160th ride of 2017 - Saturday, 10/7/2017

Total mileage for 2017: 2579.0

This morning I left home at 7:30 and rode to the McDonald's at Jackson and Baker in Dexter to meet Christy. My grandchildren have soccer games this morning at Dexter High School—Danny at 10, and Izzy at 11—and, as Michelle is gone with the car on her annual field trip with students to Frankenmuth, I had no way to get to the soccer games. Michelle has asked me to avoid riding my trike on the road, and I can get almost but not quite all the way to the school on sidewalks. So I arranged to meet Christy here at 9:30 to give me a ride to the games, and, bringing my laptop in the bag on the back of my trike, I'm able to update the blog as I fuel up a little with a muffin and some orange juice.

It was a nice morning for a ride—63° when I left home, and 65° when I arrived here, and I rode with my headlight on (though it wouldn't have been strictly necessary). The skies are cloudy enough that it was still pretty dark when I left. A good ride—10.3 miles in 1:06, and my plan is to ride back home after the games.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

The AQ (Adventure Quotient) for this afternoon's ride home from Dexter was dismayingly high ... but I guess all's well that ends well.

After the kids' soccer games, Christy returned me to my trike at McDonald's, and I set off in 80° sunshine, fighting a rising wind. I was pedaling along happily and made it nearly 7 miles (almost 3/4 of the way home) when, going south along Maple Rd. just where it crosses Pauline, my chain came off and got all fouled up. 

I could not ride at all, so I pulled off in the grass, turned the trike over on its side, sat down on the ground, and began working on it. Somehow the chain had gotten off and twisted into an actual knot! I was working at trying to get it untwisted (but without much success), and had been at it for 15 or 20 minutes when a nice lady named Mary came by. She asked if I was OK, and I said, "I am, but my trike is not," and pointed to the fouled up chain. She said, "Ooooh ... I don't know chains, but I live just around the corner. Let me get my husband, Fernando, who's pretty mechanical. I'll be right back."

A few minutes later, Fernando and Mary returned. To two other women who had stopped and were wearing Michigan State t-shirts, so that we were talking about tonight's game, I said, "Go Green!" And one of them grinned and said, "You better not say that—the guy with the tools just arrived, and he's wearing Michigan gear." I smiled and said, "It's OK ... I went to both." Then I hailed Fernando with a hearty "GO BLUE!" and he smiled and went to work.

He couldn't figure out how I managed to do what I did to the chain. But eventually by patient work he was able to get the knot out and the chain back in place. However, he told me, "Look right here -- this link is damaged, and you won't be able to ride with it that way." Meanwhile, his wife Mary was busy working her phone, and told us, "There's a cycling shop less than a mile away, on Stadium. Fernando, why don't you take Allen over there in our van [the van was full of stuff, which was why we couldn't just drive the trike over there], and I'll start walking the trike over and then you can come back and trade with me." This kindness was absolutely outstanding, and we carried out this plan.

Getting to Great Lakes Cycling, there was only a wait of 15 or 20 minutes before Mary pulled up with the trike. (Fernando had driven back, but couldn't find her.) She grinned and said, "Man, that's hard to wheel!" I smiled and said, "I know!" While they were working on the trike, I had a nice visit with Fernando and Mary, some by speech and some by notes.

Fortunately, they were able to do the necessary repair by replacing two links in the chain, and after spinning the wheels and testing it out thoroughly, I was told that my bill was a whopping $10 and change! My two guardian angels asked, "Do you want us to follow you for a bit?" I said, "No, I'll be OK. My daughter says I like to live on the edge." Mary laughed and said, "I was just gonna say that!"

My ride home from there, a little over four and a half miles, was slow (clogged by Game Day pedestrians), but uneventful. With the interruption, though, after having left Dexter at noon, I didn't arrive home until about 3:15, and was ever so glad to make it!