Back in Chelmsford we now had a home base to begin our final preparations for our departure to Thailand. The primary goals were to develop a field testing method for bacterial contamination in water while we are abroad and the ever present challenge of catching up with our Blog. Our friend, Nick, whom we found through Warm Showers nearly a month earlier, had graciously agreed to help us out. He is currently working on his PhD in Computational Microbiology and spends his time growing E-Coli in a laboratory at Harvard. E-Coli is one of those lovely bacteria that live in our gut, some strains if ingested can make you sick and are commonly used as an indicator of Fecal (poop) contamination of drinking water and other sources. Perfect.The morning after our arrival in Chelmsford we headed down the now familiar 20 mile route to Cambridge to meet with Nick at his lab. Unfortunately, once we were within about 200 meters of our destination I realized that we had forgotten our SteriPens. These were the crux of my experiment as they would be used to sterilize field glassware between uses. This minor oversight resulted in insurmountable frustration. We found Nick and the lab anyway and called our dear host Wally in desperation to see if we could use his car to recover the forgotten goods, but this was to no avail as he was incredibly busy. So after sitting and blogging at one of our favorite coffee shops in Cambridge and visiting a book store, we returned home, defeated.
The variables I would be examining were inoculation (putting the sample onto the plate) and incubation (growing the bacteria for identification in a lab setting). To test the inoculation aspect, for some of the plates I used sterile lab pipettes (a new one for each test) and glass eyedroppers (sterilized between tests with the Steripen). For some plates a contaminated sample was used and for others a blank or uncontaminated sample was used to prove that no cross contamination was occurring. To test incubation some plates were put in the lab incubator and others were taped to my leg, as the incubation temperature for these bugs is in fact body temperature. Now we had to wait 24 hours for the results, so we rode back to Wally's with our fingers crossed, because this was our last opportunity to be in a lab before our departure.
Thursday, with 3 days till our flight, we made our final bike ride into Cambridge and Boston with the intention of running some final errands. We went to REI and exchanged faulty and damaged gear and then to Ibex and Patagonia. At Ibex I returned a pair of damaged bike shorts that were out of stock on our previous visit. During our last visit they were incredibly helpful and more than happy to perform the exchange, and this time they remembered me. During the transaction I was flipping through a catalog and I made a comment about another pair of world cyclists, The Restless Collective, whom they sponsored. Then we were graced with little bit of magic. Apparently, during our time in Maine they had visited our blog and become stoked on how much I love their garments and how I am using them. They had even gone so far as asking the manager if there was some way that they could help us out.
Just as the cashier was about to tell me that these queries had not yet produced anything, that very manager walked through the door. We were introduced and we shook hands, and before I could respond she asked if there was anything that we needed. Some days earlier I had lost my thin long sleeve that expanded my wardrobe to a total of four different tops. I told her this and she asked my size and handed me a beautiful striped wool base layer that more than replaced the one that I had lost. I was lost for words, then she offered one for Lauren as well (and I managed to pick the colors that she wanted). We left the store elated and promised them a place on our website in exchange.
Late again, we headed for the lab where the finished plates were waiting. We stopped off and bought Nick a six pack of one of our favorite beers, Lagunitas IPA, as some small token of gratitude. When I grabbed the plates I began to flip through them quickly realizing that everything had turned out as I had hoped, leaving me confident in my field method. This would mark the beginnings of our water stories abroad. Riding back to Wally's for the last time we felt accomplished and relieved, but much still needed to be done.
Our remaining days in the states were spent blogging, inventorying, documenting, unpacking, re-packing, and most time consuming of all: packing the bikes into their respective boxes. Earlier that week we had stopped at a bike shop at the end of the bike trail where Lauren got a second pair of bike shorts for our sweaty future, and the shop owner promised us some bike boxes, one extra large to accommodate my bike, and one normal size box for Lauren. From my experiences with packing bikes, TSA will always open it up and inspect it and the bike will come back somewhat shredded. To prevent loss of some of the smaller parts, all dissembled components must be zip-tied to the main frame so that everything can be lifted out of the box as a single unit and could even exist without the box if all else fails.
