Off the Grid

I expected the bicycle I had outfitted for my ride through Alabama to Springer Mountain to arrive in Mobile last Wednesday. When it did not arrive on Thursday, I called Light Street Cycles in Baltimore for the UPS tracking number. After playing phone tag, I finally talked to the owner of Light Street on Saturday. She informed me that the bike was lost. POOF---Gone. How, you may ask, is this possible? Well, from what I could tell, one of their employees (pronunciation: pot-hed) rushed the bike out the door with the UPS driver without filling out a shipping label. The driver apparently let this happen. So the bike wound up in the UPS system with no paperwork, which means no tracking number, which means it goes nowhere. UPS has no idea what to do. Cycle shop has no idea what to do. FML.

Solution:

1. Sunday I buy a bike off of craigslist.
2. Monday I tune, repair, and outfit the bike to include the following:

• Bike Rack
• Panniers
• Cateye computer
• Tool kit, pump, waterbottle

3. I call Light Street and have them refund me the $150 plus $200 I had invested in the bike. The new bike and accessories cost me $350. I break almost exactly even and wind up with a faster and lighter bike.

4. I leave Tuesday morning...a week late, but this fiasco has given me an opportunity to spend some quality time with my extended family in Mobile, get to know my new cousins, and put on 10 lbs of fat.