Day #1...continued...

I left you with a bike that wasn’t working in East Saguaro National Park.  When we got back, Chris dropped us off at the hotel so we could shower before going out for supper, and then dropped my bike off at the shop.  Darryl was back after a ride out at East Saguaro, followed by a run.  That man will be a triathlete yet.  ;)  Once I was ready, we went down and met Chris, Rhonda and Naomi to meet Jacquie at El Charro.  If you are in Tucson, go, by the way.  Fantastic food.

“What did they say about my bike?”

“Doesn’t look good...”

Ugh.  I walked into the shop (well, almost ran, actually), and mentioned that they were looking at my bike in the back and I needed to talk to them.

“Go right in.”

“Well, we’ll have to replace the chain.”

“If it’s only the chain, that’s fantastic,” I chirped as I rounded the corner to a couple of blank stares.  “Hi.  That’s my bike.”

They explained that one of the links was about to explode, they suspected as a result of an unusually short chain stay.  They got “lucky” when they stopped spinning the chain, and happened to stop it exactly where they could see the breaking link.  They were not even remotely surprised that it hadn’t been noticed at the shop.  They told me they would fix it that night and I could pick it up at nine the next morning.  Perfect.  Mt. Lemmon ride was scheduled to leave at 10:30.

As a bit of an aside, I don’t believe there was any luck here at all.  I could have chosen to not ride East Saguaro that day.  The chain could have held out for one more ride.  They could have completely missed the faulty link by stopping it at any other point.  I would not have ridden Mt. Lemmon the following day.  Nope.  I don’t think there was luck at all.  It was simply meant to be.  Don’t know exactly why, but I think God wanted me to ride.  Or maybe He just knew how much I wanted to climb it again and figured He’d show me He’s in charge.  Again.  :)

Other parts of day #1:  Delicious supper.  Great talk by Lincoln on Cat and Dog Theology.  Meeting the Whitmore-Cardenas twins, who are absolutely adorable, by the way.  A little visiting.  Bed.

The twins.  Aren't they the cutest?
(I stole this pic, too - thanks Susie!)