A day of memories to forget 26-10-11

I went out for a bike ride today, like I try to do everyday, and this one started out just like any other. I rode to a town called Fuera probably 2 or 3 miles away, then I got lost in the orange groves exploring, and eventually ended up riding along the beach for a ways before I decided to come back.

On my way back was where things got fun. I took an intersection too fast, except I was on the bike path, and when I got back on the bike path, there was a wall there. Long story short, I went straight into the wall going almost full speed.

My bike was perfectly perpendicular to that wall, and as I was coming to it, I knew I was going to crash, so I was actually preparing to crash.
 The miracle was that somehow I was able to clip out, and get my foot on the ground right as my bike was crashing, so the bike went down, and I somehow stayed standing- not even a scratch to me or the bike. I shook myself off, and just as I was ready to take off again, I pushed down hard on the pedal... and nothing happened. My front wheel, and my back wheel were bent badly; out of shape and out of function. Even after I took one of the brake pads off, the frame of the wheel still rubbed on the frame of the bike, so I was for all practical purposes stuck. I took off both wheels and tried to true them, and was able to straighten them just enough to make it so that they would fit in my fork and frame. It was a good 5 miles back to school, and I surely didn't want to walk. I was able to get going, and just as I passed the bike shop, guess who passed me on his bike? Non other than Mr. Eric Mathis. I told him what happened, and he recommended that I go to the bike shop since I was right there, but I told him I didn't have my wallet with me. He pulled out his, and gave me enough money to cover the cost of truing the wheels and took off, and so did I. When I arrived at the bike store, I was quite the center of attention in my bright yellow and blue outfit- spandex shorts and all. The worker there, whom I have become pretty good friends with from countless visits for other bike stuff, greeted me warmly. I explained what happened, and he brought the specialist out from the back. The specialist told me that my wheels were too cheap to fix, and that I would need new ones. He then went into his little workspace to look up the price, and came back and told me 130 euros, which I was just ecstatic about. The other worker, my friend, told me that normally they are 240 euros, and that made me feel a bit better. Hopefully I will be able to pick them up tomorrow. I have been debating about whether to take this bike back with me or sell it here, but after today, I definitely want to take it back. It is worth 130 euros more than when I bought it, so about 500 euros in all, and I can probably sell it for 200 euros at most. I would rather ship it back for about 200 dollars and have another bike at home than sell it for probably 150 euros when it is worth almost 500 now.