A pack mule is what I felt like this morning. Many a time I’ve made an excursion to the salvage store with bike trunk and trailer; or with trunk and panniers. Today, for the first time, I used all three.

I wanted to see how I would do with that load. Fortunately the wind wasn’t bad on the way home. I actually felt like I was pedaling more strongly than usual. When I arrived at home and got off the bike, though, my legs felt rubbery enough that I went staggering!

And what all did I get? A make-your-own-grab-bag, naturally. I even found two FitCrunch Bars there! I got yet more canned goods. Alas, I also bought cut-rate, past-season Valentine and Easter candy. Most of it is chocolate, so it’s in the fridge.

I had hoped to find paper towels. If the store had any, I missed them. Not that I need more of them; getting a pack was to be part of this pack mule experiment. I was going to put anything big and  bulky in the trailer.

How did I manage to get to the store today, Friday? I’ve been watching the weather, along with everybody on or near the Gulf coast. Cristobal is out there, and we could start feeling some impact from him as early as tomorrow morning. We’re under tropical storm warning already.

But the forecast for today was for calm winds very early; and later in the morning, wind under 8 mph. That’s much easier to deal with than winds of 10-15 mph, big load or not. So I took some vacation hours this morning; got my grocery shopping done; and also visited the bank to get a roll of quarters.

Weather permitting, I might ride to the regular store tomorrow to get some bananas. But nothing like today’s load. I’m not a pack mule, you know.