Simple Hobby Homesteading

3:30am, Friday, day before the ride starts… I am wide awake and obviously still on central time. My mind and body are screaming at me to get up, pack Kevin’s lunch for work, let the dogs out, feed the horses, feed and milk the goats, throw a load of laundry in, and sit with my Bible and a cup of coffee for some quiet time. But wait… where am I? I don’t hear any roosters, no birds chirping, and an alarm has obviously not gone off.

Ahhhhhh, yes, San Francisco. Go back to sleep Jhenna. But… alas… I cannot. “Kevin are you awake?” I whisper. “No, go back to sleep honey” is his sweet response. But… I… can’t! Too excited! I lay there for another hour wide awake until I can no longer stand it.

I walk up to the “premier lounge” on the 10th floor in hopes of finding some coffee. Nope, no coffee and very little to keep me occupied so I head back to the room to see if I can convince my husband to wake up. On the ninth floor a couple get on the elevator with me… a man with a simple small rolling suitcase and a woman with a wild head of hair, a very loose oversized tank top, miniskirt and obviously no undergarments (doesn’t she feel a draft?). I smile politely but can’t wait to get to our 8th floor to dash out and tell Kevin that I most assuredly got to hang out in an elevator with a prostitute. Wow, do I sound extrememly sheltered and naive.

Kevin is unimpressed with my news but I talk him into getting up and ready way before he ever would have even thought of on his own. We head down to get some breakfast and then back up to wait. I call the Sheraton to see if we can get into our room there if we head over now (8am) but they are cryptic and don’t give us a straight answer. Maybe, but maybe not until noon. I’m bored out of my mind in the hotel room so we call a cab to head to the Fisherman’s Wharf and the Sheraton. I talk Kevin into the idea of walking around the Wharf if our room isn’t ready yet.

The front desk calls us a cab… a seemingly nice calm gentleman who doesn’t even comment on my heavy bag as he hoists it into the trunk. Wow oh wow, I am not usually a person able to be frightened easily but I was a wreck when this guy got onto the back streets of San Francisco off the highway (freeway?). Straight up and straight down, dashing here and there and everywhere. Trying to prove his cab could go from dead stop to 60mph in the span of one black before slamming on the breaks at the stop sign he knew was there before leaving the last one. Seriously, was he trying to make me scream? I actually clutched Kevin’s hand like I thought we might not make it!

We made it. Guess what, the room would be ready at noon. It was 10am. Check-in for the California Coast Classic was at noon and mechanics would start assembling bikes at 2pm so we had some time to kill. We stowed our bags in a secure room they had set up for just that purpose and walked down to the wharf. Nice little shops, fresh donuts, crepes, all sorts of things one would love to look through and buy for souvenirs if only they had more than a little bike bag to fit them into. I did get two Alcatraz postcards for the boys… mental note, I need to find those and give them to the boys as I never did get around to mailing them from California!

It’s noon! We check into our room, take our stuff up and head directly down to check-in for the ride. I’m sooooooooo excited! We get our new jerseys, jackets, socks, numbers, and all sorts of other cool stuff. Little packs of energy jelly beans from Jelly Belly… seriously do they really want me to be any more amped up than I already am? We meet Amy and all sorts of other folks just as excited as we are, so very cool!

We head back up to our room, dump all of our cool swag out on the bed and start packing things up for the epic ride that starts in about 18 hours.

At 2pm we head back down to lobby area to the room where they are putting bikes together. We meet two of the most amazing bike mechanics in the WORLD,  Ian and Jamaica. These guys not only know their trade but they have magnetic personalities. Easy going, fun loving, and hard working I wish my sons could have met them and just followed them around for the week.

One of our boxed bikes is there (package 2 of 2) but the other box is missing (package 1 of 2 according to the label and the one containing my bike). We call FedEx to try to track it down. After reading the tracking number to literally 14 different people (one even at one of their Canadian distribution offices, I prayed to God my bike was not in Canada) we find out FedEx in Evansville did not type up the complete label on my bike box and it was sitting at a distribution center in south San Francisco. It took over 2 hours and 14 people to get this little tidbit of information.

No, they could not get the bike to the hotel. All of their trucks were out for the day and there was no way to call anyone back in to load it and no other truck to bring it. Yes, they understood I needed the bike before 5:30pm. Yes, they understood the bike should be sitting at the hotel right now. No, they were unable to figure out that the box (package 1 of 2) should have gone with the box with the same tracking number and name of sender (package 2 of 2). No, they had no other options for us unless we wanted to come pick it up ourselves. How were we supposed to do that?

