Time to Get Along

Okay, so it's been a little while since my last post. A lot has happened since crossing into Georgia, and I expect a lot has yet to happen.

Right now I'm in Tennessee, and will probably cross into Missouri later today.

Immediately after the last post, I continued on after the drizzling had stopped and went for about five minutes before it started pouring rain. I was immediately soaked all of the way through, even with my rain jacket on. So that was my first experience with rain.

I'm not sure if it was the next day or the day after that, but at one point in Georgia I was riding toward Rasaca, GA, and when I was almost there my gear shifter loosened up and wouldn't work. At the time I thought it was broken because I had no idea what was wrong with it. I sat at the intersection of the two main roads in Rasaca and made some calls trying to find the nearest bike shop. Within an hour a man drove up in a truck and asked me if everything was alright, as he had seen me sitting in the same spot earlier. I told him that my bike was having problems and he said he'd take a look at it.

This guy didn't look like someone who would know anything about bikes, but it turns out he knew EVERYTHING about bikes and he immediately saw the problem and fixed it, making my bike ridable again. I thanked him profusely and we talked for a little while and eventually he asked me if I needed anything else. I told him I didn't have a place to stay that night and that's when he told me that he worked at a church down the road I had come in on and they had dormitories that I'd be welcome to spend the night in. God had sent me everything I had needed all at once through one person. We talked for a while that night (mostly him), and I took a shower and slept on a comfortable bed. When I woke in the morning he brought oatmeal and more conversation, while I packed up, getting ready to leave. The night before he had offered to take a look at my bike and give me a general tune-up (which was apparently very much needed). He fixed many problems I wasn't even aware that I was having with my bike and then he and his son rode with me to the first mountain I'd have to cross.

I made it over the first and was greeted by a second, and through God's grace once again I avoided the rain. The mountains were difficult and long, but I somehow managed. Weather since leaving SC had been mostly overcast and there was always a chance of rain looming over my head.

When I crossed into Tennessee the land was astounding. The point at which I crossed was a convergence of a river and its tributaries as well as the mountains of trees which seperated them and it made for an incredible welcome to the state. Immediately the next day I needed to cross another mountain and this one was absolutely unconquerable. I rode my heart out as hard and as long as I could, but it was just too steep. This road did not wind at all, as mountain roads usually do, so it was more or less straight up. I rode as long as I could and thought I was within reach of the end so I surrendered, getting off of my bike and began to push it along what little shoulder there was. It turns out I was only about a quarter of the way up the mountain and in total it took me about 40 minutes or so to get up it. Once I had reached the top, the weather was still completely dreary and I had to ride along the top of the mountain for about 20 miles before finally decending into the next town. It had been a rough day.

Riding since then has been good. I've been spending my nights in campgrounds and people's yards mostly, or wherever I can get permission from the police to stay. Last night was the first thunderstorm I've encountered, and it was a little scary, since I was in my tent in a field mostly in the middle of nowhere, but things have been good.

Yesterday I actually had my first real problem with my bike. The full story is long, so I'll do my best to condense what happened:

I was riding my bike and for a few days I had had one broken spoke, but it wasn't so bad I couldn't ride it. But yesterday I was going down a hill in the shoulder at full speed and hit a point in the road where it had buckled up forming a ramp. I hit this ramp and with all the weight on the back I knew nothing good was in store and, landing I heard a . I had broken another spoke and this made my bike unridable. I stopped at a gas station, called around to find the nearest bike repair shop, made a sign on a piece of cardboard saying "Need ride to Jackson for bike repair" (Jackson was about 20 miles down the road I was on) and started walking in that direction. I got a ride from a guy who was going 5 miles down the road and he dropped me off at a gas station. I went in and told the people at the gas station what I was doing and a guy heard I was having problems and asked me to show him the issue. When I showed him I had the spokes to fix it, but couldn't get them on because a piece was blocking where I needed to attach them, he said he knew how to get the piece off and he just needed my wrench to do it. I was pretty sure that you needed a special tool to fix it, but wanted to have faith in this guy and so I let him take it apart. He took the wheel apart, while drinking the beer he had just bought, and when he got the piece we needed to remove, it turns out I was right and it couldn't be taken off so easily. So all of these pieces were sitting here, off the wheel, and my bearings were falling out and the wheel was basically destroyed.

At this point I had just kind of surrendered to the day being miserable and decided to enjoy it. I could tell that he felt guilty about having destroyed my only transportation, and he offered to give me a ride to the bike shop in Jackson. I went to put the wheel back on as best I could and he said just leave it off because we have to throw it in the "truck." I asked him where it was because I didn't see a truck around and he pointed at the little Buick car right in front of me. We strapped the bike into the trunk with bungie cords and fastened it as best we could. He started driving and I was just praying that it wouldn't fall out as we drove down the highway and watching for any movement. Everything turned out alright as we arrived at the bike shop half an hour before they closed and they fixed my wheel, then gave me a new pair of sunglasses for free (I had left mine in the guys car...I've now gone through 3 pairs, this being my 4th).

So I've learned so far that if you have patience, things turn out alright.

God bless.

PS. No pictures this week because I can't figure out how to do it on this library's computer. Tennessee is beautiful though and I have some amazing ones to put up.