Day#2 (4.1.10)

I slept great last night. I set up camp in an abandoned lot in the middle of a grouping of farm fields. It had a couple of buildings that were partially destroyed, what looked like to be the doing of a vicious storm some time ago. There was also a completely stripped car and old truck rusted to a color that just radiated in the morning sun. I plotted my tent behind one of the collapsed structures where I couldn’t be easily seen from the adjacent roadway. For my first night stealth camping, I was very happy with the experience.

I quickly stowed away my tent and other belongings back to their rightful place on the bike and left around eight. When I set out I realized I was low on water and I should refill my three water bottles as soon as possible. About a half hour into riding I went through the small town of Stryker where I was unable to find a drinking fountain. Fifteen minutes later after I had left the area, I realized that I could have just gone to a public restroom and used the sink, but I decided I had already travelled too far and that another source would turn up soon.

When I stopped to take one of my routine breaks, a man approached me from his driveway. He asked me where I was going and I told him about my trip. After a minute of chatting, the man introduced himself as Steve and did the most remarkable thing I’ve witnessed thus far. He handed me a bottle of water. I didn’t say I was low on water, but perhaps he knew. It was the most random piece of generosity I’ve been given in a long time.

Late that morning I stopped at a local park and caught up on some computer work. Of course as soon as I opened my laptop, the grounds crew showed up and started mowing so I got out of there pretty quickly.

Then the unbelievable happened. At around noon, I was just a couple miles outside the next town when I felt this intense vibration coming up through my feet. Before I knew what happened, my pedals froze up and I had to pull over. My first instinct was to look back at the rear cog set. To explain in simple terms what happened, the gear set broke off the axle. I attempted for the next hour trying to fix the problem. I was able to make a temporary repair that I would hope get me to the nearest bike shop 30 miles away, but the makeshift fix gave way not a mile ahead.

In what seemed like the middle of nowhere, I had few options. My first time bicycle touring, I faced what is the most dreaded problem of any cyclist. In the six months I took preparing for this trip, through all the effort of finding a bicycle, getting it tuned up, ordering the accessories and supplies I needed…going through every possible scenario in my head, not once did this come up. In fact, during all my research I never read anybody suffering this particular kind of breakdown. Not one. I had prepared for everything else: flat tires, broken spokes, warped rims, loose brakes, sticky shifting, broken chain…but the gear mechanism failing? I’ve never heard of that.

Well either way, I have to take my bike into a bike shop first thing tomorrow morning and see what the problem is. I promise that as soon as everything is fixed, I’ll be back on the road and writing interesting content before you know it.