bike trip

I’ve been told many times that you never know what your day is going to be like. Last Saturday was one of those days. I had settled into my new home and was looking forward to going to the market in the next town as I had been told it had more selection and slightly better prices. A group of us decided to go out on bikes. As we left I mentioned to one of my teammates that I forgot to grab my jackknife but didn’t worry too much about it, after all what can go wrong on a short bike trip. Yes my bike was kind of noisy and really old but it had just had a tune-up so it was good to go… or so I thought. We took the short detour through a field and started to cross the airstrip when I heard a clunk from my back tire. I looked back and saw nothing wrong and assumed it was just one of the many insignificant noises my bike had already been making (either the tire is warped or the brakes are misaligned, I’m still not sure which). I continued on and soon after the chain came off, a quick stop to put it back on and I was good to go again. Soon after the chain fell off again and I thought I better line it up on the next tighter set of gears as it seemed loose. As I attempted to do this I realized that my back tire was completely out of place and was ready to fall off. Needless to say that ended my market trip before I was even ½ way there. Instead I ended up walking my bike back to the compound. Yet through it all I still had fun. The trip back provided me with a chance to try and chat with a number of local girls though I’m not sure how much of my poor Arabic they understood. I must have looked pretty funny walking what appeared to be a perfectly good bike and attempting to speak Arabic. I did make it to the market this weekend and from now on will remember to bring tools with when I take a bike out for even a short trip.