Day 2 - No Bike Stores In Deming

Start: Lordsburg, NM - End: Las Cruces NM. (about 80 miles).

The voice mail came in at about 8:20 this morning - "Hey, I just got my first flat. Bye" Frank sounded pretty excited despite the early setback - the first of two flats - next was the rear tire. The first one took a while - but now the patch kit is on top of the paniers so a total unpack was not necessary this time. The flat's didn't compress Franks' spirit - he kept riding. My phone rang again around 11:30 "Hey, I need you to do me a favor, you got to find a bike shop in Deming. I don't have any rear brakes"
Huh? What do you mean?

"My rear brake pads are gone" Frank said. After checking carefully (google) we found out there really are no bike shops in Deming (one is listed went out of business, apparently not enough cross country traffic to keep them afloat).

Check your maps - but it is probably 40 miles from Lordsburg to Deming. I gave Frank the news and he responded with typically Frank "I don't care - you can cut this bike in half and I'll ride it like a unicycle...I will just ride to Las Cruces, its pretty flat" And he rode fast because he needed to get there before closing (thanksgiving being tomorrow makes this really important). By about 4:30 or 5pm local time he found the Chain Drive bike shop and persuaded them to stay a while longer to replace the lost brake pads, put in thornproof tubes, slime and protective strips to prevent flats. You all know how persuasive Frank can be. While the boys at Chain Drive worked on the bike, Frank found a place to eat and tonight He will be sleeping at the KOA.

I asked him how he slept last night. "Cold" he said. "you have a cold?" I asked. "NO, my head was cold." he replied. So, add a beanie to the shopping list of lost or forgotten items. Hey - as Frank said "now, I am in a big town".

After all the excitement was over for the day Frank said "this is what its about, good days and not so good, this was meant to be like this today."



(posted by Sean)