Transamerica Travelers

So, today was an interesting day at the shop. We were fairly steady - ok, a teeny bit crazy at times. It's funny how that works...everything hits at once. Not only that, but it'll be, say, 6 mechanical issues will come in the door in a 5 minute span. Well, I can't do a ton with those right at this point. I can pretend I'm gonna help by asking what's going on with the bike/equipment...and then I whip out the service form and ask them to fill in their name/address info. "if you have a few minutes, I'd like for you to speak with our service fella, since he'll be doing the work on your bike. He'll want to ask you some questions..." I'm getting really good at those kinds of lines. ha ha

Bill sent one of his firefighter buddies, Dan, in the shop today. It's always fun seeing people you know and trying to help them out. I was actually able to help him, 'cause he was looking at shorts and saddles - those I know. Oh yes, and Bill asked him to pick up a shock pump too - and have me pay for it. Real nice, BILL! :-)
I'm only kidding, he'll pay me back. A bit after that, Dave came in the shop. For some reason I'm thinking I've blogged about Dave before, but it's been a long while ago if I did. Hmmmm...I need to think about this. I can't remember, but if I do - I'll add it in later. So, it was good catching up a bit with Dave. He was having some trouble with his mountain bike and has had it in the shop before. Hopefully Mark will be able to fix him up too.

Here's where things got interesting - these two folks (I later came to know as Mike and Candace) pulled up on a tandem bike. Their bike was loaded down with gear and you could tell they'd been riding a while. They had called the shop earlier to get directions from South of the river, and to inquire about us shipping their bike back home. As it turns out - poor things had ridden through some pretty unpleasant areas to get to us! So, when they came in the shop, I was asking their story...what have they been doing? As it turns out, they are from Georgia and have been riding their bike (Miss America) across the U.S. They started in Oregon on August 11, and made it to Missouri! The journey is ending today, as they've run out of money and have lost the "fun" in the ride. They shared their blog, Transamericaroute, with me, and I certainly hope they won't mind me including it here - I read through most of it tonight and it was pretty neat to see how their trek unfolded and all the folks that helped them along the way. Oh yes, and I became one of those people...they were asking about a nearby WalMart so they could get a couple storage tubs to "check" on the plane home. They were going to see if the hotel shuttle would pick them up at the bike shop, but it seemed a bit of a stretch that the shuttle would drop them by WalMart and wait for them to shop, right? So, Bob (one of my buddies at Epic) says, "shoot...I'll just drive you up to WalMart" about the same time I'm getting ready to say that. We decide that it makes more sense for me to take them, since Bob can do a bit more stuff up at the shop. So, we load up their gear and head up the road to WalMart. We didn't have a ton of time to chat, but they both seemed very nice and very ready to get home. Once they purchased the tubs, I drove them up the road a bit further to their hotel near the airport. Funny - on the way over there we had talked about meals, etc. I asked if there was anything they were completely sick of eating - Candace says, "not really that...I just miss things like Cracker Barrel...." Well, wouldn't you know - we pull up to their hotel and there is a Cracker Barrel literally IN THE PARKING LOT of the hotel. We couldn't believe it! I helped them with their things and gave them my # in case they had any trouble later tonight. I hope Mike and Candace have a safe trip home and Miss America also arrives safetly!




Perhaps one day down the road they'll get to complete a Transamerica journey!