Riding the midget bike in the rain

Some folks at work put together a plan for a group overnight bike ride in Parque Alto Tajo in Guadalahara. It really reminded me of Walnut Canyon in Arizona. Its the coldest and least densely populated part of Spain, or so they said. We were on a field trip in Jaen when we got the invite, so we didn't hear about it until we returned, so there was very little time to get ready. What was there to prepare? 1) we don't have mountain bikes and this was an off-road tour, 2) for some reason i brought my newer nicer tent for one person to spain instead of the older danker one for two, 3) i have a set of panniers but becky has none. So at the last minute all this crap was rounded up and we were off just in the nick of time. I had borrowed Andrea's bike for Becky, and was hoping to find some time to work it over. It had both brakes rubbing and needed a tune up. One guy showed up, a friend of some of the guys on the trip, who just seemed so familiar. i realized he looked kind of 50% Jimmy Stewart, and 50% Sean Penn. Then I realized, no, its Cmaeron form Ferris Bueller. When we got to the trail head, I found that "my" bike, borrowed from Luis's girlfriend was actually smaller than Andrea's. I remembered this person as a tall slender woman, so i thought the bike would only be a little small. I had to ride Andea's with the seat post dangerously maxed out, my lungs compressed from hunching over, and my heels hitting the panniers. To top it off, despite that it had already been hot as balls there was cold rainy weather coming in. Its funny, few people want to ride with me because they think i like rides that are way too long, but under this set up I was the one sucking wind, weak and timid. Becky reconfirned that she totally hates mountain biking right out of the gate. The guy who "knew" the route sent us on a ridiculous side trip and took a wrong turn at the most straightforward intersection in the whole route. This delayed us long enough to keep us out as the rain started coming pretty hard. The gloves I bought Becky weeks ago were too small, consequently she had no gloves, and her hands got really cold. So I gave her mine, and guess what...my hands got really cold. Luckily there was a shelter where we could sleep inside with a fire, so i never used the tent we borrowed (apparently made of bricks and lead). I have gotten cold while camping out in wet weather before and I know if I hunker down in my sleeping bag I'll eventually get warm again. But I was really glad we could have a fire indoors. The problem was it was like the snoring olympics that night, so there wasn't much sleep to be had. Every man on the trip was sawing logs. And then theres eating. Do you gas up the car before or after the trip? Before, right? Bodies are like cars, you put in fuel and it goes. That shit doesn't fly in this country. Food can be summarized as "too little, too late". And everything always has to be a big fucking group activity, so you can't just say "sorry we're wierd foreigners and we eat early. we're just going to eat something quickly right now." Instead EVERYONE other than us has to begrudgingly eat earlier than they wanted to. They don't make you feel like a dick about it or anything, I just don't get why everyone always does everyhting at the same time here.

Sorry about the bitchfest. All in all this was a beautiful place, and the people were nice...but I'm never doing this shit last minute again and I'm never going to borrow someone elses bike for more than 10 minutes. Either I am prepared or I don't go. Next time I'm outfitting my surly with nobby tires.