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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Sunday and Mishaps

We began Sunday morning attending a very old First Congregational church in Painesville, Ohio.  Not our first choice, though as we drove by we noticed that the next service was to start at 11 a.m., and it was 10:58.  So we decided to give it a try. 

After the service, we drove a bit to Lake Erie, where we had a nice lunch and got our feet wet in the lake (I stuck one toe in, literally).  Libbey could have dived in, but we didn’t let her get wet past her knees…

When we had all finished, we got in the truck and drove down the highway towards Hamburg, New York.  Just a few miles before crossing the border, a couple cars had passed us, windows rolled down and waving their arms in frantic gestures to tell us something.  We gathered that there was something wrong with the bikes, but we couldn’t imagine what.  Unfortunately, we were on a major highway, and we were in the right lane with no shoulder due to construction work.  The only shoulder was on the left lane, with traffic barriers in front.  Try pulling over onto that shoulder with 28 feet of trailer behind you (not to mention it was raining).  But we did it, and we were in for a shock at what had happened.  Our single-arm bike rack (loaded with four mountain bikes) had completely bent and split, leaving it literally hanging on the hitch.  So they had probably been hanging there for just a few minutes, and had been skidding across the highway.  Praise God the whole thing didn’t come off and cause an accident, and none of the bikes were harmed except for mine, which was on the outside.  My right handle and my derailleur were slightly ground down by the skidding on the asphalt, but my right pedal was in shreds.  I’m just glad it was mine and not any of the other bikes, and that nothing else was wrong with mine.  In fact, in the motion of the rack breaking, a handle of the innermost bike had punctured a small hole in our trailer!  Dad’s going to have to fill it with silicone.  And forget about the bike rack, it was ruined.

So dad, mom and I got all the bikes off the rack and took the rack off.  We put the rack in the storage area, and put the bikes in the trailer padded with sheets and such.  We got pretty greasy hands and kind of wet, and every time a semi truck went by the whole trailer would shake, but we moved fast.  Pretty soon we were back on the road again, still a little baffled at what had happened and thinking about what to do next.  We’re going to need to get another bike rack shipped to us, somehow, and get a new pedal for my bike.  But we’re all glad nothing much worse happened, that all the bikes are okay to ride and that the trailer puncture…well…we’ll have to think about that one.      

When you’re on a road trip, there’s bound to be a few mishaps here and there.  I just hope they don’t come too often…

1 comment:

  1. That could have been so much worse. Praise God for keeping you guys and others on the road safe.

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