Big Ride Day 15

I woke up with my knees hurting and I was really depressed. I started thinking about whether I could make the rest of the trip with this knee pain. I moped around camp in the morning, got something to eat, took a shower, and then we went and did laundry. After that, we were actually able to borrow a car and went to run some errands. We ate lunch at this place called Elmer's, which had awesome pancakes. I ate with Stan, an interesting older man with a handlebar mustache, Doug, the chiropractor from San Jose, and Phyllis, a Texan who now lives in Germany. After lunch at Elmer's, we headed out to Wal-Mart where I bought a flag that I plan to carry with me for the rest of the trip. We also hit some sporting goods stores in search of a good knee brace -- no luck. We also went to Chris' bike shop and found that Dave, one of the riders who was previously riding a recumbent had decided to buy a tandem in order to allow Laurie, a rider who had injured her knee, to keep riding - with one leg on the back of the tandem. How funny to see a three-legged tandem. We'll have to see how they do on the road.

To wrap up the day, we all went over to Chris, the bike tech's, house for sandwiches. Chris has a wonderful family with four very well mannered and wonderful children. They are unbelievably helpful, even serving us drinks at meals. The younger ones are very cute and have taken to all of us as family. It is great to see. After dinner, it was time for bed again...

This page modified November 25, 2000