to be. Our guy saw off his priority customer at 3:45 and then turned to my bike. A few minutes of muscling the handlebars with no more success than I had was followed with some fine work with a mallet that did result in extricating the stem, but not the top rings of the headset that come out when it is extracted correctly. I think he understands what is supposed to happen but hasn’t got the time or means to do more - he says I probably need to let some liquid wrench seep in, but there’s not time for that now and he hasn’t got any in stock anyway. So we leave it there, but he drops the fee to $5 which seems like a reasonable if disappointing lesson.

The obvious lesson here is that it was a mistake to have left this until the last minute. In the future I need to make sure we’ve disassembled both bikes while there’s still time to get help if it’s needed. I’m puzzled though, because I had no trouble pulling the stem when we packed up just two months ago, and there weren’t really that many miles ridden in the meantime. I was really surprised it was an issue.

So we’re left with this. If the stem had fully extracted, everything from the quick release up would have also come out with it; so I’ve got about another inch and a half to try to fit into the suitcase somehow, or else cancel the flight.

There is a tense hour after I return with the bad news. I reassemble the bike so that we can use the handlebars and wheels as leverage, but it won’t budge. Well, that’s not quite true. When we arrived in Portland and I reassembled the bike to take down to the LBS I was surprised to see that the fork was twisted sideways about thirty degrees. So we had made some progress at loosening it and maybe if we’d persisted we’d have been successful.

Instead, while Rachael called the airport to see if they had bike boxes (they don’t) I decided to test whether I could fit the frame into the suitcase with both wheels removed. It’s an interesting puzzle, flipping the bike upside down and inverting it, testing every possible way the bike might fit in; and there’s exactly one, and it barely fits. So we’re in. The bikes get to go, we get to go, and once again we’re paying for a fourth piece of checked luggage- a plastic bag with two bicycle wheels and helmets inside.

With the weight of that stress off our shoulders we quickly turn to finish packing up. Our flight leaves at 9:30, so we want to be fully packed tonight and ready to drive off at the crack of dawn. We finish up with just enough time left to watch our latest PBS miniseries, season one of Miss Scarlett, and then its lights out for Rachael. I stay up just a bit longer to watch the scimitar-shaped Worm Moon drop toward the Tucson Mountains.

Packed, ready to go. Pretty funny that we’re traveling with two of the wheels out in a plastic bag again. Different problem with the same solution. It makes a perfectly matching set of bookends to the trip.

The Worm Moon makes its appearance, apparently seeing the humor in our sorry situation. Native Americans called this last full moon of winter the worm moon after the worm trails that would appear in the newly thawed ground.

We’ve got a lot to do in the morning - fill up the car before returning it, turn in the car, get checked in - so we leave right at six. Everything goes smoothly and we’re through the security check and sitting down having breakfast an hour before departure, almost directly across the aisle from our departure gate. We didn’t think to set an alarm though and aren’t really paying attention to the time when Rachael wanders down the hall to the restroom and sees that boarding is in process. Last call has been announced and we’re the final boarders, and five minutes after we’re seated the plane starts rolling. So that would have made a pretty stupid conclusion to this story, I think.

Such a spectacular place to spend the winter. I hope we’re back next year.

The flight couldn’t have been any better. We’ve been really lucky on our seating, on the west side with the best views going both directions. I’ll have to remember this in the future if we fly down again. We enjoy views west across the Tucson Mountains as we gain elevation, but soon are flying above a solid cloud bank that doesn’t break until we reach eastern Oregon, with one brief exception at what I think must be the Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada.

The views in Oregon are spectacular though as we see first the Three Sisters, then Mount Jefferson, then Adams, and finally spectacular Hood.

Thanks for the suggestion, Dotie and Jacquie!

Somewhere over Nevada. The Ruby Mountains?

Across the aisle there’s a brief moment that Adams is visible.

Wow! What’s spectacular look at the White River Glacier.

