Day 14 Brownsville-Dyersburg ...another interesting day!

Well after an incredibly good night's sleep we woke promptly at 5am, and were on the road sweating by 6am. A GREAT start... The road to Ripley was deja vu back to Alabama, as it was SOLID hills the entire way. However, they really weren't a problem, and we were kickin' right along. Andy had stopped at the library in Ripley, but April and I stopped for a gatorade and then continued on to highway 51 and on towards Dyersburg. Imagine our surprise when Andy called and told us he was IN Dyersburg while we were still 12 miles out! He must have passed us when we stopped for coffee about 9am...

Anyway, I had no sooner hung up with Andy and confidently crested a biggish hill when my phone rang again. This time it was April, whom I had assumed was right behind me, and she breathlessly said "I think I broke it..." and the phone went dead! This scared the daylights out of me, and I immediately called her back. She eventually answered and told me she thought she had broken her chain... whew! I turned around, road back down the hill and there she was, engaged in a comical dance with her bike and trailer.

However, my humor quickly evaporated when I saw the extent of her trouble. Apparently while she was down shifting, her derailleur had gone into the spokes of her rear wheel, and nearly thrown her off the bike! One spoke was entangled in the derailleur itself, and others were a bit worse for wear. We unhooked the bob (trailer), and inverted the bike to work on it. However, after freeing the derailleur, and bending it out of the wheel it became apparent that her bike was in no shape to tow the trailer and was infact barely rideable.

After enough 411 calls to necesitate a second mortgage, I finally found a taxi company that hadn't gone bankrupt in Dyersburg. We made arrangements to have April, her bike, and trailer picked up and deposited at the public library, and I would ride the rest of the remaining 12 miles into town. After the taxi left, I called Andy and had him find a bicycle shop... but the nearest shop is in Jackson, 40 miles from Dyersburg. Hmmmm. So I had Andy find us a rental car place, and tomorrow we go to Jackson to get a new derailleur and a wheel tru-ing for April's ride. We need to physically bring the bike, otherwise Andy would ride in for the parts.

I'm writing from the Dyersburg public library, and once again the librarians have been a god-send! Helping us with maps, phone numbers, and encouragement. A big thank you to the Dyersburg librarians!!

Stay tuned for an update as soon as we sort this out...