Day 108: Egypt, IN

The day started with a calm wind from the southeast (meaning it wasn't blowing in my face).  So we took advantage of that and got rolling fairly early.  As it heated up the wind began to build and shift: a couple of hours into the ride it had become a brisk quartering headwind.  But by that time I only had about 10 miles left to ride.

Then my chain broke.  My NEW chain, which had been installed in Fort Wayne, IN (they obviously didn't get the pin pushed in correctly).  I texted Alea to come and get me.  She quickly found me using the Life360 app, and we piled everything into the van and went to a lawn mower/bicycle shop in Renssalaer, IN with the faint hope that they might be able to get me back up and running.  The folks there were very nice, but I don't think they see many skinny chains for 10-speed rear cassettes.  It was obvious that their rummaging through old chain bits would be fruitless, but I politely waited for the inevitable verdict.  While doing so, the owner's dogs came over and made friends.  Then one of them went straight for the most comfortable spot in the store - the seat of the riding lawn mower on display in the center of the sales floor.

We took a look at where we would be heading tomorrow and there is a good chance that there will be a bike store near where we plan to camp, so we decided we would worry about the chain tomorrow.

My arm wasn't log enough for a selfie that shows me riding Alea's bike, but I tried...

We still had another ten miles to cover, and Alea was looking at me like "Oh, crap.  Just when it is starting to get hot and humid.  He's going to make me ride the last 10 miles!"  But then I said that I was going to ride her bike the last few miles, and she brightened up again.  It wasn't the most comfortable ride, and I'm very glad I didn't have to ride any farther than I did.  But it got the job done.  I rode a total of 46 miles for the day.

From this angle it almost looks like Alea's bike was a good fit (it wasn't).
Note Alea's second selfie, this time of her fingertip.  ;-)

We stopped just west of Egypt, IN, but we backtracked a bit more than 10 miles due east to the only available campground in the area, Little Creek Campground ($32, power, water, showers).  It is an older private campground with mostly permanent residents, but everything seems to work and the bathrooms are almost clean enough.

We finally left the Eastern Time Zone earlier today.  It has been nine months since we were last in the Central Time Zone, and we'll likely be in it for the next three months or so.