After Taylor took off to bike the hollers of Kentucky, I took a run through the down of Danville.
An interesting conglomeration of odd town names...in downtown Danville.
A park on the outskirts of town
I had to make sure Jessica saw this sign as she studies family practice and midwifery - yipes!
I thought it might be nice to offer James a ride today to give him some relief from his soreness. When I texted to offer a ride he accepted, so I picked him after I left Danville...in fact I picked up James, Lance, both their bikes and their quite full panniers! The van was full but it was nice to have some riding companions for the morning.
Maybe chatting a bit too much, several miles down the road I missed a turn on the TransAmerica route, so I needed to turn around. I thought that the road I saw led into a church parking lot and would be a perfect place to turn around -- but once I pulled in to the road I found that it was actually a dead end. I had to back out into the road. Already I was thankful that Lance and James were there to watch for cars coming up the rise. This was oddity of the day #1.
The next oddity was that my cell phone froze up. I think it happened when I was in an area with very limited cell service and Taylor sent 3 photos. Thankfully the guys were using the same route so they navigated during that stretch of time.
The third oddity of the day was that on a windy country road with rollers the camper came off the hitch. Thankfully the break actuator engaged and with only 2 strange "tugs" the camper braked and I stopped. The three of us got out and saw that the tongue of the camper was on the ground, there was the smell of burning brakes -- but we were all safe. Lance directed cars around us, I cranked up the trailer to a height where I could get it back on the hitch and James helped guide me back on. I look back on it and am so thankful the guys were there, that it was the not much more windy and hilly roads we were on the next day, that this was not on an incline or descent, but basically a short straight stretch. God's hand of protection was very evident. I was pretty shaken, but we carried on. Since then I have been checking and double checking that hitch!
This "jack" got bent up...and later we found that the front had a small stress facture, but overall we were in pretty good shape after such an incident.
After dropping off the guys near the B & B they were going to stay at for the night. They might have been very glad to be away from me after such a day of "excitement"!
Taylor and I stayed at Buckhorn Reservoir and Dam that night, with various random dogs walking around the campground. These were signs of things to come more and more for Taylor while he biked. So far, he only got chased a couple times out on the back roads.
A little duct tape repair job to make sure no water would get in to the stress factured spot on the rest of the trip
