Tiny House Adventures

Welcome to Banff!

Becky and I stayed in a airport hotel in Boston Monday night, and I arranged a 230 am shuttle to the airport for Tuesday to prepare for a 5 am flight, I knew this would be a long day. My flights to Houston and then on to Calgary were largely uneventful and I succeeded in reading one of my two books, which means now I only have to carry one!

The fun began at baggage claim. As I entered the baggage claim room I saw my small gear box on the belt, but no bike. Moments later my name was announced over the PA. I waited a nerve racking 5+ minutes while the gentleman ahead of me was told his bag’s location was unknown and they’d send it to his hotel when they found it. I didn’t have time for this!

My turn at the desk. I learned my bike had decided to head to Denver instead of Calgary but that it was scheduled to land an hour later. I arranged for them to drop the bike at my 3:30 shuttle departure and hoped for the best. I found Leslie on the other side of customs and told her I decided bringing wheels was cheating and I’d decided to run the divide. By our 3:30 shuttle time Richard had arrived but my bike hadn’t…

In Banff we settled into the YWCA hostel and decided to explore the town and go out for dinner. By 8 pm the airport called and said my bike had landed and it would be here by midnight, though it didn’t arrive until nearly 2 am. At least I’m back to having wheels!

John arrived around midnight and this morning Roberta rolled in, so yesterday was filled with bike reassembly and getting to know each other. My bike went together flawlessly, but then wouldn’t shift! Leslie and I played with it a while and were befuddled so we headed down to a bike shop. The mechanic was equally confused and said we’d have to leave it so he could take the whole thing apart and try to figure out which part was bad. Luckily, just before dong so Leslie noticed a tiny price of metal that didn’t look right. We turned the bike upside down and a little tiny rack bolt which had fallen into the derailleur fell to the floor! Oh the joys of shipping a bike. It’s hilly here, and I’m glad to have my gears back.

We all took multiple trips to the outfitters to pick up what we forgot and did our first 5 day’s grocery shop. Lots of eating and bike tinkering later, we’re ready up head out!

This is my first blog entry written on my phone, so I’m still figuring out the details. That’s all for now, I may not have internet or phone service until I’m back stateside, nearly a week from now.