Hood is only clear to the southeast today though. Once we round the corner and turn west toward Portland it’s cloud-covered the rest of the way.

The new terminal is beautiful, but the walk is really interminable. With my knees in the state they’re in now it felt like I was walking forever, counting down windows as I passed them. Horrible. Fortunately I found an unused baggage cart that I used as a walker for the final fourth of the way. In retrospect it would have been wiser to accept a wheelchair ride.

We’re about midway down this hall, which is maybe a fourth of the total distance to baggage claim.

Turn the corner, and the next one’s just as long.

Another offensive DEI display. I think we can expect some layoffs from the PDX air traffic control staff soon.

Once we finally reached our baggage carousel though, everything went perfectly. Our baggage was all present and accounted for, and we had no trouble finding a van large enough to accommodate it. Our driver, Alex, was slavic - Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian? We didn’t ask. He had a fine sense of humor though, suggesting we might stop at a Mexico City on the way.

We’re staying in the same condo we were at two months ago, a conversion of what I think was originally an old seven story warehouse. We’re on the fifth floor again, but in a vastly better unit on the opposite end of the floor - facing northeast this time, which is nice. Most importantly though is the layout - it’s much larger and is a one bedroom unit rather a studio, with a sliding door for the bedroom. It’s very comfortable, has a sliding door for the bedroom, a washer and drier, the works. It’s a place we could live in for an extended length of time. And for our current situation the location is ideal - straight across the street from our storage unit, and two blocks from Elizabeth’s unit where the Raven resides when not in use. And its fob key access makes it very easy to access. It almost has the comfortable, familiar feeling of coming home.

We checked in to our room around one, leaving the whole afternoon to start chipping away at our task list. While Rachael walked to the Safeway I went over to Elizabeth’s to pick up the mail and the Raven, and then came back to the apartment and reassembled my bike before taking it down to West Side Cycles. Once Rachael returned we crossed the street to drop off the suitcases in the storage unit and returned with things we’ve stored there but need here while we’re in town.

Next, I took my awkwardly reassembled bike (because the fork is turned half-sideways) to have them address the stuck stem problem. It’s a pretty confusing and embarrassing encounter with the mechanic, because I can’t point specifically to where the separation point is, and he hasn’t worked on Bike Fridays enough to be sure of what I’m talking about or if I do either. I offer to come back with Rachael’s (which pulled fine) as a model - but suddenly he’s managed to pull everything apart - the stem, every collar, everything, and then it’s clear how it works. He turns to reassembling things and then writes up an order for a basic tune-up to get it ready for the flight. He schedules me for the tune-up for later next week, but then gives me the sad news that we made it just in time. The owner and general manager are retiring and shuttering the shop in April.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I should be pushing weights at the gym.

And afterwards there’s just time for me to stop off at Star for a pizza and brew before it’s time to head back to the apartment for the final episode of Season One of Miss Scarlett.

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Wendy BeaudoinI’m back home now as well. It was great meeting up with both of you again, and the Branhams. I’m glad my son and my friend Jan were able to meet you this time. Hopefully we can meet again in Tucson next winter, but it will depend on the political situation at that time. I hope your trip to Europe works out the way you have planned. I will be following along with you on your blog. Safe travels.
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1 week ago

Bob KoreisI'll have to give GM Jim a call. That's a real loss for the PDX cycling community. Another independent shop closing. When I lived on the north side of the river there were some wonderful bike shops down there that are now closed. Don't know about down there, but in the Tacoma area Trek has been doing a major flex.
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1 week ago

Scott AndersonTo Bob KoreisTrek is it for downtown now, which is really sad. There are a couple of promising ones on the inner east side we’ll check out next though. The mechanic highly recommended Clever Cycles, which specializes in folders, e-bikes, recumbents, cargo bikes and the like. He says they’re the best bike shop in town, so we’ll give them a try.
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1 week ago