Day 31: Hartville to Fair Grove

June 10, 2006

I turn into speedy gonzales as I try to make it to Fair Grove to meet my uncle. Slowed by a broken spoke, but it's all good. Got some new spokes, a new tire, a new camelbak bladder, a trip to Bass Pro Shops, some good eatin', and a hotel room, all courtesy of Uncle Sam! (my real uncle sam, not the government one...)

(for certain Purdue people...) I KNEW the MFAs had to be making money on something other than poetry somewhere...

I originally thought I had only 26 miles to do today to get to Marshfield, but after talking to my uncle last night, I decided to shoot for Fair Grove instead, 15 miles farther and right on the highway my uncle would be using to come down from Iowa to visit. So I set the alarm and rode like crazy to get over 40 miles done by 11 a.m.

Hit the edge of Marshfield in really good time after my early departure and stopped at a Casey's for my favorite doughnut from them (alas they didn't have any breakfast pizza cooked up). I was going to call my uncle to tell him I'd have no problem hitting Fair Grove by 11 but decided to wait until I got to the other side of town just because. So not a half a mile on, I hear a dreaded 'ping!' as I'm turning a corner and being accosted by local volunteers trying to get donations for July 4th fireworks.

Guy who helped dremmel out the spoke I broke. If you're going to break a spoke and not be able to get it out, a hardware store is a nice place to do it!

Now I'd only heard about this ping. I'd never broken a spoke before, but I felt pretty confident that me and my fiber fix spoke could get the job done, even on the drive side. Except the spoke broke at the nipple, so I couldn't get the elbow end out of the hub. Humm. Well, if you're going to break a spoke and not be able to get it out, being across the street from a hardware store is a pretty nice option. After quite a few tries, we finally get the thing to a point where I can use my fiber fix. And it works great, except now I'm behind schedule and hungry and thirsty again.

Installing the fiberfix spoke--I love these things

I know there has to be fast food by the interstate, so I pedal through town, pull into McDonald's, pay some kids a dollar to watch my bike (they were having a car wash fundraiser and since I didn't have a car to wash, I thought I'd support them that way), wolfed down a cheeseburger and coke without washing my grimy hands, and rode hard out of town, making it to Fair Grove less than two minutes before my uncle!

I paid these kids a dollar to watch my bike while I got a cheeseburger at McDonalds. They were doing a car wash fundraiser of some sort and the little ones took the guard job very seriously!

We took Kert apart and stuck him in the car, got addresses for bike shops in Springfield (where we were headed anyway), and took off to get the wheel fixed. The guys at Sunshine Bikes were helpful and did a thorough job on the wheel. I got a new tire to replace the one that was wearing unevenly, and our trip to Bass Pro shops netted me a new camelbak bladder to replace the funky tasting one. I was still in bike clothes, but I was more hungry than anything else, so we went to a steak place. I was so hungry for vegetables, too. And after my hunger was satiated, I was more than happy to hit the hotel room for a shower and a somewhat early bedtime.

Getting my wheel fixed at Sunshine Bicycles in Springfield

Sam talks over the finer points of putting a VW motor on a motorcycle with a guy in the Lone Star parking lot

"And I'll hang around as long as you will let me..." (Serenaded by Lone Star servers)

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 1,528 miles (2,459 km)

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