Birthdays & Bike Parts

For those that did not know, November 8th was my birthday. The day was going to consist of a few short bike commutes and 1 big commute. First trip, 3 miles to walmart so I can get another 24 inch inner tube to fix my Taifun bike. For some reason the first tube Amanda and I purchased came with holes in it. Second trip, 15 miles to my mother's home, I know she has something planned, the 21st birthday has to be worth a good drink with mom. Third trip, 2 miles to my cousins home, for the 8th is the day they were going to take me grocery shopping. It being my birthday was just a happy coincidence. Fourth trip, 4 miles to my school I needed to speak with my friends about going to eat at Kikus. All of these trips were the ones I planned to take my silver bike and go solo.

Then it dawned upon me, I can not leave my girlfriend at home she took off so she can hang out with me on my birthday. With this in mind the plans had to be adjusted a little bit. When we go for a ride together she normally rides the Taifun bike, and I would take my main commuter the Raleigh. Although today was going to be a little be different, the plan now consisted of us getting on marta and going to Outback Bikes in Little 5 Points so she can buy me some panniers. The problem with this plan, she has a spending limit of 45 dollars and she doesn't know how much panniers cost and can cost. Instead of taking that trip I showed her some panniers and their average cost on the interwebs. The prices saddened her a little bit, for this was a gift she really wanted me to have. So to cheer her up we went out to eat at a local fast food joint, for the time being no bike ride required.

While eating it was decided that we were both going to go to Walmart and gets some parts. Transportation that relies solely on taking the bus can be supremely annoying. We spent around 40+ minutes waiting on buses. Not only that we had to get on a second bus, at the time we were under the impression we would get a transfer but this was not the case. Apparently you can only transfer bus to bus when the buses are going in the same direction. Eventually we made it to Walmart but having to take the bus and not my bike set me back a little over an hour. So ultimately I was not able to do all the planned things. I was terribly disappointed by this but Amanda enjoyed herself. Apparently if we would have caught the bus going in opposite direction we could have saved around 40 minutes of bus waiting. With all the stressing parts of catching marta and not being able to get panniers, I was able to get some desperately needed tools. I was able to get my both bikes and good riding conditions. I own allen keys now! No more borrowing friends tools to do a little tightening of my seats. Next post I believe will be either a review of October or Nick names for my bikes.