Like Poo in the Bowels of Union Station

So. Today's title was going to be "Going" but, as you can very well see, I changed my mind.

Well, I believe we left off with Priscilla and the rack of her bike on her back and not on her bike (the rack, I mean). And when today dawned, said rack was still off of said bike, but happily no longer on Priscilla's back. No, on Priscilla's back were Priscilla's pajamas. And soon those were replaced by some clothes or something, and then that rack again, and off she went to Kozy's. The Kozy people stood in their cozy store and looked at the bike, at the rack, at each other, and then at Priscilla. "Go to Home Depot, little lady," they said, "Home Depot has what you need."
Hmph. Priscilla is not a fan of Home Depot, so she headed to Irv's Bike Shop for still more bikey goods, and then to Alvarez' Hardware Store. Mr. Alvarez didn't have the thing she needed for the rack, but do you think that stopped him? Duh! Of course not! Mr. Alvarez is our hardware hero! He up and made the necessary bike rack bracket extensions. He was also quite excited about the trip, and impressed with the teensy rear-view mirror on her sunglasses.

Then Priscilla met up with her helpful sidekick, Sarah. They chatted, tried to set up the new bike computer (that's what she got at Irv's... right) but the battery was dead, so they worked on a fun handlebar-mounted flipcard system for memorizing Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossions (hey, she's got 40 days alone ahead), and chatted some more.

They planned to meet their good buddy James at Damen and Ogden, but they were a little late-- in the immortal words of Jafar's pet parrot Iago, "I'm gonna have a heart attack and die of not surprised." Priscilla said goodbye to Sarah, and pedaled off with James to Sports Authority. This time, with no trusty assistant in attendance, Priscilla did all the dancing herself... dance dance yeah!

And then they picked up a bike computer battery at CVS and came back home where Priscilla's trusty assistant was most patiently waiting. Priscilla frenetically packed, James programmed the computer (it works! it has cadence! hooray!), and ol' trusty watched the clock and them. At eight o'clock on the dot, Amy arrived with the Pilsen Family Van. In went the bags! In went the bike! In went Priscilla and t.a.! Blam went the doors! Vroom went the van! Honk went... never mind. Amy is a polite and responsible driver and she did not honk! Instead she drove swiftly to Union Station while Priscilla unwrapped the absolute coolest t-shirt ever (courtesy of the Pilsen Family) and they all talked about stuff.

Upon arrival at Union Station, Cilla and trusty assistant went in to pick up her ticket, check her bike, and send Priscilla off when.... Kablooie went the plans! "Oh no, you can't put that bike on the train to Boston," ranted the ticket lady, "no, it's totally impossible, you're ridiculously late, blah blah blah, and so on!" Which isn't true, they weren't that late, and it totally would have worked... grrr..... But what could they do? The ticket lady is sort of the boss at the train station, right? So trusty assistant used her most charming voice and impressed the ticket lady with tales of Priscilla's plans. Naturally the ticket lady changed her tune and became all nice and whatever, but by then it really was too late.

Seeing there was no other way, Priscilla changed her ticket to a Tuesday night departure, and the ticket lady took them down to the basement. "Here, little ladies," she said, "this way!" And she led them into a broken elevator. Really. Like that was so helpful. They stood in the elevator, they pushed the buttons, they waited. They got out, got back in, got out, got into another elevator and FINALLY descended into the spooky depths of Union Station, where the bike boxes lurk! Priscilla bought a lurky bike box, and some gritty underground working man helped her pack up her bike and label it. And at least three of his gritty underground working pals came by and asked if the bike was to go on the Monday night train to Boston. See! They had so not been ridiculously late! Stinky ticket lady.

And so it was that Amy (who had been waiting all that time!) got quite a surprise when into the van hopped not only the trusty assistant, but Priscilla herself as well. And so it is that Priscilla will, Lord willing, be setting out again tomorrow night, but this time actually getting on the train and going. She'd had an inkling early this afternoon that "this is not that day" (in the immortal words as Viggo M. as Aragorn in The Return of the King, but I think he was talking about something else), and it turns out, despite her efforts to set off anyway, she was right.

We'll try for "Going" tomorrow.