I slept like a log that night. The tent was soaking wet when I put it away, because I hadn’t set it up as good as Larry always did. Oh well, everyone has to learn! The worst part was stuffing it into the gear locker. I now had 2 lockers to put all the junk in and I was having trouble getting it all together. Oh well, I will work on that as we go.
My biggest problem was to get the old bike in shape to ride. My favorite mechanic was off for a couple days so I had to go to Dave. I explained to Dave what was going on, he thought about it then decided I needed a new chain, because the one that I had just put on my bike was too short. Bummer. He replaced my chain for $30, I had already paid 10 pounds, which is $15 just 2 days before. I didn’t have any extra links and neither did Dave.
While Dave was working on the bike I had to make a decision to ride the sag from start of day or risk having another problem on my bike. Since I wasn’t sure it was only the chain problem, I opted for the sag. It was leaving before Dave could be finished. We talked about the bike and he agreed to put it on the truck when he was through.
Sagging can be ok when you need it, but when you are healthy and wanting to ride, it can be torture. The day was looking really good and checkpoint was to be at Stonehenge. My only happiness came when we had to go to checkpoint immediately and wait for Brit-Simone to pass. The sag was full today. We had one pneumonia, one broken but almost healed collar bone, one lost bike and me, the broken bike.
The lost bike is a great story. Winslow is the retired Doctor who broke his hip in Greece a few months ago. He was riding down a wet and slippery mountain road when he lost it and fell. He was picked up by Joyce, a staff member and taken to a hospital. Joyce radioed in to tell the tour people “no one here speaks English, what should I do?” And was told, “leave him there, we need you back on the road”. Well Joyce reluctantly left Win at the Greek hospital. Win was in dirty bike clothes and in very much pain. His only resource was Larry Dolinsky ( a rider) who showed up at the hospital to help him make telephone calls and get him out of this remote town to Athens.
Win was transported with Larry Dolinsky’s help and finally did get good medical care. He went home to recover and is now back with us. Except he is not riding. Why? Well, TK&A needed space for other things and left his bike, somewhere. The problem is, they weren’t quite sure where. One thought is was in France, another in Rome! Win had to ride in the sag wagon, while his bike was located and delivered to him! It took a few weeks, but the bike finally did turn up. In the mean time we kidded Win everyday about going out looking for his bike.
We stopped at Stonehenge for a few hours that day. I was lucky enough to walk around and snap a few pictures before the nasty weather blew in. The place is rather remarkable, my favorite view of it was from afar. Located on a hill top, the stones can be seen from a distance. It is amazing, how did they get them there?
We left Stonehenge and headed for Bath, our next overnight location. Bath is a neat city, built by the Romans. The next day I was scheduled to go on a bike ride with Arthur and his local cycling group.