Day 28: Mom to the Rescue!

Good evening! As far as riding, day 28 was a success. But as far as everything going well with all of our equipment, that’s another story. About nine miles into the route Dad heard a loud bang in the scooter; the drive belt had broken. Since the belt controls the transmission that means the scooter won’t move an inch further. Unfortunately the parts for the scooter are special orders done so at a scooter dealer that carries the specific model. Seeing as though we are traveling and very rarely we pass through big cities, the scooter is now undriveable. I feel so bad for Dad because he was so excited to say he drove a scooter all the way across the country, being able to do every mile with me. 😦

Not a happy camper 😦

With Mom to the resuce, we loaded up the scooter in the trailer and Dad rode with Mom the rest of the day. Even with another blow to our momentum, the three of us knew we had to continue on with today’s ride, which meant I would be riding solo. It was definitely a hard decision as far as safety, but luckily the roads had very low traffic.

Today was the first time I’ve ridden by myself on main roads in years, and I’m happy to say everything went fine. Mom and Dad drove ahead ten miles at a time and waited for me to pass, handing me water a couple of times, and Mom even pulled over halfway through so we could have a quick-lunch. It was definitely sad not having Dad to talk to the whole time during the ride, especially when there was something that looked amazing or cool! On the positive side, Mom was able to have Dad be with her, she got to see awesome mountains, landscapes, and all the other cool things Dad and I get to see on Route 66!

Along the route we went by another town that had a few Cars-themed vehicles!

From the beginning of the ride we started descending in elevation, which added up to over 2,000 feet. It was a great relief as far as climbing, but the lower we go the hotter it gets. By the time I finished today it was 108 degrees, which dry heat feels so odd compared to Florida’s humidity!

We did have to stop for about an hour on the ride to wait out a storm, so having Mom with the rv was a huge relief! Staying dry I headed out again, descending through an amazing area of rock formations and ridges that reminded me of driving through the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon. 🙂 During the last section of today’s ride the route soared over a low valley where I could see multiple dust tornadoes on the valley floor! Having never seen a tornado, watching them glide over the desolate land was pretty crazy. The three of us made it to tonight’s campground safe and sound, ready to set up camp and relax. Even though it was a long day, I was able to average 19mph over our 95 mile route!

On a happy note, at last night’s campground I met a girl who is also riding her bicycle through parts of the USA! Minsook is from Korea and traveled here to ride on the west coast as well as a section from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas. We all had a fun picnic pizza dinner beside our rv learning a lot about each other’s lives. Last night we had an amazing view of the stars because we were in the middle of nowhere, so good that we all saw four shooting stars and the space station go by! I’ve never seen so many stars in my life!

Minsook was traveling to the same town we were today so we planned for her to meet us at our campground and stay with us for the night. We all had a delicious dinner at Carl’s Jr (which I’ve been craving since I had it in Oregon five years ago), that was luckily right beside our campground. Since we have a spare bunk, we are having a house guest for the night! 🙂 It’s been so great meeting people from all over the world, especially a fellow female cyclist!

As for tomorrow, we’re going to take another day to try to figure out what our plans are now that the scooter is undrivable. Cross your fingers we figure up a good plan! 🙂 Thanks for following and for all your support!