I made a decision! Sort of. After some careful consideration and a coin flip i hopped in the car and headed to REI to return the larger handlebar bag. I can see some situations where i might wish i had the larger bag but for the most part i think the compact will do what i need it to. And if not, so it goes.
While i was at the store i figured i'd ask them if they had a spare cardboard bike box i could have for taking the bike on the airplane. I could see in their shop that they had one box that had 3 or 4 other empty boxes in it, and the mechanic was about to put another in it. The sales guy's first response to the question was something like "we don't usually sell just the box because we offer a shipping service that includes dis-assembly and reassembly at another REI store." I told him that i was flying to Norway and there probably isn't an REI in the airport. He went to go find a manager.
He came back after a minute and said all the managers were at lunch (...it was almost 5pm and the store closes at 7) but he had asked another worker and he thought they could sell me one, but they had no idea how much to charge. In my head i was thinking, "i thought bike shops were supposed to just give these things away?" But ok, let's see what he says. 10-15$. Cripes. I'm standing there staring at 5 boxes they're about to put in a dumpster, but then the other guy comes out with a brand new box, a hefty looking one. At this point i felt kind of locked in. I didn't want to burn a bridge trying to get a free box and then not be able to find anything somewhere else. Yeah, 15$ is more than 0$ but it meant i had my box and could move on to other issues (i still haven't decided which bike to bring!).
It turned out buying the box was the easy part. Getting it into my car proved to be quite challenging. If the box was box form instead of flat it might have been easier, especially with the wind. Folding the box flaps down and shifting the seats did the trick and i was on my way.
Some social media updates:
I've had quite a time fussing with google and all of it's branches but i think i've got some things finally squared away. This is the main source of the blog, jtgtours.blogspot.com. There's also a facebook page (www.facebook.com/jtgtours) so you can like it and hopefully get notifications of new posts. There's a youtube channel (here) where i'll be posting videos. Many will be linked to in blog posts, but there will probably be extra stuff on there too. Instagram (www.instagram.com/jtg_tours). this is my first time ever using instagram so i'm not sure what i'll use it for (i'm supposed to take pictures of everything i eat, right?). There are also some google+ pages but this "collection" should be the one to follow (https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/kUn4e)
Obviously you probably don't want to follow all of these, i'm just putting options out there. Personally, i'd like the facebook page and subscribe to the youtube channel. Adios, till next time when i think i need to discuss my bike quandary.
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