{"id":15978,"date":"2018-07-27T11:22:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T16:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wohutravels.us\/?p=15978"},"modified":"2019-03-26T09:46:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T14:46:46","slug":"pre-trip-jitters-i-gotta-get-our-of-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/?p=15978","title":{"rendered":"Italy Pre Trip Jitters . . . I gotta get our of town!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it rains it pours . . .<\/p>\n

With only a week to go before our Italy biking adventure, ‘things’ started happening.<\/p>\n

First, my Geoffrey Bean glasses broke. Since I started wearing glasses two years ago I always travel with two pair, in case I break or lose a pair, so now I was down to one!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

. . . a last minute trip to the optometrist found they had an exact frame is stock so it was easy to pop out the lenses, install them in the new frames and I was on my way. Problem #1 SOLVED . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While on a little vacation to Door county and Green Bay . . . (see the new Packers stadium tour here)<\/a> I was riding through a Door County rest area and rode over a 6 inch high speed bump. At that point my 15 year old Fizik Aliante carbon saddle collapsed. All four connection points of the rails to the mount sheared. I was riding the TREK 5000, which I am taking on the trip, so of course I had to scramble to find a new saddle. The 2018 version of this saddle did not ‘feel right’ after two 40 mile shakedown rides. So back it went to the store and I will be taking one of my ‘broken in’ Brookes saddles.\u00a0 ALWAYS a good standby. Problem #2 SOLVED.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Although my passport did not expire until next year I had not payed attention to the actual date. This trip would put me within the 6 month validity period which means I could be refused entrance to Italy!!!<\/p>\n

So . . . an online inquiry resulted in making an appointment at the nearest Passport Authority, located in Chicago, for the Wednesday before we were to leave!!! A drive to Chicago and all that means, including accidents on 94 and MAJOR construction projects in the city, landed me at the Passport Office, in a ball of nerves,\u00a0 15 minutes before my appointment (I have budgeted in an 1 and 15 minutes leeway!!!) Thank God for GPS!!<\/p>\n

Using the ‘expedited service ($60.00) and overnight shipping ($18.95) my new (52 page version) passport arrive at my doorstep, delivered by UPS, two days later.\u00a0 A small price to pay for what could\u00a0 have been a major travel disaster!!!<\/p>\n

What a lifesaver the State Department was in providing this service!!! Problem #3 SOLVED.<\/p>\n

\"date\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Whew . . . don\u2019t need to worry out his for 10 years!!!<\/p>\n

So . . . all set, almost.<\/p>\n

While out for a final ride on the TREK 5000, before I boxed it up, I broke a spoke and the chain went into the derailleur. Ugly scene!!!<\/p>\n

\"TREK5000\"<\/a><\/p>\n

. . into the LBS for \u2018expedited service\u2019 (no extra charge) and hopefully things will be back to normal . . .soon!!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So . . . the plan is to drive to O’Hare and fly Aer Lingus to Dublin, Ireland, overnight there and fly to Milan the following day. We’ll spend a couple of days in Milan then train to Alessandria where we will bike our 400 mile one-week loop. After the bike trip, it’s on the train to Turin, spend a couple of days ‘recuperating’ from the bike trip (did I mention there will be some elevation on this trip) then back to Dublin and home (for emJay)!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the Piedmont area where we will be bicycling . . .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

. . . and this is pretty much what the route will look like. Each day is either red or green. Ciao!!!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it rains it pours . . . With only a week to go before our Italy biking adventure, ‘things’ started happening. First, my Geoffrey Bean glasses broke. Since I started wearing glasses two years ago I always travel with two pair, in case I break or lose a pair, so now I was down … Continue reading Italy Pre Trip Jitters . . . I gotta get our of town!!!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018italy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15978"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16584,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15978\/revisions\/16584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/travels.wohu.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}