My Cycling For Libraries Puzzle, part 4

Saturday, May 28th
 
As I expected, I didn't sleep that much and woke up really early. I started thinking about the route and was nervous about actually everything. I let the others sleep 'till 7 am -Jukka was the easiest one to get awake, as I learned to know later. We had a little conversation at breakfast. Ella, Jonas and Mace went straight to Black Diamond while Urpo, Jukka and I went to search a bigger gas station to get tanks and aggregate filled and gas bottles for catering.
The clerk at gas station was suspicious about three Finnish blokes filling all kinds of tanks and refused to give us the gas bottles until we paid for the fuel... but it went ok after all.
While driving to Black Diamond we were amazed when we passed by Hal who was carrying a MASSIVE suitcase-backpack combination on his back -and riding his bike like no weight on shoulders at all.
At Black Diamond I just took off the trailer and took Tossu and Pasi with me and we drove to City Library to fetch the leftovers from the Kickoff Party. This was an unexpected pattern to the schedule, but we did it anyway. Actually Tossu ordered us to rearrange the whole van at library's backyard. It took a while...
When we were almost ready, Jukka called me to hurry up, one participant didn't have a bike at all and I was supposed to drive to bike stores with her to get one. We rushed to Black Diamond again and I kept looking the van's clock. It was Julia who needed the bike and Teemu was kind enough to hop in as an interpreter. Luckily he also knew where the most bike stores located. 
I've never seen as swift bicycle purchase as that was! But I must say I also hurried Julia and Teemu up a bit, because the time kept running. Julia got a simple, nice, white ladies bike.
Off to Black Diamond, once again. As we arrived I noticed that participants were cold (the wind was freezing and hard) and also looked tired but it didn't take long anymore until the caravan left. We packed everything that was left (as we thought...), Antti and Urpo went in the Stara-van while Tossu, Pasi and I left with the catering van and the trailer. I was more than little worried about the weight of the trailer, there were some extra kg's in there.
Jonas and I had made an appointment for the first rendez-vous - a light lunch with leftovers- to Stamholmen, which actually was still in the "middle" of Copenhagen. That was the most nerveshaking thing to me, because I knew it was going to be the toughest thing to find a space big enough for the whole caravan and the bikers in city. We drove and we drove and I bit my fingernails every time we stopped at traffic lights. But we found a reasonably suitable spot in time. I relaxed a bit but still worried about the bikers, will Mace hear me at walkie-talkie telling that they should stop at the opposite side that they were expecting. Are we REALLY at the right spot?
Well, it went good after all, they found us and everybody got something to eat and drink. At this phase I realised that for the rest of the trip at every stop, somebody wanted something from his or hers backpack, and of course it was in the trailer, at the bottom...
After lunch the cyclists went on, heading to Greve library, and we started to drive to Tune library, where Tossu and Pasi were supposed to make dinner in front of the building. Now the navigating was easier, because we knew the excact address where to meet.
The Tune library was located next to a supermarket in a little village center, so we did groceries as well. The weather was still windy and we had two move the catering tent two times to get the gas burners work. While waiting, the film crew also came, and they brought three participants from Finland whose supposed flight was cancelled, Kaisa, Juha Kortesluoma and Sebastian.
 The film crew placed cameras and umbrellas (yes, it started to rain) to suitable spots for the cyclists to get taped. While waiting, Tuomas and I had a serious conversation about rock'n'roll and how to (or how not to) make a living of it. Then we started to hear some noise from the walkie-talkies and the head of the caravan was soon at the pit stop. They were wet, some a little, some a lot, depending what they were wearing.
We started the tour at the library while waiting for the dinner. Tune library is one of those which is about to turn into a whole self-service libraries. There are some now in Denmark. In my opinion it was quite big though, to be left without a staff.
Pasi and Tossu had made a delicious chicken curry, I suppose everybody were satisfied. Participants started to ride towards the first overnight place, a school in Ströby. We packed the catering gear back to van and had coffee at gas station. It was no long trip for a car to get to Ströby, but I knew it felt long for the wet cyclists.
At Ströby we found out that the school was big enough for all of us to enter and sleep comfortably, considering that sleepin on a thin mattress is fun. I looked at the heavy rain and decided to carry all the backpacks and sleeping bags in, because the cyclists were going to be tired and wet, that was for sure. It was also getting dark so it would've been a rack to unpack the trailer later.
After unpacking I took my bike and went to meet the cyclists and to assist Mace in guiding folks. Soon it was clear that the first day showed that there wasn't a group of cyclists but many little groups. Some flat tires and other problems had occurred too. But I remember that when cyclists saw me and heared me yell like "only 3 kilometres left", they looked happy.
At school everybody was tired, wet and cold and it was almost 10 pm, so we didn't have any conversation about the Theme Of the Day. It was enough librarianship to get in a warm shower and get in a horizontal position.
 
To be continued. I add the pictures above when I've found the right USB drive...