Rescue and Repairs

Ken's trike broke!  As we were leaving Ferne Clyffe and heading up a big long hill, a weld on the underside of the boom broke and Ken was unable to pedal.  Using another bracket as a temporary repair we were able to continue riding but the chain was rubbing on the bottom of the frame so we didn't want to ride too far on it.  Here is a pic of the break and the replacement boom TerraTrike had overnighted to us.

This is on the underside of the boom, which slides onto the frame.

The new boom.  See those two little round things on the right?  One of those is what broke.  The big hole on the left is where the sprocket and pedals go.

After we got the new part my Mom and Dad came and got us and took us in to Carbondale, IL so we could get the repairs done, do an interview with the local paper, and put Ken's new tire on.  There were three bike shops there in town and all of them were on the same block.  We went with Carbondale Cycles simply because they answered the phone when we called and gave us a good price.  They were also able to get the repairs done in under 2 hours.  Here is Ken talking with Cho, the repair man.

Thank you Cho for your good work and fair prices!

Thank you Mom and Dad for coming to save us!

Thank you TerraTrike for standing by your product!

While we were camping and waiting on the boom to come by UPS Ken and I decided to go find something to eat.  One option was the Lodge:

We ate there twice.  It was okay. Neat to look at inside.  Since it was only okay and kinda pricey, though, we decided to head into nearby Makanda, a LITTLE town which we soon discovered had no ATM, and the one person we spoke to there was rather rude, so we left.  Disappointing.  It rained a little on our way back HOME, but it felt good since we had to come up a couple big hills.  

What is that on Ken's tire?  Let's get a closer look:

Riding behind Ken when he wasn't pulling his trailer made me see just how worn his tire was.  That yellow stuff you see is the Kevlar coming through.  We do have a new tire to put on it but didn't have it with us (parents have it).  We also didn't have our bike bag with us since our stuff was at our campsite and we were just out cruisin around looking for food.  Luckily Ken didn't have to do this for long:

We went back to our camp after getting another dinner from The Lodge, and got a good night's rest knowing that we wouldn't have to ride in heavy traffic after all.  I am so glad my parents came and got us!

Goodnite.