Before the full Colorado update, I will say that we survived the 14 or so hour drive from Breckenridge, CO to the greater Los Angeles, CA area on Saturday. We know the drive well and can predict some of the dips and turns in the road. Overall, it's a beautiful drive, except when we hit Vegas. At that point, we are so close but still a few hours out, so the final push feels particularly painful.
Last year, we hit Sunday night Vegas-to-LA traffic which was HELL. The only thing that lifted my spirits was when we passed BMWs that had overheated and the bachelorette and her friends were sitting on the side of the road, looking grumpy and disheveled, not a tiara in sight. I know, I know, I'm a terrible person, but I really hate the whole "I-must-celebrate-MYSELF-for-twelve-months-straight-because-I'm-getting-married" thing.
No doubt these mean-spirited thoughts do come back to bite me in the ass. Karma is a bitch, especially when you are on the road.
Karma, on this occasion, came in the form of a Yakima bike rack that fell apart on us while we were cruising down I-15. We heard some strange and inauspicious sound, and it seemed as though my door or window had popped open. I asked Michael to exit ASAP, which he did - fortunately we were close to an exit and could pull into a service station. There, we inspected the bike rack and realized that the driver's side of the rack had become completely loose. This wouldn't have been such an issue, except that we had our bikes strapped to the rack and the car was packed as it was. Fortunately, we squeezed the bikes into the backseat, once we removed the front and back tires. Our dogs weren't very happy to share their space with some bikes, but they only had to travel an hour with such limited space.
On our part, we were relieved that we hadn't lost the entire roof rack. Whenever I imagine that possibility, I have a mental image of our rack and bikes all over I-15. There would have probably been a huge accident to boot. I seriously cringe when I think about it!
Knowing how terrible the situation could have been, we were quite grateful to arrive home all in one piece.
We also learned an important lesson - bike racks are not infallible, and we need to check ours out at least once a year. The good news is that I went back to the rack store today (Rack Solid in Santa Monica - I totally recommend this place!), and they did not chide me nor tell me that I was going to need a new rack. They did have to replace a part and reinstall the system, but now it is as good as new. So, we are back in business, ready to road trip, bikes and all!
No comments:
Post a Comment