I mentioned to Kevin that there was a car rental place across the street and we should rent a car, drive to get the box and try to get it back before the mechanics closed up shop at 5:30pm. We talked to Ian and Jamaica and they said regardless of the time the bike would be assembled and ready for me to ride in the morning if we could get it there. Seriously, what did we do to deserve these awesome guys?

We ran to rent the car and sped off (Kevin was driving so speed limits were obeyed). We made it to the distribution center 12 miles away after 40 minutes of traffic and waited. I signed in as they asked me to and literally saw my bike box sitting on a cart 5 feet away. It was beyond a metal detector and 4 FedEx security guard guys. I pointed to it and explained to one of the guards that I was here to pick up that box. He said I would have to wait… FOR WHAT? I waited… I seethed but I waited. I waited some more. 15 minutes passed with no effort from anyone that I could see to do ANYTHING! I called FedEx and told them I was at the south San Francisco distribution center to pick up my bike and could someone expedite the process as we had to get the rental car back before they closed in 15 minutes.

If we didn’t get the rental car back in time that evening we would have to come back up to return it when they opened at 8am which is when the ride was supposed to start. FedEx said someone would be down to help me momentarily. What exactly were the jobs of those security guard guys other than trying to drive me insane? Just wondering.

Ten minutes later a very nice man came, gave us the box and Kevin and I just looked at each other as the box was beaten up horribly with gaping holes… it would be a miracle if my bike was in working order. Perhaps boxes with incomplete labels get drug around the back of the truck for a few blocks as punishment? That’s what it looked like.

Down the back seats go in the car and the box fits perfectly. I ask Kevin to please let me drive as I’m feeling confident in my ability to get us back in time to return the car… apparently I think I can fly is probably what he was thinking. I weave in and out of traffic, praying as I go and possibly urging the car to go speeds it wasn’t completely comfortable with.

We were soooooo close. 5:10pm…I drop Kevin off at the hotel in hopes he can get the bike to the mechanics before they close the doors thinking we couldn’t get the bike that night. I see the rental place is closed so I head to park the car in the rental lot so it’s ready to return in the morning. Guess what though… as I’m getting out of the car I see the rental car guy getting into his own car after a hard day’s work.

Yup, you guessed it, I have no shame! I give him a cheerful smile and ask if he’d be willing to take the keys and check the car back in “real quick.” I must have looked like I was on the edge of a huge cryfest because he agreed! He opened the office back up, let me take care of all the paperwork and the car was taken care of, WOOHOO!!

Ian and Jamaica seemed genuinely happy to see us and the bike box we carried though they had every good reason to run the opposite way (they would certainly be putting in overyime that night).

We left the bike with them (Kevin’s was put together and looked GREAT!) and headed off to get something to eat. We went to the same restaurant we visited eight years before as Kevin embarked on this same ride without me in 2006. Yummy Italian food and a few laughs about the crazy last couple hours we had lightened our mood and made everythying seem like it was going to be ok. We happily walked back over to the Sheraton and checked on progress of my bike. They were getting to it next and I was excited 🙂

We headed back up to our room to relax a bit and wait for word that my bike was done so we could bring it up and put my number, tail light, computer, etc. on. Being me, I couldn’t stay up in the room patiently so I headed down to check on the progress (I give my husband, Ian, and Jamiaca all the props in the world for dealing with me this night). When I walked in Ian had some bad news. There was a part missing on my bike… a crucial part. A little wedge shaped seat clamp that is made especially for the Specialized Ruby and it’s internal seat post configuration. The seat post and seat cannot be secured without it. You’ve… got… to… be… kidding… me. It must have come loose in shipping and fallen out of one of the gaping holes in the box.

I’m not a crying kind of woman nor am I one prone to meltdowns but if ever I was to have an absolutely selfish meltdown this would have been the perfect time. Kevin showed up at just that moment and wrapped his arms around me. Oh how I love that man! We called every bike shop in the area and they were all closed by that time. There was nothing anyone could do. My bike was unrideable until we got that part.

I was bummed… beyond bummed. Kevin was bummed. We went back up to the room to pout a bit and attempt a good night’s sleep. Kevin would ride out solo tomorrow and we’d figure out what I’d do in the morning. Most likely ride in one of the support vehicles while trying to have the piece shipped to wherever we would be that day or the following Monday… what else could we do?

Stay tuned…

~Jhenna