Ralph to the Rescue!

There's no bike shop in Wickenburg, as I've posted before. So when I've needed a bolt here, a tube there, I've pedaled "Out Wickenburg Way" (US Hwy. 60) and found answers to my questions at Stewart's Hardware -- and thank goodness for them!

This afternoon I had to reconnect the bracket on my luggage rack to the rear fork. The "boss" had sheared off, I'd lost the allen bolt, and there was a hole in the frame.

What to do?

Enter Ralph: resident inventor, entrepreneur, savior from Stewart's. He found a molly bolt in the store, popped it into the hole where the boss had been, tightened 'er up, charged me about two bucks for the repair, and off I pedaled.

"If it doesn't hold,"promises Ralph, "bring the bike back. We'll put some epoxy in the next time. You'll never have a problem after that."

This jerry-rig experience made me imagine I was on a round-the-world tour and had found my way into a "taller" in some far-off country. Ralph and I communicated via pidgin English and hand signals (in the fantasy) and solved the problem. And off I head into the sunset.

I never took the long bike tour I'd dreamed of, but for a moment this afternoon, with Ralph to the rescue, that trip was happening in my mind.