Manitou Springs: Party on wheels
Saturday June 12, 2010
The weather is poor – it’s a planned rest day but a good day not to be riding all the same. Cold and rainy. Mom and I check out the local museum, pick up my bike, look around downtown (the awesome book store that used to be near the Mountain Chalet is gone -frowny face -) and have a relaxing day. In the evening, we blow up a bunch of party balloons I bought in Falcon. We’re not celebrating anything, but I think that drivers, overall, give me more passing room when I’ve got the rear panniers on. Since my mom is going to carry my gear for me, I will really only need to carry tools, spare tube, warm gear and snacks. So how do I ride with full panniers to give the illusion of extra width without carrying a bunch of weight? Balloons. It is an experiment, but we’ll see what happens. We don’t know what the increases and decreases in altitude will do to them, so we have a lot of fun imagining the various scenarios. I inflate the balloons with my bike pump, mom ties them off. After loading the panniers, we think this just might work! It’s going to be a party on wheels.
