June 10 Crossing America

Rosedale, VA – Breaks, VA Distance 46 miles

Today started out good, hills didn’t seem to be quite as hard but no shortage of them either.  Got to Haysi where we would have out last really big hill to climb to the Breaks.  I was about a mile and half into climbing the hill when suddenly I couldn’t get the crank to turn on a steep grade and had to make a quick dismount.  This was not a great time to not be able to keep moving as I was on a steep grade, no shoulder just a 2’ drop off into ditch, narrow road with heavy traffic.  I quickly discovered my problem was not my effort but that a bungee cord holding my storage bag onto my rear luggage rack had fallen off and where else did it go but around my rear cassette (gear housing).  Quickly I flipped my bike upside down and began tearing at the bungee cord to free up my cassette but only managed to tear the cord loose the metal portion which was wound tightly around the inside of the cassette, my wheel wouldn’t turn.  A young man in a pick-up drove up beside me and yelled, “man you’re going to get yourself killed”.  He said to throw my bike in the back of his truck and he’d take me to a safer spot on the road which I did due haste as I
could hear another vehicle coming.  The young man burned rubber taking off as I pulled the door shut.  When we got to a pull-off he stopped and I tried to free the bungee from my bike but without success.  Seeing I wasn’t having any success with freeing up my gears the young man said he’d take me to wherever I needed to go.  Thus, he took me the rest of the way to the Breaks State Park where we were camping this night.  I learned the young man is in his Junior year of high school and was heading for a summer job interview.  I wish I could give him a character reference.  May God take care of this young man and grant him a summer job.

Once in camp I was able to use a needle-nose plier to free my cassette and ready to ride
tomorrow.  Maybe all my bad luck is over.  So far this adventure has been more of a
masochistic exercise.  I’m very much drawing on the power of the many folks who believe in me to keep going.  Thank you all for your prayers and words of support.

A final note before closing out today’s diary.  I said my momma didn’t raise me to be a fool, well I do believe she is looking after me even now.  I learned from another touring couple that there was a gentleman on an Adventure Cycling Tour of the Trans-Am which left Yorktown a few days before crashed and died.  I verified the story to be true from Pepper
as he knew about it but didn’t share with us as he didn’t want everyone to panic.  The unfortunate soul was riding in the rain, on one of the long downhill stretches (means he was probably going fast as when the brakes on a bike are wet it’s hard to go slow downhill) when he lost control due to wet pavement and a patch of loose gravel causing him to
go down.  I trust the family of this unfortunate soul understand and accept there is risk in life.  At least the guy died doing what he enjoyed and not sitting in an office or at home wishing what he could have done with his life.

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