You may be wondering why I, who am ordinarily organized to the nth degree, had so much trouble finding things in our bags during our packing and leaving Delray phase. It’s very unlike me. Bear with me while I backtrack a bit to fill you in.
When we first decided on our many-years-long cycling trip, we had the burning question of how to carry our gear. After a great deal of research and discussion we chose to use Burley trailers. Overall we were very pleased with our decision.
However, once we knew we were leaving the country, we also knew we wanted to switch to panniers. Again, we researched and discussed everything thoroughly, because using trailers had very compelling pluses. We decided on panniers.
So we bought our Ortlieb panniers, bright yellow with black trim, a year ago. Then during the summer we sold our trailers, feeling some distinct anxiety about it.
We didn’t do much about learning to ride with the panniers since we figured it would be pretty straightforward, and besides, we still needed front racks on our bikes. Thinking we’d be switching bicycles by the time we left, we put off buying the front racks till the last minute.
We did put the panniers on the back racks and took a maiden voyage to Costco with them, loading them to the max. Compared to the trailers it was definitely a challenge getting things in evenly and maximizing the use of the space. Riding with the balance and weight was fine, and we were thrilled that we had actually tried the panniers before just riding away the first day of the next round of our tour.
So there we were, in the final throes of our downsizing and selling our house, facing life on the road again. It was now time to order the front racks. I decided on an Ortlieb-made brand, figuring we wouldn’t have any issues with compatibility.
After a surprising amount of time and focus required to figure it out, Chelsea finally got the front racks on, despite the incredibly awful installation instructions. We even got online to the REI chat line and worked the process through with them, making sure they were compatible with our bikes. Chelsea’s clever, she’s very good mechanically, and she was very determined. She made it work.
Getting the panniers onto the front rack was a longer process. Chelsea couldn’t quite get it, though she tried consistently and thoughtfully. Again, Ortlieb’s instructions were useless.
We even called on an old friend of mine, who was a mechanic for years, to help us. I laughed watching the two of them twisting and turning, bent over, lying on the floor, all in the vain attempt to get the panniers to click in properly to the rack.
Success finally arrived in the form of Kevin at Best Bike Shop of Delray, who after a short bit of twisting and turning and checking things, finally figured out the mystery. It wasn’t a mystery to us that he figured it out. If anybody could, it would be Kevin.
So meanwhile, back at the house…we knew the closing was coming up fast, so we decided to be proactive and get our gear packed up in advance in the panniers, since that’s all we’d be taking with us. I was armed with the “rules” about no more than fifty-five pounds or so on the back panniers, thirty-two pounds on the front panniers, and all of them balanced side to side. No problem, right?
We started early on a Saturday, allowing ourselves plenty of time to get it all figured out. All our gear lay organized on the expansive king-size bed in my room, we had the weight-watchers scales that would weigh ounces, we had the panniers, we had time.
So much for unbridled optimism.
Nine painful hours later we had Chelsea packed. Her weight limits were right, the panniers were balanced left to right and front to back. All looked good.
One thing about Chelsea is that she can get very determined, some might say pig-headed, when she really wants something. For ages she had wanted to see the panniers packed and see how they really worked, since so much of our future is bound up in them.
I kept telling her that we needed to pack both hers and mine at the same time, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I finally gave in and just worked on getting hers done. I knew that was a bad idea.
It didn’t take long after we had so carefully completed Chelsea’s and started on my packing to realize we had a really big problem, literally and metaphorically. I had twenty-seven pounds less than Chelsea, and could not under any circumstances get the remaining bulk into my panniers.
This was despite having already eliminated thirty, yes thirty, pounds of weight.
Since we’d reached exhaustion at nine hours of packing, sorting, weighing, and more packing, sorting, weighing, and dinner was overdue, we quit for the day.
Because of time constraints, we had no time to get back and figure out our packing problem. In part, we couldn’t finish until we made some fundamental adjustments by getting different gear and clothing. That would take money and time, currently two precious commodities.
By the time we hit the Gallegos household that infamous night we had a notable stack of ten bright yellow plastic waterproof bags in varying sizes, small, medium and very large. We had four small bags (the front panniers), four medium bags (the rear panniers), and two extra large bags (the Sea to Summit bags). They all looked alike.
I couldn’t say, “It’s in your right front pannier, Chelsea.” “Oh, which one would that be, Mom?”
There was absolutely no way to quickly distinguish right from left, and it was difficult telling front from back as the size differential isn’t enough to recognize them at first glance. We could figure out the Sea to Summit bags as they were so much bigger, but which was Chelsea’s and which was mine?
I did put red tags on the handle of my panniers, but it wasn’t enough. They simply got lost in the jumble of bags. It was no wonder at all that we couldn’t find things, especially when the tiredness and time shortage were factored in.
Short of typing up a list of exactly what was in each bag and taping it to the outside of the bag, we were stuck with the jumble.
I’d like to report that it all got solved quickly and cleverly, but it didn’t. The only good news was that we got enough stuffed into the bags so that we could pack them into the Toyota Camry for our trip to New Orleans.
Part of us longs for the days of the trailers, when we could carry just about anything, and it was so easy to pack and find things. On the other hand, we are thrilled that this process is forcing us to winnow things down, replacing heavier bulkier items with smaller lighter ones. We’ve wanted to do it for forever and a day. Now we’re forced to follow through.
It’ll take time to pull it all together, but we have a plan.