Paul on a bike, except when I'm working on the new house...

Made it to yelm on day one&1/2. Had a small equipment fail on the seatpost clamp, but the cool guys at   ghybikes.com/  hooked me up, well organized shop, as in it took a few seconds for Corey the guy helping me to find what I needed.  Seat saved, easy peasy. After a few struggles late last night, cool guy named Justin helped me out when I was having, you guessed it, more trailer failure, got it fixed for now, and with some luck one of the two surly dealers in portland have a replacement for the right hand thread bold to keep the wheel on. I managed to fix it in the home depot parking lot, after Justin dropped me off, and he wasn't kidding about some of the people up to no good north of JBLM,  If I had to tell the Base Commander a tip, I would make north of the base off limits from sundown to sunup. Managed to find a place to camp, it was so cold, got a couple of hours sleep though, but it was so cold. Cool things I saw were not just the usual Orion that you...

Day Two on the road, only almost a month later, with a different trailer, more bins. So Sunday I'll rearange everything to be set up to travel.   This time with a Surly Bill trailer, and to spice it up, Flame stickers, a flag, three black and yellow bins, and I somehow don't have as much room as those trailers I killed.  I even thinned the pile a bit more. But it will be good to get back out on that road, especially since the weather is supposed to turn this next weekend, happy November. Back to the mindset of "what will I find", and "mysteries galore". Pics below, should be able to handle all of my 'glamping'.... And I leave tomorrow....again...lolz  Day two, let's see how far...this time.

But, it wasn't too bad, and now I'm stuck in Bellevue for a few days waiting on parts, and yes,  a new trailer, to replace the two trailers I was dragging, as one trailer the wheels died, and the other one won't seem to stay on the bike, so I'm upgrading to the Surly, long Surly, so won't have any weight issues, as I think I was stress testing(and they failed) both trailers.  Which led to the B-Rad trailer coming off and hooking on the derailer, so that's toast, that will take a couple of weeks to get here, and then a new seat, as the springy seat I bought fell apart. So lots of drama, and I'm on the road, just waiting for things to get shipped to me, and I'm kind of tired, but soo good to be out of seattle. The trip over to Bellevue, had some negative, but why dwell on stupid. I would would rather talk about the nice lady from Something Rotten who asked me "where I was from?", had to tell her I was from here, but I was getting out, down to R...

So a question for the world, what would be the last thing you want someone to remember about you?  Remember, they are leaving never to return..... Next monday is settlement day, thursday is bank day, and friday is leaving day.... But first there is tuesday and wednesday, I have to pack everything onto the bike and trailers, then I have to unpack, then bring the bike and trailers down to the street, then pack it all up again, lock the door and get riding to a friend's place to wait for thursday bank day. Sing it Roger Daltrey  "I'm free....."

In two days I leave work for the last time, not too many people have been here longer than me, my old job doesn't exist, that room completely changed. I'm ready for change, in Pete Townsend's rock opera TOMMY, there are lines like "I'm Free", along with "Put in your earplugs, put on your eye shades, you know where to put the cork", in seattle, they just seem to put the cork up where they put their head.... Soon....an I'm Free, I'm free, and Freedom tastes of Reality!

Wow, so few days left, a few things to store, a tv to give away(I'll buy a new & bigger one later), and then I'm free, it's interesting how people set up their lives and they just don't know how trapped they are. I'll have just what I can carry on a bike and two trailers, my own little world on the road.  It's one of the things I loved when I was on the USS Yosemite, the boat(home) would move and suddenly you are somewhere else, going to a different coffee shop, restaurant, that park over there(but only during the day). So looking forward I can't wait for the things that will kind of suck, as I do bike every day, I know this is quite a bit more biking than I usually do, but I will have all the time to take it as slow as I want. Not long people....and the stories will get better.

So, got to bring the kitchen with me, so need a place for the chopping blade....  Just a piece of leather and some nails, then sew it up, then after it dries from the oil I put on it, I'll tie it onto the second trailer.