Jul 10 - back in working order

It was a day of catch up.

Cutting the "lawn", if you can call it that, with the weed eater took some time.  I went through a tank and a half of gas.  That's a lot of weed eating.  It took some time to get the thing going but Quick Start over and over and some Sea Foam finally got the thing going.  It ran like a champ through the first tank including multiple stops and starts but then balked again at the start of the second tank.  It's the same gas; who knows.  I guess I shouldn't let it run dry.

Next up, get the bike back together.  It was filthy from riding in the rain on the last day of the Belgium ride.  That rain hit us when we were on a cycle path so there was a lot of crap.  What I really need to do is strip it and reassemble.  Before another big ride I will replace the brake pads and should probably replace cables and cable housings.  It does need some TLC.  In the meantime, it's back together and I've got the Neuvation wheels on it.

I removed the cassette to check the spokes after the issue that I had in Edinburgh.  A few of the spokes are scored from having the chain stuck in there ... that's another rebuild that I should do.  I don't want spokes failing en masse !

So I'm ready to roll; will probably go out today although I seem to coming down with a bit of a head cold.

Next up, get the lake pump operational again.  When we got home the other day, I could hear the pump running.  Since the garden wasn't being watered at the time I knew that there was a problem.  If it stops and then stays off, then it's simply a gradual loss of pressure.  The system isn't completely water tight.  However, it stopped and then came on a minute or two later.  I found that the hose had been abraded in the water, wave action, and it was losing pressure down by the foot valve.  That day I simply shut the pump off.  I told Sandy that if she gets zucchini and potatoes out of the garden, they'll be very expensive.

Yesterday, I cut that section of hose off and reinstalled the foot valve, re-primed the pump, which is always such a pain.  I'm sure that I could productively dismantle the pump itself and clean it out but that will likely always be a "tomorrow" project until it fails.  I'd be sorely tempted to replace this pump with a submersible if/when it goes.  If I hung a submersible of the end of the dock it wouldn't be exposed to wave action and dirt; wouldn't have priming problems ... something to think about. 

Before all this, I got caught up with my  banking and an assessment of the cost of our trip.  As expected, it came in higher than expected.  Let me re-phrase that -- during the trip I could tell that we were spending more than I'd expected, so by the end of the trip I knew that we were over budget.  Once I tallied everything up, separated the cost of biking from the rest, discounted some costs as status quo (had we stayed home we would still be eating, driving the cars etc.), then the residual was about 20% over budget.

Comparing this trip to the one after Paris-Brest-Paris, we spent more on hotels and restaurants/food.  We did more big cities this time -- London, Paris, Dublin, Edinburgh -- and thus more expensive rooms, restaurants, sightseeing, you name it.  We also had higher fixed expenses with the Irish Ferry, Eurostar etc.

I separate out the biking cost because there is duplication of hotel rooms and a lot of incidental food cost.  We are constantly stopping for sustenance, coffee, other liquid and thus go through a lot of cash.  During this time, for example, Sandy has a hotel room as well that could have accommodated the two of us but I've got a hotel room too.  I've got a car that's simply sitting around.  A Mile Failte jersey was a cash expense ... you get the idea.  The separation is rough justice.  It was easier after Paris-Brest-Paris because once the ride was over, the vacation started.  These rides were in the mix, time-wise.

We plan to do some touring after PBP in 2015 as well.  We're thinking about Spain and Portugal but of course we'll be starting in France.  We could swing through Champagne; I suspect that we'll re-visit Meaux as that was an ideal stopping point on the way back to CDG (Charles de Gaulle) airport for the return.   Perhaps this time I should plan to do one of the Tour de France epic climbs ?  No.  We'll make it purely about vacation again.

We were talking last night about other places that we'd like to vacation - our bucket list.  Hong Kong is definitely on the list; have to get there while Joyce is there.  Japan, Australia, South Pacific -- Fiji/Tahiti or something like that -- and of course some of this has to include Scuba Diving.  We also need to do the East Coast of Canada, which will likely be / could be a Fall swing through on our way to Florida. 

So much to do !

For today, however, we simply move onward.  It's going to be / has already been, a busy summer !