2021 mileage: 3030.1
I had not been able to ride since Saturday. Sunday I had planned to clean my chain, but was unable to get it done due to mechanical issues, and then yesterday i was stil out of luck, so I rode on our stationary bike inside.
Today I figured I'd take one more crack at the chain, being well rested and with good weather and good lighting (midday) -- and to my surprise, it worked! So I should be good on that issue for the next few weeks.
However, the ride itself presented a challenge. Just less than a mile into it, shortly after I had turned from the sidewalk parallel to Lohr Rd. to the right, onto the one that parallels Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. and leads onto the bridge up and over I-94 ... my chain came off in front and got into a tangled mess around the crank. God knew I needed assistance, and He graciously provided it. As I knelt beside the trike, which I had turned over on its side, and was trying my best to make sense of the mess, a pickup pulled up beside me, and a man called out his window, "You need help?" I turned my palms up and shrugged, and must have looked pretty helpless, because he pulled his truck ahead and then came back to assist me.
He certainly looked every bit the stereotypically mechanically adept person (rather than, say, a fellow academician 😎)—he looked to be about thirtyish, and was dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt with boots, and was smoking a cigarette. He knelt down beside me, and after I showed him my card, he knew better than to question me, so he began to work on it, talking to himself. "Oh, I see ... the chain's all wound around the crank ... well, this goes under here, and if we spin the rear wheel to gain a little slack, and feed it through here ..." Inside of 5 minutes, he had me all straightened out and then gave me a hearty handshake and a one-armed hug, and then insisted on pushing to help me get started up that sizable hill for the bridge over I-94.
The rest of the ride was uneventful, and I completed the Packard/Platt Square (13.7 miles) in 1:32 ... except that after the chain problem, I forgot to restart MapMyRide for just over a quarter mile, so it measured me slightly short.
At the end of the ride, I was also blessed by seeing my friend Doug Franklin, coming south on the Lohr/Textile Greenway back toward his home in Saline, as I was heading north toward my home.
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