Day 58: Broken Brakes

August 2, 2022 in Lewiston, Idaho

I started my day this morning pretty tired. You'd think that's how I'd start every morning on a cross country bicycling trip, but some days are much easier than others.

We had an awesome breakfast from the host––chia seed pudding with dried cranberries, coconut, and nuts. I didn't think I'd like the consistency of the pudding, but it ended up being quite delicious.

I was assigned sweep today with Lorelei, so we set out at a relaxed pace very last.

Not even a single mile into the ride, as we rolled up to a stop sign, I tried to brake and nothing happened! Luckily, my front brake was working just fine, so I was able to stop just before the sign, but it was still alarming.

We flipped my bike over to try to get to the bottom of the problem, but all the normal fizes weren't working. The van was driving by, so our new van driver Justin gave it a shot. After lots of puzzling and adjusting, the brakes were working well enough to continue.

We continued on our merry way, and the route was immediately quite uphill. In fact, it was completely uphill, and pretty steep. I was not in the mood for that, but we chugged on and I did my best to triumph over my own brain.

After about 5 miles of uphill, we turned on to a road that looked like it was carved into the side of a mountain, probably because it was. It was up extremely high, was completely gravel, and had no guardrails to be heard of. It was honestly unbelievably terrifying.

Despite my racing heartbeat and hyperventilation, the view was truly gorgeous, and it was definitely one of the more memorable roads of the trip. Nevertheless, I was very, very glad to see the gravel turn back into pavement.

The pavement road turned away from the 8 mile climb, but still had rolling hills. On one of the downhills, though, my brakes went completely out again, and it was much scarier than the first time.

Since it had happened twice in one day and no one could figure out why, we deemed my bike out of commission until it could be taken into a bike store.

I spent the remainder of the ride in the van and truck because my bike had broken, and enjoyed some gummy sharks and a lovely lunch of leftovers from the previous host.

Even though it's always disappointing to be off the road, the morning had been so difficult the break was welcomed.

Once we got back to the host, I set up my stuff in a corner with a gym mat to sleep on and went into town to the local bike store. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have the supplies to fix my broken shoes nor my broken bike, so I planned to take the truck to the next host to be first in line at the bigger bike shops in Walla Walla.

After a host-provided dinner of egg casserole, I got in bed and watched New Girl (with Jonathan watching the same episode at the same time) and went to sleep early.