Monday, July 17, 2000

We said our good by’s to Barbara and Scott this morning and started our ride to Manitowoc WI. We had gone less than 2 miles when the drawstring that keeps the rain cover on Mary Kay’s painter got caught in the rear sprockets. It was wound so tight that I think it may have again bent the bracket that holds the rear derailleur. So I hope to have time tomorrow to visit a bicycle shop and have them check it out. Scott came across us as I was discovering the problem and I was cussing so badly that he decided to disappear for a few minutes. I was cussing at myself because it was my fault that the drawstring ended up in the sprockets. I got the drawstring unwound from the sprockets and we continued on our way. We passed Scott and he took some pictures of us riding the bicycle.

We traveled from Germantown WI to Manitowoc WI, a distance of 88 miles. We thought that the day’s bicycle ride would be between 65 and 75 miles in length. Boy, were we wrong. The first 40 miles we spent going up and down one hill after another. The remainder of the trip was not as hilly as the first part of the trip and that was sure good because both Mary Kay and I were really tired by the time we got to Manitowoc and found a motel. The problem was that the wind was from the Northwest and we were going northeast but mainly north. For the majority of the day we faced a head wind that was strong enough to keep flags almost completed stretched out.

Sometime around the time we completed 45 miles, I had to replace the rear tire tube because the rear tire was going flat. I have been using glue less patches and they hold air fine as long as you do not deflate the inter tube. When you deflate the inter tube, the glue less patch does not shrink at the same rate as the inter tube and it will slowly leak air when the tube is inflated again. So I have been having more flat tires than I deserve but they have been my own fault.

While I was at my daughter Barbara’s house, I replaced the rear wheel rim. I had a bicycle shop finish the job by truing and centering the wheel. Around the time we had completed 60 miles Mary Kay stated that the bicycle had become “squirrelly”. I knew what the problem was. The rear wheel was no longer true but it had a big wow. It was so bad that I could feel the bicycle moving from side to side as we rode along. We stopped and I got out a wrench and pulled the wow back into line so it was not as noticeable. I will also need to have the bicycle shop true the rear wheel again. When I got to the motel, I checked all of the rear wheel spokes and found 2 or 3 spokes that were so loose that I could tighten them with my fingers. I do not know if the spokes worked loose from the long ride or if the bicycle shop did not tighten the spokes enough when they initially trued and centered the wheel. We must be at the ferry landing at 12:00 noon and the bicycle shop opens at 9:00 AM so I may be lucky and be able to get every thing fixed before getting on the ferry. We did get a phone call from Barbara tonight and Bruce was able to mail the pills, so that issue was resolved satisfactorily.