Miles 4 Melanoma

We began our day off with the traditional laundry run. The laundromat was on the other side of town, and ended up being much further than we thought, about 5 miles away. I had a pretty big load this week, since the last time I had done laundry was the previous Friday in Hutchinson, MN. I bungee-corded my laundry bag to my trunk rack; it must have weighed close to 30 pounds, a bit over the specified weight limit for my rack, but I made it with no problems. I rode with Colleen and Colin, but there were several others already there when we arrived. Molley, Marisa, and Sue had ended up walking the whole way.

With our clean clothes, we rode back to town to find a place to eat breakfast. We saw some of the staff coming out of a diner and ice cream shop called House of Flavors. Since they were in one of the vans, we asked them to take our big laundry bags back to camp, which was a huge help. Breakfast was unbelievable good; Colleen, Colin, and I were joined there by Molly, Marisa, Sue, and Meg. I had a ham and cheese omelette. Most of us got dessert as well; I had a sundae with chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, and bananas. Then we browsed the shops around town a bit, including the local bike shop, where they had a Trek Madone (just like Lance’s) that just happened to be my size, but I passed on the $4,995.00 price tag…

I rode back to camp and put my laundry away, and dropped my bike off with Jeremy at the mechanic’s trailer. The last couple of days, the bottom bracket seems to be making a lot of noise, especially when I’m pedaling out of the saddle. Jeremy said it could also be the headset, which I think is possible. I also asked him to check and true my front wheel, which seems a little wobbly. I took a shower, and spent the afternoon hanging around camp, talking to some of the new arrivals for the week. We have two couples on tandems joining us, our first tandem riders on the tour.

For dinner, they shuttled us in the vans back into town for a buffet at the Old Hamlin Restaurant. Back at camp, I checked in with Jeremy. He had gotten pretty busy and did not have a chance to work on my bike, but he did look at the front wheel quickly, and tightened the hub a bit. The bearings seem a bit worn, and may need to be replaced soon, but the tightening of the hub did help a lot.

Everyone went to bed pretty early, to rest for a long day of riding tomorrow.

Filed under: Coast to Coast 2004 |