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Monday, September 29, 2008
Well, we got up groggily from inadequate sleep but managed to get everything packed up and in the van by 7:30 before the school children arrived. David, the facilities manager, wished us well before we left and I got a picture. Also, John Zurn came by to say goodbye. A great bunch; we had a great time there at the school. May God bless them for their hospitality. We drove the van over to the restaurant where the bikes were parked and ate three of the eight boxes of Lucky Charms before pedaling off toward the Pennsylvania border 40 miles away. The weather started out clear then changed to overcast after a couple of hours. The road was too busy with little or no shoulder for the first 10 miles, then improved some after that. I ended up missing a turn, so we took an alternate route, Hwy. 97 north. When we were a few miles from Westminster, Adriana's crank, which had been creaking too much, began to wobble slightly, a bad sign. I thought we could hobble in to Westminster before it got worse, but I was wrong. About a mile and a half outside of town, the crank detaches completely. A man who saw what happened offered me tools or a garage to fix it. He gave me directions to the nearest bike shop. He even gave me his card and told me to call him if we needed a place to stay for the night. God provides. I thanked him and coasted almost the whole way to the bike store. While the man at the bike store looked at the problem, the rest of us went to the library.
To be continued...
Well, the problem with the bike was worse than expected. The bike shop tried to fix it, but could only do a band aid repair because they didn't have the right part. Not feeling too good about taking my chances with it, I asked if they knew of a place that had the part. They did. A shop about 20 miles from Westminster had a wide selection in recumbent bicycles and parts. So while the kids stayed in the library, Scott, the nice mechanic, drove me and the bike all the way there in his truck and help work on the bike, swapping out parts. Anyway, we took the bike back to the shop in Westminster to finish the job, and it became more complicated than we thought because I wanted to keep my original gear assembly which had wider gear ratios than the one they were going to replace. It took forever; they didn't get it fixed that night, so I called Tom Doerr, the nice guy who offered me a place to stay. He was very hospitable and made us feel at home. He had a beautiful 100 year old house. He gave us his three upstairs bedrooms and bathroom, and we all slept well. Before going to bed we went to the store and bought rotisserie chickens and food to eat out of the back of the van in the parking lot. We ate well and then went back to Tom's and showered before going to bed. 31 miles.