Creative Problem Solving...

I finally gave in today and went to the bike shop to have new tires put on my training wheels. I have actually logged so many miles that there was nothing left of my rear tire. After 3 flats in about 5 days, I realized it was ridiculous and time to put some new rubber on my wheels. It is actually quite a feeling of accomplishment as I have never ridden enough to wear through a pair of tires before! Luckily, Tristan, who owns D-T Sport (just down the street from my coach's home) had a customer who took slightly worn but perfectly good tires off his bike the other day, so he was able to outfit my wheels with them which saved me heaps of money ...and hopefully a few flat changes as well!

Now that I am starting to find my way around the Gold Coast I have also started on the tedious task of finding affordable and appropriate accommodation for the duration of my time here. Since I will be on the Gold Coast until April or May of 2009, it is important for me to find somewhere that I am comfortable and can feel "at home". After all, the happier I am, the better I train!

I have resided myself to the fact that I am never going to land in the laps of a family like in Santa Monica. I don't know how I managed to get so lucky there, but I can't ever thank them enough for opening their home and life to me. So, like every other normal person, I have started to spend countless hours searching Internet listings for rentals in the area. There seem to be quite a few options, everything from studios to beautiful 5 bedroom ocean front homes. Wouldn't that be nice?! The difficult part is to find something within my budget... haha... what budget?

After a bit of thinking, I realized that the ideal situation is to land a house or pet sitting gig. Not only would I get to live in real "home" and help a family out, but it would also allow me to try to save up some money for travel and racing in 2009. Now, the task becomes finding someone who needs their home and/or pet looked after!