July 2nd – 4th: Celebrating US Independence by Occupying a Stranger’s House
Day 262 to 264
When Mick ordered our rear cassettes, I asked if we could come back and stay the night when they came in, and he said it was fine. We had no idea that they would arrive so quickly. Back at The Bicylce Peddlar, we discovered that our new cassettes were quite different from our custom cassettes from ICE. They were lacking the largest cog, which gives us the lowest gear. Capreo cassettes come riveted together, so Mick got out the Dremel, separated the cogs and reassembled our cassettes including the largest cog. Our large cogs were still in great shape since we only use them on the steepest of inclines.
Mechanic at work
Since Mick and Jen invited us to do an overnight cycle trip that weekend, we figured we might as well see if we could stay with them in the interim. We wouldn’t have thought it rude if they said no. Jen is finishing up a degree in Audiology and Mick just opened his new bike shop 3 months earlier. However, after a brief meeting they agreed that we could stay. We were overjoyed but still hoped that we hadn’t put them on the spot, although they insisted that we were easy guests.
Without a second thought they made us at home. Cher and I have only been in one home in the last 9 months and they pretty much left us with the keys and said see you later. Being alone in someone’s home you’ve just met is a little strange. First they were being incredibly trustworthy, which we didn’t take for granted, checking that the windows and doors were locked several times before we left, and secondly they were uncommonly generous. How else to make oneself at home than to cook? Cher and I took over the kitchen and cooked dinners, which also made us feel a little less guilty for crashing their house.
In the meantime we had shelter, internet and electricity so while Cher caught up with e-mails, and the blog, I got started trying to get cash into an account I could access. Many phone calls later, to both HSBC in Hong Kong and Ally Bank in the US, I think I figured out why our wire transfers weren’t going through, even though they were before. If they didn’t go through we had one last option, we took a day and opened a bank account here in Australia. However, my US account with Ally Bank is quite good and charges nothing for international ATM withdrawals and even refunds ATM fees. I refreshed the web page and hit send, hoping that this time the transfer would go through. Otherwise our net purchase would be a trip back to Hong Kong.