Meet Isabella...

This is my bike all dressed up for the tour. Because she's Italian I gave her an Italian name. I call her Isabella. I bought her a couple months ago and have put on a few hundred miles and she rides fast and smooth. I did a two-day trip up to Lake Geneva, WI and back loaded with gear (less the front low-rider bags, which only just arrived this last week) and it took a little while to learn how to balance her. But after only a few miles it felt totally natural. She's a sturdy young thing. Strong like bull.

I have about another week to ride her before I need to box her up and fly off to Seattle. I have enough knowlege of bike mechanics to put her back together when I get there; still, I was hoping to stop by a bike shop to make sure everything is correctly aligned and tightened. As I've said in many other contexts: I've no problem riding her, but I don't know how all of her parts work. I called a place about a month ago to see if I could schedule a tune up and the gentleman told me to call back about a week before. I did so and he said they're booked for the next two weeks. Assholes. Every other bike shop I called seemed to have the same to say. I'm not as concerned about this as I probably be. We'll see what happens.

Nearly there now.