Weekend of fun and pain.

Went camping this weekend. Kind of a dry-run for going to mackinaw for 3 days. The bikes performed well until I shifted wrong and snapped a SRAM 3.0 dérailleur almost in 1/2, getting it caught in the spokes and bent around 180
(yes I rode back 1.5 miles on that notice the missing idler gear and the chain is running on the remains of the composite plastic cage edge). Spend 20 minutes on my knees in cinders (wearing shorts) bending the thing back enough to get it into a mode of working so I could get back to camp. Luckily The SUN EZ-TAD is built with inexpensive parts. The SRAM 3.0 is only $19.00 most places that is not robbing people (Local chain Bike shop wanted $50.00 for it) and the upgraded Sram X7 is only $10.00 more. But most reviews on it say it is no better than the 3.0 so I'm not wasting time upgrading. We forgot the sleeping bags making the night a bit chilly, but the biggest mistake was taking the dog. Dogs + tents = Hell. they freak with every noise, they go out to potty in the morning and come back in with muddy feet (dew) and they think it's time to wake at sunrise while you think that 5:00am is a bit early and want to sleep to at least 7:00 or 8:00. The tent worked awesome. Best tent ever. Setup and teardown without looking at the instructions was the fastest we ever have had with a tent. Cabelas tents are top notch in every way.

So with a few refinements like bringing spare parts and more tools for the bikes, making sure we have all equipment and not bringing a dog, the trip to Macinac Island should be a really good one.

Now to get more bike time so my legs don't kill me.