Friday, April 22, 2011

The Stupidest Thing Ever

The weather couldn't have been more beautiful for our first day of ridding with Kenny. We headed off and after twenty miles of riding stopped for lunch. Along the way Em and I practiced holding hand while riding our bikes, an easyily accomplishable task. We joked about all of us holding hands and riding, what an idea. Reasonably do able, we ride no handed for long enough periods of time. After lunch
and in high spirits Gen planned to capture some footage of
Emma and I holding hands for the video. A nice stretch of realitivly flat road lay in front of us. In a split second thought I decided Georgia should join, I beconked her forward and reached out my hand. Georgia and I rode for a second before I clasped Emma's hand, which left me hand less in the middle of two bikes. By the time I had grabbed Emma's had we knew it was a bad idea, I am pretty sure Emma was already bailing. A slight swerve to the right, this was no good, abort but it was to late and huge serve to the left and Georgia and I had collided. Gen was able to get the last seconds of it on film and some how my digital SLR that was on my back landed gently right next to me. Slightly bruised and banged, Georgia and I were/are fine, but our rims were a mess. My spokes were literally severed and Georgia's was so bent it looked like a Salvador Dali painting. Plans were formulated and action was taken.
After a couple failed attempts at finding a bike mechanic near by with the help of some local people we found Megan or she found us. Kenny, Gen and Emma continued riding while Georgia and I packed up our bikes and stuff and us into the rental car. We caught up with the bikers and re-routed to a bigger city. The bike shop was closed so we would have to wait. Georgia needed a new rim and we thought my rim could be trued (replace spokes tighten them to straigten the rim). The next morning we went to action. Kenny dropped the rims off and with the little French he knows informed us the mechanic was on vacation and it would have to wait another day. After Megan conformed with the mechanic Kenny story which was completly wrong, we decided to head to Tour, a large city only fourty minuets away. Our luck and options would be better there.
After our drive there we started our search at a Decathlon a mega sports store similar to REI. They had a rim but it would be a smaller tire size. They pointed us in the direction of large bicycle store near by. We went there but it was closed. We drove into downtown Tour to catch some lunch. After lunch we headed back out to the bicycle shop rightly named Velo Land. They had no rim and said mine was most likely dead as well. Kenny convinced the mechanic to try truing mine, all the time Megan was learning many new bicycle related new French vocabulary. I stuck around to see the outcome of my rim while Megan, Kenny, Georgia and Emma went back to the Decathlon to get the smaller rim. It is okay to ride with different size tires Georgia would just downsize from a 32 to a 28, no big deal. Em was also able to get a cheap camel back and sleeping mat both of which have started leaking.
Upon arriving back at Velo Land Georgia got a new tire and some tubes and was in business. I had however been told the sad news that my rim was dead. The mechanic there had told us of a place in the city. Back in the car we pilled and made our way back to the city. Thankfully the mechanic there said we was able to build a rim for me and with a bit of convincing he would have it done the next morning. Kenny and I drove back to Tour the next day to pick the rim up and by 12:30 that day we were again enjoying the French countryside by bicycle. Durning the whole ordeal we discussed how much longer it would have taken for us to deal with this if we hadn't had the help of Kenny and Megan. Days would have been spent and things would have been lost in translation. We are so thankful for their help.
Now back on track we had an amazing day or riding yesterday accomplishing 68 miles, which we haven't done in a while. We also enjoyed some of the best strawberries any of us had ever had. And at the end of the day we crossed the Loire River, which if some one was riding west to east across the USA it would be like crossing the Mississippi River. It feels good, France is great.

Photos (top to bottom): Lucy's bike in a French forest; one of the many chateaux of the Loire Valley; Em and Gen reach 6,000km (3,700ish miles) spurpassing our US tour of 2006; lunch time photo shoot.

3 comments:

  1. Robin and I enjoying talking about your trip and so I am shoeing her how this commenting works! I love seeing the pictures. Hillymom

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  2. Hi Biker Girls!! So glad to hear from you on Easter Sunday..and happy to hear that you are all in one piece. it was excellent luck that Kenny & Megan were there during the whole bike repair fiasco....No holding hands anymore...2 hands on the handle bars from now on!! Love all the photos...sounds like the weather being warmer is allowing you to enjoy the countrysites and events more! Can't believe that April is almost over and the time is going so quickly!~ Miss you all. Be safe and have fun! Love, Mom Maryxxx

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  3. Holding hands:
    Reminds us of a road somewhere in Montana, spring 2010, (US-cross-country).

    Annelies and I, already at the age of 57 and 64, held hands while riding an easy track.
    At the end of the day, we stopped in a tiny village with only one shop.
    The woman who owned that shop said:...Oh, there you are!...I loved to pass you this morning. You were holding hands. How cute to see people at your age showing their love in the middle of nowhere.
    (Peter de Visser/Annelies van de Louw, Oostvoorne, The Netherlands)

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