Blog the Travelogue

Testing and more testing.

Testing
Let's fire this baby up. Houston, we are go for lunch. The flight director looked perplexed as the astronauts leave the space shuttle rubbing their bellies. I've always wanted to say that.

Anyway, I got my bike downstairs and only hook up one pannier with a few items get for a quick 2 mile ride around the neighborhood. I put the lid on. Completely on, that is. Then I tried to take it off. It wouldn't budge. I thought, “This thing works too well,” it truly is water tight!! I managed to get the lid off as a new lady was moving in to the apartment next to mine. Needless to say it was quite embarrassing. This time I only put two sides of the lid down so that I would be easy to take off. That's why they look so lop sided in the pictures.

I started out and bam! Heal clearance issue. Awe, man. But wait, I remembered. Arkel's Hook System is fully adjustable! Very much coolness!!! I adjusted the Buckets of Doom almost all the way back and heal clearance was no longer an issue.

I rode for a couple of mile just to see what is would be like. And like Arkel fashion the pannier stayed on okay. It was getting late and I went to bed.

I put the other pannier on the next day and rode with both for about a mile. I even went offroad to one of the Mental Hospital's many grave yards around the area. It's a strange thought that there are 3 mental hospitals within 2 mile of my apartment and they have lot of land with plenty of trails all leading to graveyards. My dad once told me a story of when he was in Vietnam. His unit went on some kind of training mission at midnight through a graveyard. Just a funny thought. I'm not superstitious or anything it's just odd to have so many crazy houses and graveyards right next to my apartment complex.

I had to go out of town so I could only get in about a mile with both panniers. However, I saw some bad thundercloud moving in from the west. They were almost black. About 3:30pm the bottom feel out. Big Oak tree were bending over like Christ had returned or somthing. However, I didn't here Gabriel blow the horn so I guess it wasn't time yet. Anyway, I couldn't go out of town with such bad weather.