Day 44--Another SAG Day, this time mechanical

Syracuse to Little Falls, NY

Again, no statistics. A short day due to gear trouble. As we climb an incline right out of the hotel, I started with slipping gears, not able to move to other gears without slipping back to the gear I was moving from. Rick had worked on the gears a few times now. Not seeing one of the SAG wagons, I rode some 20 miles with 2 gears. I finally saw Mack (one of our smiling, helpful, friendly SAG support people). I stopped and asked if he could mention my dilemma to Tracy, who had helped fix the gears one other time.

When Tracy found me, I pulled over and the other riders kept on. One we determined that we really couldn't fix it, we put the bike on the truck, and I rode with Tracy and helped out where I could. That included putting luggage in the rooms at the end of the day. Tracy was fighting some serious back problems, and Rick, who had been riding, came back to meet us and take over the truck while we dropped off Tracy with Maggie, who took Tracy to the hospital.

It was subsequently determined that Tracy had cracked a couple of vertebra. She toughed it out the rest of the week, had surgery when she got back home, and as I understand things she is back up and out, including riding.

When we got to the hotel, after cleaning up, I wandered down to McD's for lunch, and then across the street for laundry. My last tug of war with the laundry bit, as there were only 3 more riding days to go. In the meantime, Rick checked the bike out and got it working fine.

When Hank and Champ got in and freshened up, we took a walk, got some ice cream, and visited one of the world's largests canal locks located in Little Falls on the Erie Canal. We didn't take too much time because, afterall, we did need to get back for dinner. See ya..........