Day 12 -Zuni, NM to Rehoboth, NM

Daily Stats:
Distance: 77.03km
Time: 3h11m57s
Avg Spd: 24.1km/hr
Climbing: 786m

Today was the day of excitement.  It was only a short ride today, but man did things happen.

We started out later, with breakfast not being served until 6:30am because of the short ride.  Late breakfast means sleeping in.  Sort of.  Alarms in our common room still went off at 5:30am, and I was hard pressed to stay in bed until 6am.

Our ride group was ten people today.  Definitely a sizable group, and it took a little while to find the rhythm of the group and pick up on the riding habits of the people around me.  I hung out at the back of the pack, preferring to leave a little more space between myself and the group ahead for my own comfort.

It was crazy today to see the change in geography.  In Arizona, everything was red rock or sand.  Today, we saw the mountains change to almost a green-ish yellow tinge.  I'm realizing now that I don't have any pictures of it.

Accommodations for this evening are at the beautiful Rehoboth Christian School, located right off Route 66.  The staff here cooked us a wonderful dinner, and offered to take us into the neighboring town of Gallup to watch a Native American Navajo dance.  I opted to stay at camp to tune up the bike and rest.

Excitement for today came in many forms:
* A cowbell at the top of the first climb
* Random porta-john guy being solicited to suck out our overflowing outhouse, and him getting a standing ovation from the riders at the SAG stop when he was done
* Dogs!  At a random stretch of highway, with no homes in sight, a stray rushed out of the bushes at Matt, startling everyone.  He must have been startled by our numbers and slinked back into the brush instead of attacking us.
* Dead snake on the road (not a rattler, I'm told, but I didn't slow down to find out).
* Rain/Hail.  Rehoboth hasn't had rain for eight months.  Today it rained.  Hard.  A few tents were left outside and got drenched.  Karel, Dave and I ventured out for a pre-shower shower while other watched from the overhang.

The best part of today was "The Quest for the Spoke of Destiny."  And it's a good-er.

When we rolled into Gallup, Brendan wanted stop in at the bike shop for some parts. We found a shop - Sports World, I believe - and pulled in to see what they had.  It's an interesting store, being part bike shop and part screen-printing shop.  Rumor is that all the other bike stores in town have been unable to stay in business, so after the last one closed, this owner opted to start one in his screen printing studio and it's worked out quite well for him.

Just as we were about to leave, Brandon noticed a wobble in his rear wheel and wanted to have the guy check it out for his peace of mind.  And it's a good thing he did as they discovered a broken spoke.  His wheel has enough spokes that it wasn't imminently dangerous, but it was cause for concern as the integrity of the wheel was compromised and could fail at any time.  This shop didn't have any road parts, though, being a largely mountain-bike focused area so the owner wished us well, and told us there was a bike shop in Colorado Springs that could probably help us out.

Discouraged, and worried about impending death of the wheel we trekked onward to find a coffee shop to drown Brandon's troubles in caffeine. Sitting in the shop, I picked up a copy of the local events paper, and happened to notice an ad for a guy who fixes bikes.  It was small, but it had a name (Dirk Hollebeek), a phone number, and email address and a street address.  Ava called the number, but got a machine, so we decided to bike over and check it out.

As we rode, the streets became less and less commercial and more and more residential.  Was it possible Dirk was a one-man show in his garage?

We approached the house - a bungalow at the end of a street overlooking the main drag entering Gallup - and saw the garage was open and there were bikes inside.  And there was a man in the garage.  All good signs!  We put smiles on our faces and greeted the man we thought was Dirk, the bike mechanic.

But alas, our quest to find a new spoke was not so easy.  "Dirk" turned out to be Cal, who was doing renovations on the house while the owner was away.  And handy as Cal was, he knew nothing about bikes.

He was friendly, though, this man named Cal.  So we chatted with him for a bit, and told him about the Sea to Sea.  Turns out he knew all about it because his friend's dad is riding in the tour - Roland R - a gentleman who shared the airport shuttle with me when we landed in California.

Despite being out of his element with bike mechanics, Cal knew of some folks who know about bikes and promptly got on his phone to track them down.  A few voicemails later, it appeared our search was coming to an end.

We talked some more, and told him we were headed for Rehoboth Christian School.  Turns out Cal used to work there, and knows a guy who lives a block from the school who's an avid cyclist - Tim.  He gave us directions to Tim's house - just go past the post office, and up Pill Hill (there used to be a hospital there...).  He's right there.

Success!  We had another lead to follow, and ventured on down Route 66 and into Rehoboth.  We found the house with ease, knocked on the door and were greeted by a friendly woman who informed us that Tim was on his way home from out east.  We thanked her and headed back to camp, disappointed.

But the quest was not yet over...  arriving at the school, Brandon had a voicemail from Cal with the phone number of another of his cycling friends.  And so, Andy Stravers became the man of the hour.  A quick phone call to Andy and a description of the problem we were having, and Andy promised to pull the wheels from his road bike that was collecting dust in his garage and drive right over to see if he could help.  Either we could pull a spoke from his wheelset, or arrange a deal to swap wheels to keep Brandon on the road.

Around 3pm, Andy showed up and got right to work.  He pulled his wheels apart and took a spoke out.  Turned out the spoke wasn't quite the right length, but it was close. The crazy thing, though, is that as Brandon and Andy talked, they discovered they were both grew up in the same town, and a cousin had actually worked for Andy's dad.

A little more brainstorming and we came up with Joel's rear wheel in the gear trailer that was removed from service in Payson due to a crack in the rim.  Turns out those spokes were the perfect length!  So Andy helped swap the spoke, and we were back in business.

But the icing on the cake, was the generosity of Andy.  Not being certain that the replaced spoke will be able to make the remainder of the journey, Andy left his rear wheel with Brandon as a 'just in case.'  Refusing compensation, he told Brandon to 'pay it forward' to the next rider who needs it.  Unbelievable.

Not four hours after discovering the problem, in a small town with one bike shop, and through what we are calling the providence of God, Brandon's bike is back in working order and we're set for our first century tomorrow.

Lights out is minutes away, as we are anxiously awaiting morning when we will set out on our longest ride yet.  Tomorrow we ride 99 miles to Shiprock, NM.  Everyone is planning on riding around the block when we arrive to ensure we make it a full century (100 miles).

Today we saw the hand of God, providing safety as we rode, and in providing the 'Spoke of Destiny'.  A short ride, but an eventful one.

Also, if anyone was betting what day of the tour would see my first tears... it was today.  Adrenaline combined with confrontation meant I got a little overwhelmed.  All is good, as open conversation fixes many problems.  And that's all there is to say about that.

PS - I finally made it on YouTube!