Have kitty litter, will travel!

What we need:  a set of panniers (aka saddlebags) for Sam's bike so we can carry our stuff that we need during the day - jackets, snacks, a phone, the iPad for pictures and blog updates, etc. 

Optimally, they would be waterproof since we may be in for some rainy days next week.



What we don't have:  $200 for a nice set of waterproof panniers.



What we DO have:  Free kitty litter buckets thanks to Grampa and the Midland County Recycling Center!

 

 

 

Let's get to work!!

 

 

A little Brasso, a green scrubbing pad, and some elbow grease takes the labels off.

 

 

 

 

A little spray paint to spruce them up.

 

 

 

 

We had to attach the hardware to hook them to Sam's bike rack. 

 

 

 

 

Looking good so far!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the Midland Co. Recycling Center only had buckets and no lids, we had to go with a piece of vinyl and elastic to hold it on. We'll trim it up a bit since Sam thinks it has a bit of a Lawrence of Arabia look this way.  :)



 

 

We're good to go!

 

We had a close call with Sam's shifter this week.  He came back from a ride on Sunday saying that his gears weren't shifting correctly.  Since it was only 6 days before we were to leave, I wasn't sure how easy it would be to get fixed.  The bike shop in Coldwater said they would be able to get to it on Monday so we took it in.  They said the shifter was broken, they would order a new one and would have it done by the time we needed to leave for Holland.  Long story short, it ended up getting done on Thursday (thought not without a return to the store to fix their fixing!) and we have it home and it's pretty much ready to roll.

Now let's just hope it holds out for the week . . . and WE do too!!  :)