After a great night with our hitchhiking friend Jeff, we found ourselves at a bike shop in Ely after Seth's back wheel and tire became reminiscent of a Stephen King novel.
We met Colton, a college- aged guy who definitely knew what he was talking about with bikes. In just a few hours time, he rebuilt Seth's back wheel, changed the spokes, installed a new back tire, added his fender, fixed his rear brake...and at the same time checked my bike for any major issues. Sure enough I had a hidden broken spoke on my tire that was going to ruin our day at any moment, and Colton rebuilt my wheel as well.
Thank you Colton. Bikes went from broken to fixed thanks to you.
At a normal bike shop, these types of repairs would have cost anywhere north of $100, per bike. Together, they cost less than $20. Way below market value. It's amazing how much Colton discounted everything. He could see that we were eager to keep going at a minimal cost, and came through in the clutch.
Lesson #25: Mom and Pop stores trump corporate megastores.
We appreciate you, Colton, and will continue to go local with bike shops!
After a Mickey D's stop... (Side tangent, we've become really good at a few things on this trip. 1. Looking for free wifi and 2. Finding public outlets to charge our stuff. Mickey D's ranks #1 on our depth charts due to high visibility outlets and always free wifi. More to come.) we were on the road shooting for Baker, NV.
It was another beautiful day on the road, but with no services for the next 63 miles we made sure to stock up on our water supply. Hit two mountain passes and got to our first National Park, Great Basin National Park. Thought of you, Ted Behar, hitting our first National Park...more to come!
Got to Baker, population 58 with the sun setting behind our backs on 13,0000+ ft peaks in the national park. Was pleasantly surprised with our campsite, including laundry (!) and showers (!). First laundry stint of our trip, much needed. First shower for Seth in a few days, I won't tell you the last time I showered.
We finished our night at a beautiful bar/restaurant/motel combo. Fantastic pizza and drinks. Reminded me of a little Saxapahaw, great microbrews, wines and artwork for sale.
Lesson #26: No matter where you're from, there will always be people who love their hometown. Embrace it and learn something from them.
Spent the night learning about the history of this 58 person town and fell asleep to the sound of owls hooting and crickets chirping. Life is good.
So many more where that came from. Loving your blog. Just signed up for Xterra Tri here. I'll do the mtn biking section. I'll consider it an homage to your adventure.
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