When our package finally arrived in Scottsville, we discovered that they didn't ship my 34 tooth chainring, which is the one I am really desperate for - I only got the 50 tooth one. So I called Larry's Bicycles and Vacuums in Levittown, PA and they are supposed to send the small chainring to me in Collinswood, TN, where we also have replacement bank checks waiting for us. But here it is, the end of business on Friday, and I haven't received any notice that they had purchased the postage for shipping the other chainring, let alone a notice that the post office had picked it up. So unless they jet freight it to us, it is looking like we could be circling around Collinswood for days, waiting for the chainring to find its way to us. It is starting to look as though they don't have one in stock.
Alea had a fairly easy ride of 41 miles. The shoulder sort of came and went in Kentucky, but as soon as we hit Tennessee she had a wide shoulder and most of it had bike route signage. It was cloudy at first, then it started sprinkling off and on, then the last five miles was in a fairly steady rain. But she got off the road just a bit after noon.
We are camped at Bledsoe Creek State Park ($26.85, power, water and adjustable, air conditioned showers). We had wanted to reserve a campsite, but couldn't due to the uncertainty of when the chainrings would arrive, so we crossed our fingers and hoped that there would be a spot for us on a Friday night, and we lucked out (no doubt in large part due to the wet weather). If we had needed to stay at one of the big private campgrounds, they run $50-$65 per night!
We took Alea's bike about 20 west of here to a bike shop in Hendersonville. She had complained this morning about not being able to shift to and from her small chainring. I managed to get it to where, with some effort, it would work well enough for her ride today. She was wanting to keep riding for a few days with it the way it is, but I suspected it could be a shift cable that had become frayed. We'll be on the Natchez Trace in a couple of days, and the ability to find a decent bike shop would be a lot harder there. So it was best to deal with it as soon as possible. There is some sort of big event going on near here tomorrow, but we lucked out and found a bike shop that will try to get us back on the road early tomorrow morning. We are hoping that we can find enough time in between rain showers and picking up her bike to get to our next destination, which is a bit more than 40 miles south of here. That will set us up for getting clear of Nashville before the Monday commute.
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