This would prove to be the worse day of the whole trip. I got up hoping to catch an early bus down I-5, back to Eugene, but I ran into problems as soon as I got up. As I was trying to tear down my bike to fit it into the bike box for shipping I realized that my pedals simply weren't going to come off, at least not with the tools I had. I actually broke a crescent wrench trying to get them loose. So I came to the conclusion that I had to walk it down to a bike shop so they could help me. Now Justin lives on Capital hill in Seattle, which is hella steep. So here is me walking a bike, with a flat tire, loaded down with about 40 lbs of gear, with one eye blinking like mad, a right knee that is basically locked up, trying to steer with one hand and carry a giant bike box with the other, while going down a hill that is probably 30 degrees!! F********K
It wasn't pretty. Though it was probably pretty funny to the people who saw me.
I finally make to to the bike shop about an hour later (it was only a few blocks away but as you can imagine, I wasn't going fast). And they basically tell me that they can't help me, they are too busy (the shop is empty). This pisses me off something fierce. All I wanted was for them to brake the pedals loose for me with a pedal wrench. After a few minutes of begging and then near threatening, the guy concedes and tears himself away from his conversation with a fellow employee to help me for 2 seconds. After the pedals are loose I break the bike down the rest of the way, put it in the box, tape it up, walk the rest of the way to the Grey Hound station and get my ticket. I check the bike with them, throw my panniers over my shoulder, and walk a few blocks over to a deli for a sandwich while I wait. As I'm eating my sandwich I realize that I can't find my ticket. The ticket is completely AWOL. I back track and find the sleeve and reciept laying in the middle of the street, but the actual ticket is still missing. I swepted a 3 or 4 block radius but still couldn't find the ticket. So I go back to the Grey Hound station and explain what happened, but they basically call me an idiot and say that all I can do is buy another ticket. So I do. As soon as I left with my NEW ticket I see a piece of paper under a car ticket and guess what it is? My old ticket. SO I go back in AGAIN and they give me a partial refund. After that I was just done; I just wanted to be home. I walked over to a book store a few blocks away and sat and read a Kurt Vonnegut book until the bus was supposed to leave.
Of course the bus riding was effing miserable, Grey Hound rides always are, but I ended up making it home to Eugene in the wee hours of the morning. And just to make things a little more aggravating, when I got off the bus in Eugene they DIDN'T have my bike. There had be a fire in the station in Eugene a few days prior and no one said anything about that to me (they weren't accepting freight and my bike was considered freight). So I had to stress and worry until 3 days later when my bike magically showed up with no explanation as to where it had been the whole time.
But after I got home and relaxed and started reflecting on my trip as a whole I was pretty pleased. I get a lot of crazy ideas about things I want to do, but I rarely go through with them. This time I actually did. I was really proud of myself for making it. Overall it was an amazing adventure.
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