Day 35 - A Day I Will Never Forget

The plan today was to leave Ness City and ride 55 miles to Scott City. This would typically an easy day except that my front tire has a bit of a bulge in it. I think the patch is good and I am completely confident I will make all the way to Pueblo.

I got a flat tire after 5 miles. What had happened was the inside of the tire had become abrasive because it was completely worn through. This rough surface was now rubbing on the tube and after five miles worn the tube thin and put a hole in it. 

Wheel's off.

Assessing the damage.

They call me Mr. Fix-It

I rode 32 miles to lunch. It was not exactly pleasant or fast riding but, I was making it at around 10 mph. Along the way to lunch, around the 25th mile, a pick-up truck going our direction pulled up and asked Ryan and I how things were going. I was quick to ask if he knew where a bike shop was and told him about my front tire. He wasn't from the area and did not know. He was from Carolina and driving a truck with Oklahoma plates. He said he couldn't help, but wished us luck and drove off.

The truck didn't go more than a quarter mile when I noticed it had stopped. I thought for a moment he was waiting for me to catch up and offer some help. But, just as I thought it the truck kept going. A moment later, I looked back up and saw that the truck was turning around and now coming back to us. I gave him my cell phone number and he said he might be able to help me out. 

At lunch in Dighton, he called me to make sure I still needed the tire. I said I did and he still said he might be able to help me out. Whether or not he was going to actually help me, the prospect of getting a new tire made it easier to ignore the bump every second. I calculated how many times I would have to feel that bump to Pueblo: 187,500 times. I felt it 41,250 times today. I even rotated my handlebars to take some of the pressure off my hands.

Didn't really work.

For the rest of the day, I was looking forward to any car coming towards me from the distance, hoping it was that Carolinan with a 700x23 tire. He never came. We still kept the morale high though.

Never gets old. 

I was 3 miles outside of Scott City when I heard my cell phone ring. It was the Carolinan. He was in Scott City at the Lazy-R motel, room 3, and had a tire for me. I sprinted the rest of the way. 

Rod was his name. He is in town as part of a harvest crew. This is the time of year where wheat harvest crews are moving all over the place to cut as much of it as they can. Rod has lived in Carolina his whole life and inherited a couple thousand acres of farmland. He's been working that land for the last forty-something years ever since he was twelve. However, Rod was not a typical farmer seeing as he was driving around with a Specialized road bike in his back seat. He allowed me to take the tire and tube from his front wheel. 

He gave me the tire right off his wheel.

Terry, Ryan, Rod, and I stood outside talking for a bit until we got on the topic of food and drink. Terry had mentioned how he could not buy any beer in town because it was Sunday. Rod said he could really go for a beer and set off to go find us some. Minutes later, he was knocking on the door with a case of Coronas. 

We sat in the room and talked about farming, Australia, the Chicago board of trade, Kentucky, and bicycle touring. Rod owns a touring bicycle and would like to give it a go. We certainly encourage (and hopefully inspired) him to do so. After a few Coronas each, we started to get hungry. Rod offered to drive us to dinner. A bunch of cyclists would be fools to turn down a car ride to dinner. We accepted and the conversation never stopped. 

Rod said something that I remember particularly well. He said there are three things that people want. First there is comfort. That is, food, a bed, friends, air conditioning, etc. Then we want what we see. Such as a nicer bike, or a nicer house and so forth. The third thing is, we want to be somebody. Then, Rod said that when he is on his bike, he forgets all that and just wants to see how far he can push himself.

Every day I put from my mind what I want. Of course the couch is more comfortable than the saddle. But, you don't meet people like Rod sitting on a couch all day. He even paid for our dinners.  

life=good