A good day in Missoula.
The weather has been epic here in western Montana so much so I need to keep writing abouty it. Cool mornings, blue skies, bright sun and balmy days. The leaves have been changing now, maples and oaks showing their hidden colors. I headed off to a meeting last night around 6 pm. I peddled the new bike given to us from a guy at a meeting. I decided to ride through the “POV” a secetion of town where the homeless camp out and live and there is a community building where lots of folks hang around and take over the streets with their vehicles and tents and tarps. Pretty rough zone but I thought I might as well try and look for Inanna’s stolen bike one more time. As I left the main drag area of the Pov and ventured down an alley way I saw to women digging through a dumpster of old clothes brhind a thrift store. I went around the corner and bam! I couldnt believe my eyes. There was her bike!! It was leaning against the building un-locked. My heart raced , “holy shit” there it is. I tried to keep cool and quickly assess the situation. So I kept riding slowly and thought quickly. I decided to go around the block, ditch this bike behind a dumpster and walk back to her bike. I found a good spot to hide mine and quickly walked back to the building. The women were still stuffing clothes into garbage bags from the dumpster. I walked quikly up to the bike and grabbed it. I hopped on and rode my ass off as fast as I could! The tires were really soft and one of the brakes was busted. I went maybe 3 blocks to a gorcery store and stopped. I had the bike lock from the other bike and I locked it to the bike stand . I ran back to where I stashed my bike hoping it was still there. Phew it was, I rode past the women , still digging and made for the grocery store. The bike was a little beat up but all fixable. Wow. I couldnt believe it but I had to , it just happened…
It felt redeeming to bring Inanna’s bike home. It was a bit messed up. Broken shifter, broken brake cable and busted kid seat. I took it to a community bike shop and in two hours I had it riding as good as new with the help of the crew at FreeCycles. That place is amazing. For a donation you can bring your bike in and use the stands and all the tools you need . The team there helps you with any repair you want to do plus they have a huge wharehousde of used parts you can pick through! Felt like a good day in Missoula.
On a different note, the expensive solar battery we had shipped from California is crap. I hooked it up for one day and then it stated losing power under load and setting off alarms on the inverter! I thought it was the cables maybe being too small but after taking it to a solar shop they tested it and said it was bad. Well, we needed power. So the guys at the solar shop gave me a smokin deal on a set of new batteries and a new inverter. We decided to go back to a 12 volt system insteads of the 24 volt we had been using. Also , we installed a DC to DC charger that hooks up to the bus alternater which means that the solar batteries charge up when we are driving. Pretty cool idea and with Winter coming on and less solar input it made a lot of sense. So now I am dealing with this old new battery from California. I want to send it back for a full refund but the company is giving me a hard time and making me jump thru lots of hoops to get them to send a shipping label . I had to prove that the battery was bad so I took a video at the solar his shop of the batery being tested and sent that off. So we’ll see where it goes, fingers crossed.
All the leaves have turned here in Missoula. The mornings are nippy and we have needed the propane heat past couple weeks. We are set to leave today. Heading south through Idaho then Utah. I’m hoping we can beat the freezing weather on the mountain passes but I think were cutting it close. Not sure how Mona is gonna handle in the snow or icy roads …Once we get down there to Yuma, AZ, we have some markets lined up for our spinners and baskets. And I need to get working on these opals. Josh seems ready to start selling them online. I have been watching a few youtube videos on how to polish opals and it seems doable for me. I will need to get some more points for polishing and some diamond grit ploishing paste. These opals are beautiful and i’m feeling a bit nervous to mess it up. And it could be something I get good at for another income stream. Looking forward to being on the open road again. Been a while just sittin in Montana. Time to go. Onward !