Apr 6/7 - riding

Two days in a row, as we had so-so weather on the horizon - south both days, as it turned out.

Jason, Lorraine & Kim left after breakfast on Friday and soon afterwards, I headed out on my bike.  Saturday was the same, not a really early start but rolling southwards.  I'm getting full value out of that new path !

I've also done some bike maintenance; general cleanup, chain replacement, shifter cable replacement and reviewed my spare parts inventory and ordered a couple more chains and another bottom bracket.  I'm still running the old style bottom bracket cups on the travel bike and should swap that soon ... after checking it out.  I believe that it's still rolling smoothy but don't want to find out otherwise in the middle of a 1200.

My last free weekend for a while is going by.  Next weekend I've got the 600k pre-ride; the following weekend the 1000k pre-ride and then, oh oh, it's off to Brazil.

Speaking of trips, I've been investigating flying options to Oz and Israel.  The cheapest option is to fly back home (Orlando or Toronto/Montreal) and then fly out again.  Another option is to have a round trip to Perth in the middle of a round trip to Tel Aviv.  The most expensive is to Perth, from Perth to Tel Aviv, from Tel Aviv to home.  Since TLV is 7 hours different and Perth 5 hours different than that, it might make sense to spend a couple of days in TLV to start reorienting the body clock, and then head to Perth.

There are many possible airlines involved, from what I would say as "safe" - Qantas, Air Canada, various European airlines, Cathay Pacific - to not sure - Thai, Turkish etc etc.  None of the flights are direct, all involve some sort of plane change.  Believe it or not, one of the best options fr Orlando => TLV and back is through Toronto, Air Canada.   Different airlines offer different versions of Premium Economy or better seat selection; some don't offer that at all.  Some of the layovers are long ... what does one do in Honk Kong airport for 17 hours ?  That's just one example of a possible connection between Perth and Tel Aviv.  Others include somewhere in Europe (doesn't make sense), Addis Ababa, Bangkok ...

I'm not so sure about booking this one so far in advance without some certainty that I'll still be rolling at that point.  There are a lot of cycling kms between now and then !  Oh well, there's always travel insurance but it could be dicey as well since I could be in fine shape to travel, but not in fine shape to do a 1200k !

We got some thunder and rain late in the day and probably some rain overnight but I didn't see it.  Today it's cloudy and the high for the day was before dawn. 

I've been sorting through RUSA store inventory and working with Paul R as he gets up to speed on what's required. Quite a pile of stuff arrived at my doorstep on Friday.  I've got all the discontinued items, or most of them. 

Onward !