Day 30: A rim and a prayer, when 64 miles is only 40 miles...

July 2, 2010

Apparently Pueblo does not want to get rid of me...

Man, I got a GREAT start this morning. I was up a little after 5:00 and on the road by 6:30. I did it! I would beat the heat, be in camp, wherever camp would be, before any potential afternoon showers. I was making great time and even had a little tailwind.

Twelve miles out of town I was cranking along in my big ring, singing show tunes out loud with my MP3 player, when I heard a thump, thump, thump. Thinking it was a flat tire I made a quick inspection. The tire looked fine so I rode on... Thunk, thump, thunk... I stopped and looked closer. The break pad was--gasp--hitting the rim, and not just hitting the rim but--gasp--hitting a CRACK in the rim. I'm not a bike mechanic but that's gotta be bad?!

I called Vinny, the Trucker's regular "pediatrician", for an opinion. I sent him a picture of the problem on my cell phone (isn't technology grand) right there on the side of the road and he made the diagnosis. "You need to get that changed," he said. "And be careful riding back..."

So, back to Pueblo it was. I made it back at 8:30, the bike shop opened at 9:30, I went for a latte...

I had two choices, a new wheel of lesser quality (and lesser quality hub) or he could re-string (build and put in new spokes) the wheel with my current hub. I chose the rebuild. It cost a little more but in the long run I thought it was worth it. The guy who did the work seemed very experienced and he had me up and running again in a little over an hour.

So, at almost 11:00am and 30 degrees hotter than it was when I first started in the morning, I was back on the bike, and ready to ride--into a headwind...DAOOO! Then, another hour and 24-miles into my ride I was back to square one.

On the bright side, I talked to Doug this morning (I am meeting Doug and his crew for the rest of the ride east, I'll explain more about that when the time comes). He is still a day or so behind so I'm still good there. ALSO, on the bright side, the rim gave way 12 miles from town and not 200 miles from town, or at least from a town with a great, well stocked bike shop with experienced mechanics. So, it could be worse. Besides, I like to see the water bottle as half full.

After that it was just plain hot so I rode until around 2:00pm and called it quits in the town of Fowler. I stopped in there little town museum to ask about restaurants and was treated to an impressive array off items, for a small town museum. I'll post pics...

So, tomorrow is another day. I'll shoot for an early start, but without the rim fanfare. Until then...

Here is my rim. It is not as bulgy without weight but you can still see daylight.

This will make no sense to anyone outside of my family, or for anyone who does not know Maggie the dog. But to those of you on the "inside", you will get a good laugh. This one is for Maggie...

Aaaaaah, so cute! Donna, this one is for you. Are you salivating over that wool?

These are just some of the arrow heads found over the years on the nearby plains.

And this old revolver is stuck in the tree. They don't know how and they can't date the revolver.

Today's ride: 65 miles (105 km)
Total: 2,144 miles (3,450 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0