Wednesday November 26

A lazy rainy morning, people did what they wanted to until later afternoon when we met up in Isla Vista. This was such a rad event, we had some folks from Bici Centro come meet us at the Isla Vista Food Co-op for a ride into the city and workshop. Bici Centro is a volunteer bike kitchen in Santa Barbara. They provide education and events to the community for free and boost bike culture. Thomas, Jonathan, and other Bici Centro volunteers met up with us as we started on the Bike trail through UCSB. We hadn't gotten too far before the rain started, then Libby got flat tire. We all waited for her and Courtney to change it, cheered when it was all wrapped up, got about 200 yards and Adam got a flat. Awwww too bad.. then Libby got a flat, then Adam again, and again. Five flats in a 12 mile stretch, it took us 2.5 hours to get there. Adam just decided to walk the rest of the way on his 3rd flat...

We were famished once we got to the bike kitchen and ate the meal Travis prepared for us. After that we tore into our bikes. We got full use of the facilities, Thomas said "this is a community bike kitchen so now it's your kitchen too." Jacob replaced his bottom bracket, Courtney worked on his brakes, I learned how to "true my wheel" (spokes pull your bike wheel into opposing directions, if one gets loose it can actually change the shape of your wheel so that it is not a "true" circle, what you do is systematically tighten and loosen the spokes where the shape has bent until it straightens out). We kept stopping and looking at each other to say "I can't believe we got a whole bike kitchen to ourselves!" What a blessing. We finally wrapped it just before 9 and rode home in the rain... and got three more flat tires (what happened!!??)

Tomorrow Thanksgiving!