Today I finally finished prepping my bike for the road/trail/whatever awaits. It’s a beautiful Lapierre mountain bike. Great for mountains, 
not so much for long distance. Anyways, I won’t get into technicalities (unless requested). So with my bike all set, I took it for a spin. Any other rational person would have probably planned a 2-3 day trip to test out the gear and everything before the 4 month journey. Not me.
I learned two lessons from my 1 hour outing today.
- When you’ve never worn rigid cycling shoes before (these are the ones that cling to the pedals of the bike), you should take it easy and practice in a safe spot until you’re confident putting them on and off while sitting on the bike. Not what I did. I just took the road, and at the first stop I reached, I tried to set my foot on the floor but, to my surprise, it did not want to come off the pedal and so… I fell flat on my face, and the bike behind me.
- Don’t attempt to pitch a tent on dried out soil. I know this is quite straightforward, but I guess I just didn’t think it through. After countless strikes to stick the stakes into the ground, I broke the back of my knife-hammer in half. Ups! Had to use a cement block to keep the tent upright (really? hahaha). Anyways, that’s what my house for the next few months looks like. Wish me good luck…
