Day 6: Rest Day in Winthrop

June 6, 2021

Recovery and Repair of Patrick's Bike

"Are you touring? Patrick asks the two women on Surly touring bikes, one pulling a dog in a trailer. "We have in the past but now just visiting from Seattle....wait, were you wearing yellow jackets yesterday?" they asked. "We are the ones who honked." These are third road angels yesterday, and being cyclists themselves know when to honk to cheer other cyclists on.

Our day started after a very restful sleep with David and Betsy and breakfast. Patrick cleaned the bike chains, much needed after first cycling the dusty Cascade trail and yesterday’s rain. Betsy places the laundry into the washing machine and clothes are hung on a rack outside to quickly dry. The journal and pictures are caught up, so we walk into town. We have a big lunch at a Mexican Restaurant. David and his brother Jim are both avid woodworkers and Patrick gets tours of both their shops. David has in impressive collection of nicely made jigs, while Jim is honing his skills with marquetry and building chairs with curves every which way.

Before we started on our trip Patrick had notice a small crack in his bike frame, where the left seat stay attaches to the top tube (the cross the seat tube and attach to the top tube creating an extra triangle in the frame, a design feature Jan Groot from Vittorio liked) A friend who builds bike frames in Boise fixed it by putting a weld over it. Because there was some doubt about the integrity of the right seat stay connection Patrick had sanded the metal bare and put some white primer on it. Now, about 250 miles into the trip a small black line has become visible: this side is cracked too. Patrick mentions it to Betsy and guess what: there is a frame builder in Winthrop. David calls him and shortly later we get to speak to Doug with Curtlo cycles. (HOME - Curtlo Cycles) He generously offers to meet us at his workshop to take a look at things. We put the bike on the back of David’s car and drive to the shop. Doug first burns all the paint away to get a good look, then cleans the metal and puts a beautiful braze around the tube connection. Good as new.

We have a nice evening meal with David’s brother Jim and his wife Barbara and their house guest Danny from Idaho. She is the educator for banding birds.

Housekeeping duties already, Patrick cleans the bike chains, Rachel does laundry.

Fellow cyclists who gave us a beep driving by us on the pass to cheer us on

David took Patrick to Doug, Curlo cycles, to repair his bike frame

Betsy and David, fabulous warmshowers hosts

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