Won't remarry...

My bike eventually broke in half. Literally it has two halves. Right now it is just being held togther by the chain. This happened a little after I had biked 1300 kms and a little before I had reached Berlin.
I put my broken beloved on the train and brought her to Berlin(her name is Elizabeth.. after the first one not the second one... to be honest I don't know that much about Queen Elizabeth2 she could be fine but I have read so many books about QE1 that she is one of my favorite historical figures.... yes I'm dorky enough to have a favorite historical figure)My second day in Berlin I found out there was a big bike shop just around the corner from my hostel. When I brought her in they at first didn't notice she was broke in two and were like what is wrong with it and only looking at the tires. I finally pointed out that there seemd to be two distinct parts to my bike. They stood up and looked at me,
"It is destroyed."
"You will never ride it again."
"Can't you just weld it?"
Blank stare... mimed welding...
"No, it is broken forever."
This would have been the time to say," fine. fine. Take her and throw in the back with the other junk," but I didn't. I said, "Well... alright... so uh ya can't fix it? right... okay... danke... bye..."
I couldn't let her go. I ended up taking her by train all the way to Lieden, which is actually further than where I live. They wouldn't let me take it to Noordwijk, which is where I spent my last couple days of my trip. When my friend Lauren came to pick me up she had forgotten the bike rack. I had to leave her in Lieden for an extra week. I then had to spend 20 euros in petrol...er... I'm an American... I mean gas... to get my bike back home.
My friend Caitlin kept encouraging me to dump her and get a younger, cheaper, newer model. I just couldn't do it. we had been through a lot and I couldn't dump her right at the end. This is when Caitlin pointed out and I had to agree that if I ever get married I probably wouldn't marry again after my husband died. I just can't replace things I love with a lower quality model.
Elizabeth and I are both back at Rinia State in the Netherlands. And she is sitting in the barn. she is begging me to take her to the bike repair place but I can't. What if they also tell me that there is nothing that can be done for her? I just couldn't stand to believe it is really over for her. I would rather have her in the barn and hope that she can get fixed than at the bike shop and know that she couldn't be fixed. I mean look at us we had one hell of a ride together.


Beautiful