09-22-09

I was super hungry and walked to the Paradise Café for breakfast. I had the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs. There was one waitress and one cook. The two young women had no trouble keeping up with the medium size crowd. There were two kinds of people eating; locals who all know each other on a first name basis and travelers just stopping once on their way through. The waitress made everyone feel like a local. The cook was pumping out amazing looking plates of food. Basic American stuff like pancakes and sausage, biscuits and gravy, Philly cheese steaks, regular steaks and onion rings. The entrees were all over the map, but amazing looking and huge portions . My food too was a sight to behold. She even made my hash browns brown enough. I like ‘em crispy.
I broke the front derailleur on my bike. The closed bike shop was a bout an hour up the coast in North Bend. I’d been meaning to take the bus for a drive to warm it up and give it some exercise, so Corey and I went for a drive. It was fun to drive the bus again. It took us awhile to find Moe’s Bike Shop due to my lack of pre-trip research. I should know by now the “try and spot it” method usually takes more time then it would have to get good directions in the first place. I parked, booted up my laptop and figured it out.
The young mechanic at Moe’s told me that they didn’t have the right derailleur. They had one, but it would be in the way of my second water bottle cage. After thinking he said, “I could switch your water bottle cages. If I cut this part off of the other one it should fit around the derailleur”. It was a genius plan so I told him to “go for it”. He did a great job and gave me a great deal. I saw on the wall that a regular derailleur installation was $10. He only charged me $8 for the custom install, plus he lubed my chain, put all new water bottle cage nuts on and adjusted everything back to the way I like it. That kind of bike love is hard to find and I really appreciated it.
I didn’t pre-tip my dishware in my cupboards before the trip. I made it awhile, but one dip on a corner into a parking lot sent everything crashing down. Sometimes glass falls, sometimes it falls and shatters. After the crash Corey said, “Something broke”. I lost one water glass. Other then that everything was just toppled over…everything. Once it falls I leave it down until I’m going to be parked for awhile. I used to set it back up whenever I stopped, but learned it rides better in a pile. That one corner toppled over anything that wasn’t secured very well. Canned goods, spices and the medicine cabinet were all hit pretty hard. It’s just part of the excitement of driving your home.