July 21, 2018 Hutchinson to Northfield

Last night was awards night. Wendy one of the British riders was having trouble with the paper plates folding up on her after they are filled with soggy lasagna and she has spilled her supper a couple of times so I got her a tray.  It was a big hit. Everyone had a big laugh.  Mal the camper I spoke of earlier didn’t have a ground sheet for his tent so I got him a plastic trap.  The story of Mal camping the furthest out was a big hit as well.

Being a Saturday today was the last ride of the week and tomorrow the much awaited rest day.   Auzzie Bob and myself set off on the 87 mile ride which had a total climb of 1940 feet.  Although a longer day and with the most climb of the week we were not anticipating any difficulty as the route was primarily SE and the wind which was a good 5-10 mph was out of the NNE.  First quarter water stop came up pretty quickly at the 17 mile mark.  Then we hit a due south section of brand new road which was six miles long and we just flew down it at 25-30 mph without any effort.   A few lefts and rights and we were at the 30 mile mark where there was a bakery.  My apple turnover was very tasty.

When I came out of the bakery and got on my bike, it started making this clicking noise when the right pedal was at the 4:00 o’clock position.  So I stopped and checked everything and nothing seemed to be amiss.  Pushing onwards it just kept getting worse and worse.  When I got to picnic at the 47.5 mile mark I had Porter our magical mechanic (seriously the things he can do with a biker are magic) look at it.  His diagnosis was the bottom bracket was worn out.  There was over a 0.25 inch play in the crank assembly.   My bike has at least 75,000 miles on it and has never had a bottom bracket replaced so maybe.  I think ok big trouble but Porter digs through his box of stuff and comes up with a new bottom bracket for my bike. After he disassembles the crank assembly the bottom bracket has been worn right to nothing in side of it.   Within 90 minutes my bike has been restored to new condition, Porter has cleaned and put away his magic wand and I have an ear to ear smile.

It looked like I was out of commission, so Bob has left, so I jump on my bike an take off.   Three quarters water comes up at the 66 mile mark pretty quickly as I am enjoying my new bike.  After that there are a series of really steep climbs into what has now become an east wind.   By the third or fourth climb I am thinking where is the van?  However no van shows up and I ride on.  At the 75 mile mark we come to a little town and I pull into a service station and gulp down a 64 oz root beer.  With a big sugar buzz on I face down the last 12 miles which is down a busy highway but at least the shoulder is pretty good.

We are staying in the dorm at St Oalf’s Collage in Northtown.  It has free laundry so I load my clothes into the washing machine which then runs the cycle before malfunctioning and locking my clothes in the machine. Doing what every other student would do I give the machine a big swat on the top and the machine restarts and runs a second cycle.  Fortunately it runs correctly the second time and the door opens freeing my clothes.  Lucky twice in one day, I cannot believe it.  Truly the gods are smiling on me.

I hurray downtown and meet Auzzie Bob where we have a couple of beers before heading off for a big feed of East Indian curry. 

What a crazy day.  

Terry hot biker