Normally I am not too fazed by packing for any flight, but this one seemed surprisingly stressful for me. This would be the last time that we would be in the states for 3 to 9 months and I had a minor breakdown that blinded me to proper packing. Fortunately for me, Lauren remained calm (as usual) and got me through it. We got everything down to one pannier and one backpack for carry-on each, and a bike and 2 panniers lashed together to check. We loaded up Wally's sister's truck, said our good byes to Betsy, and were off.
We arrived at the airport with some uncertainty about American Airlines baggage policy regarding bikes, and we were prepared to spend up to $300 for the privilege of getting our bikes smashed by baggage handlers. After waiting about 30 minutes in the check-in line, we were called over by the seemingly grumpiest attendant. We approached the counter and she demanded our passports before we could say anything else. After some frantic typing and frowning she said, "How many bags are you checking?" We tried to explain that we both had a bike and a bag to check. The response was a straight faced, "So you each are checking two bags?" Again we tried to clarify that two of the bags were bikes, she didn't seem to care. Some more typing, then viola, she tapped on four baggage codes and three boarding passes each and she tersely said, "Have a nice flight." We walked away startled that no money had been exchanged and we gave each other a victorious hi-five.
It wasn't ten steps before we were in the security line. This one took nearly an hour to get through and the checkpoint wasn't even visible from the back of it. People were swearing and sweating worrying about missing their flights. Attendants were hustling back and forth ushering people on soon-to-depart flights up to the front. People were not stoked. Since we were still about two hours early the line didn't ever move much for us. When we finally got to the front I joked with the passport agent that there were "lots of smiling people today," and I got the only one in the room back. Soon we were at the gate with some time to spare and we got some pre-departure food. Boarding was called, we walked down the causeway; I crammed into my seat; Lauren exchanged with the man next to me so that we might sit together; we took a collective deep breath, and prepared for the 24 hour trip halfway around the world hoping that our bikes would make it too.
Just as the cashier was about to tell me that these queries had not yet produced anything, that very manager walked through the door. We were introduced and we shook hands, and before I could respond she asked if there was anything that we needed. Some days earlier I had lost my thin long sleeve that expanded my wardrobe to a total of four different tops. I told her this and she asked my size and handed me a beautiful striped wool base layer that more than replaced the one that I had lost. I was lost for words, then she offered one for Lauren as well (and I managed to pick the colors that she wanted). We left the store elated and promised them a place on our website in exchange.
Late again, we headed for the lab where the finished plates were waiting. We stopped off and bought Nick a six pack of one of our favorite beers, Lagunitas IPA, as some small token of gratitude. When I grabbed the plates I began to flip through them quickly realizing that everything had turned out as I had hoped, leaving me confident in my field method. This would mark the beginnings of our water stories abroad. Riding back to Wally's for the last time we felt accomplished and relieved, but much still needed to be done.
It wasn't ten steps before we were in the security line. This one took nearly an hour to get through and the checkpoint wasn't even visible from the back of it. People were swearing and sweating worrying about missing their flights. Attendants were hustling back and forth ushering people on soon-to-depart flights up to the front. People were not stoked. Since we were still about two hours early the line didn't ever move much for us. When we finally got to the front I joked with the passport agent that there were "lots of smiling people today," and I got the only one in the room back. Soon we were at the gate with some time to spare and we got some pre-departure food. Boarding was called, we walked down the causeway; I crammed into my seat; Lauren exchanged with the man next to me so that we might sit together; we took a collective deep breath, and prepared for the 24 hour trip halfway around the world hoping that our bikes would make it too.
Nice work adding the Louis C.K. in there. Stoked that you avoided the ridiculous bike/luggage fees!
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