March 29th: Still in Lugones

Almost forgot to write today… well because I’m still here at my warm showers hosts house in Lugones… It’s my first day off on the trip and it feels very strange… I remember this feeling from my other bike trip of being angsty about not moving forward… jolted to a stop, feeling pent up energy and not having anything to do in the day. Getting on the bike and riding is an easy choice… once you’re on, it’s a thing that you are doing and that occupies you, physically, mentally and you don’t have time to worry about anything else. I’ve mentioned this before about just sitting with myself on the bike, I guess that there’s practice to be done to be just sitting with myself off the bike as well…

I went for a long walk to Decathelon today, I got lost along the way which helped kill some time I guess. I got some fun energy bars, a plastic bowl (which turned out to be extremely helpful for the rest of the trip), and perused around for things that I didn’t need, but desparately wanted to buy.

And Maria got some much needed attention as well from Su’s (my host) bike mechanic friend at his shop…

Notes from 2 years later: His name was aptly “Jesus” and wow was he the nicest bike shop owner ever. He looked at my bike with a fond insider’s smile and could tell immediately that I had been through some stuff the past month. It was easter weekend and his shop was stacked with bikes that people wanted to get serviced before the long weeekend kicked off. He said, “leave it with me and come back tomorrow”. The next day, I got to the shop, my bike looked unrecognizable! New rear derailleur, new chain, new cassette (with an easier gear thank god…) and a full shiny clean. And all this for 75 Euro, the price of parts at cost… I couldn’t thank him enough. He said “Su is my friend, and if we don’t do this for our friends, then who do we do it for?”. Thank you again Jesus… you’re a fucking legend!

I vowed to take better care of Maria going forward and hit the road.

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