Well, today marked the day I move to Dallas to start my new job. My family and I are combining my move with a Christmas trip to my Mom’s house about 2 hours North of Dallas. We’re taking two cars because I’ll stay in Dallas when my wife and girls head back home to Jacksonville.

The trip started just fine. The wife and girls were in my car and I was in my wife’s Grand Cherokee with the dog. I have to say that Mocha (our female Labrador) traveled perfectly today. She’s our third lab and traveled better than any of the others. She basically slept the whole trip today. About 3 hours into the trip though things took a dramatic turn for the worse.

My wife pulled off at an exit to grab a quick breakfast for the girls and I continued on. I get a phone call about 20 minutes later telling me that the battery light was on. I’ll take this moment to describe how things go wrong with my car and who’s involved. If something happens to my car it’s never my fault. I seem to be able to pamper it to where it always takes care of me. My wife, on the other hand, has a knack for getting it to break by either simply driving it or driving her car and ramming mine while backing out of the driveway. Today, though, my oldest daughter was driving. The same daughter that was driving when my temperature sensor was ripped off from under the car. How did it get ripped off? She drove my car where she shouldn’t have. Who told her to drive there? My wife of course.

Anyway, she tells me the battery light is on. I tell her to pull off the interstate (luckily there was an exit right there) and I turn around to get back to them. I show up, check the battery cables (which are good) and then have a look under the hood. I’m anticipating a belt or alternator problem. A quick look reveals a shredded alternator, water pump and power steering belt. Great. I call my father-in-law who looks up the closest repair place for my type of car and it’s 40 miles away. I call the repair place and they assure me they can fix it today and if it’s just the belt it’ll be about $120. I felt better knowing that since I expected much worse.

I call the insurance company, the tow truck shows up about an hour later and we get the car to the repair facility. They tell me that what has most likely happened is that one of the pulleys has gone bad which caused the belt to get thrown and destroyed. Sure enough, they look at it and the idler pulley has eat itself up. It also damaged the belt tensioner and the AC belt needed replacement. My mood is rapidly starting to go down the toilet.

It doesn’t end there. The service check-in guy comes back and asks me if I knew I had a radiator leak. I told him I had just replaced the the radiator vent screw a few weeks ago because it was broken and coolant was leaking out of it. He took me back to the car and had the tech pump up the pressure on the radiator and sure enough there’s another leak and it’s in a spot which requires the entire radiator to be replaced. I’m sure the car was specifically designed that way.

I’m now not feeling good at all. I tell them to let me know the damage (the estimate). He shows me the estimate and I just shake my head. Remember the $120 above. Multiply it by 11 and that’s the total. The service manager, in an effort to make me feel good, says, “We have all the parts in stock.” Great. We’re on the road traveling and need the work done. I give the go ahead and I get my car back 3.5 hours later.

In the meantime my wife, bless her heart, made us a picnic under one of the trees outside and we just chilled while the car was getting worked on. We had to do something to try and resurrect something good out of the day. The kids were great during the whole ordeal which was great too.

We get the car back and head on our way again. The rest of the day was uneventful. We didn’t make it as far as we wanted to because of the car problems but we are now in a good hotel resting. We’ll get an early start in the morning to push it onto Dallas and then onto my Moms.

The holiday season is in full swing now with both Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us. I’m not one of those folks that thinks I have to hit the stores at 5:00 AM the day after Thanksgiving to do my shopping. Personally, I have to wonder about the mental stability of folks that do that. If any of my readers are frequent participants in the holiday “running of the bulls” please don’t take offense. I’m just having fun with it but you do have to wonder about the folks that find it necessary to trample a guy to death.

That said, I’ve compiled a list of cool items you may want to pass along to your significant other to save them the time and frustration of trying to shop for a bicyclist. If your wife/husband knows as much about bicycling as my wife does then you’ll understand why I’ve put this list together. Without further ado here’s my list:

1. Products from Genuine Innovations. If you’re not familiar with Genuine Innovations they are a company that produces some of the best tire inflation products you can buy. Their CO2 inflators are high quality and something every bicyclist needs to carry in their seat bag. I did a review on their Second Wind Road Mini Carbon a while back that would make a great gift. You can get anything from CO2 cartridge refills to complete CO2 powered inflation kits that come in their own seat bag.

2. A Jersey from 3 Feet Please. 3 Feet Please is a new company that offers jerseys to help educate drivers on the 3-foot-law currently enforced in fourteen states. I did an article about the 3 Feet Please cycling jersey a few weeks ago.

3. Bicycling Magazine subscription. Amazon.com runs some great deals on magazine subscriptions and you can get one year of Bicycling for $11.

4. Jelly Belly Sports Beans. These are energy replacement snacks that can be consumed during your ride to help replenish Vitamins B and C and electrolytes. They’ve also got a nice collection of Jelly Belly apparel that includes cycling jerseys, hats, socks, and water bottles.

5. A Road ID Identification Bracelet. If you don’t have one of these you seriously need to consider it. A Road ID can be ordered in either standard or interactive configurations and contains the information required by first responders to treat you and notify your family in the event you’re in an accident and incapacitated. They have gift cards available and orders must be placed by December 14, 2008 in order to be received by Christmas.

6. If the above five aren’t a big enough list to give your significant other, then take a look at this list of bestsellers from Amazon.com:

Schwinn 17-Function Bike Computer

Cateye CC-RD300W Strada Wireless Bicycle Computer

Polar Insulated Water Bottle

Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Sleek 50-Lap Mid-Size

Planet Bike Blinky Super Flash 1/2-Watt Blaze LED Plus 2 eXtreme LED Rear Bicycle Light (this product has a five star review rating with 84 customer reviews)

Topeak Road Morph G Bike Pump with Gauge

Planet Bike Beamer 5 LED Bicycle Light with Quick Cam Bracket Mount

GARMIN 010-00447-30 Edge 305 GPS Bundle

Olive Drab HW Classic Messenger Bag – Jack Bag (24)

GARMIN Edge 705 Bicycle Monitor With GPS, Heart Rate Monitor, and Speed/Cadence Sensor

Lastly, if any of you feel compelled to get me something, take a look at my Amazon Wish List.

The bicycle seat bag. It’s that small package of assurance that we keep tucked under our saddle. It sits under our rears, ignored and neglected until we need it. When we do need it we wonder if we restocked it the last time we used it. You’ll find quite a few articles around the Internet about the bike seat bag and what bicycle accessories need to be in it. These articles are always popular and get a lot of feedback because everyone has their own preference of what should be stowed in their seat bag. Just like everyone else, I have my preferences too. I think this article will be a benefit to anyone just starting in bicycling, or returning to the sport after a long layoff (just like me), or the enthusiast who has been riding everyday. Regardless of your experience, I think you’ll find the info below useful.

So, what needs to be in that seat bag? There’s quite a few things you can carry in your saddle bag but I think there’s a core list of essential items every cyclist needs. They are:

Have you noticed a trend up to this point? All five items above are directly related to fixing a flat while out on the road. The flat is probably the most common problem you can/will experience while bicycling so you need to be prepared for it. The list continues:

If putting together or going out to buy this long list of stuff has you worried don’t be. You can save some time and money by looking into some of the seat bag tire repair kits that are available. They contain everything you need to fix a flat in a seat bag, wallet, or cannister. All you need to do is add other items like money, identification, and a tool (maybe).

There you have it. The items above are what I feel are essential items you need to have in your seat bag. If you have them you’ll be prepared for your next ride and be able to make it home. I’m sure many of you will have your own opinions on what should be in your seat bag so I welcome your comments.