Trish & Phill's Tandem TransAmerican

Tour 2003 

 

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June 20 Eads - Ordway 67mi

This ride today has to be one of the most difficult to date. We had done about 5 miles when a spoke went in the front wheel, remember we took off a 40 spoke wheel and replaced it with a 32 spoke wheel, we then replaced the 32 spokes with thicker spokes.  The reason being that we could have a good braking system with the addition of disc brake. I made the decision on the road at the point of the spoke breaking to get the 40 spoke wheel back on the bike. Fran carries a mobile phone that I used to contact the bike shop in Kentucky and had them forward the wheel FEDEX overnight to the next bike shop on route. Modern technology allows all these contacts to be made in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

I used the string (temporary spoke) to pull the wheel back into true and carry on along the way, with a couple more wrinkles on my brow. All this took it's toll on our energy levels and we took a long time to complete the ride. The road was so quiet and not much to see as we progressed Westward.

   

We had ran out of water about 5 miles to town which is very unusual for us as we always carry more than we need but with the high temperature and winds you seem to drink more.  Just as we were thinking a drink would be nice , this truck pulls up with 3 bottles of ice cold drink for us, we thought wow this guy is another angel and of course he was for bringing us the drinks but our leader Fran when she went to the cafe she mentioned about our plight and the guy said he would bring us a drink (as he was only hanging around waiting for his dog) amazing people.

Tonight we are staying in the Ordway Hotel. Its a hotel that has seen better days in an era that was obviously affluent. The Ordway area is in recession. Sugar City - a town next to Ordway is dieing, It was once a town that had a Sugar Refinery in it and a lot of workers at one time. Today there's not much at all.

 

 

 

Page owned & maintained by Trish Collins email to  trishphill@aapt.net.au.  Last Updated 28/07/2003