I arrived in Bozeman about 5pm with bike + trailer, met at the airport by my friend Richard Wolff (father of Josh, a faculty member from my City University/Slovakia days). My effort at avoiding extra airline baggage fees for my bike + trailer was successful. I learned the trick from a bicycle racing blog: two cans of flat black spray paint ($1.53 each at K-Mart), a roll of duct tape and a sign in 72pt. font saying TRADE SHOW DISPLAY MATERIALS. The point was to make the boxes look like conference materials…for which the airlines normally don’t charge. Otherwise United Airlines would have hit me with $100 for the bike and an over dimensional charge for the trailer. I avoided both fees – yay!
The last time I visited Richard and Janel was in 2006 when my cousin Claire Runge and I cycled from the Canadian border to Helena (and I continued on alone to Yellowstone). After a big home-cooked meal I assembled my gear in the garage while Richard and Janel went to a chamber orchestra concert.
