Day 10

The God day. Well, all of them were God days, of course. but this one? It was pretty cool how everything and everyone was obviously put at the right place at the right time for this exact day.
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After our resting day, we started out feeling SO much better about getting on the bikes and heading north again. The sunburns had healed some, our sore muscles, brains, and everything else had had time to recover, my face wasn't swelled up anymore... We were headed to Saginaw.
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And then about 10 miles into the journey, Nevin's back tire went flat. Well, this wasn't in the plans. Okay! He set about patching the tube while I searched on my phone for a bike shop nearby. He got everything back together, blew up the tire... And it immediately deflated again. He needed a whole new tire and everything. Now what do we do? We're miles from town, not a bike shop in sight.
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After breakfast with our new friend, Weldon, on day 9, he had told us to let him know if we need any help between there and Duluth. So I texted him to see if he knows of any bike shops closer than the ones I had found online. Soon he called and talked to Nevin to see what we needed, and not long after that, he showed up! Our options for bike shops were to back track about 35 miles, or go on ahead to Duluth. It made the most sense to just go on ahead to Duluth, so we loaded everything up and headed out! He took us to a bike shop to get the new tires, and then offered to take us to the top of the big hill in town yet. We weren't going to turn down an offer like that!
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All told, I think we jumped ahead nearly 50 miles. And it didn't even feel like cheating since we couldn't help the tire situation. :) And it sure felt good to just ride in a vehicle for a bit! It was so amazing how everything worked out perfectly to put us in touch with Weldon the day before, and then not to have any bike trouble until the exact day when he was nearby to help us.
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Once we were dropped off, Nevin changed the tire while I sat in the shade, ate chips and taquitos, and made helpful comments from a distance. At that point it felt like the best day ever. Nevin had lunch, we climbed around on a train that was sitting there on display, and then got ready to head out.
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At this point, we were so far ahead that we decided to just go on past Saginaw and head to Virginia, MN. That was about 60ish miles from where we started in Duluth. It was going to make a long afternoon, but we knew we could make it!
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17 miles away from our destination, we stopped at a rest area for a little break. When we went to leave there, Nevin's back tire was flat. The new one. The new tire. Was flat. He took it off and tried to find the hole in the tube, but it was too small and he couldn't locate it. So he tried the old, patched tube to see if that would work. He only had enough air left to fill that one tube, so we were hoping and praying it would work! And it did!
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But then, when he went to put the tire back on, a piece had fallen off that was needed to keep the trailer on. And we couldn't find it. We searched through the grass for a good 10 minutes... praying to find it, asking Sharon to pray we find it, searching, searching, and suddenly there it was! Nevin got everything assembled once again and we headed for the next city as fast as we could.
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Surely we can make it there without any other trouble, right? Right?
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Nope.
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About 10 miles later, I started to feel like something was up with my bike. I kept riding for a little bit, then finally stopped to see what was up. The back tire was pretty low, so I texted Nevin & told him I would be coming a lot more slowly. A mile or three later, it was feeling worse, so I checked again and sure enough, completely flat! I guess I'll be walking!
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I walked along, listening to music, and trying to think of ways to enjoy the moment. Or at least to not let it get the best of me. Oh look- the sky is so pretty tonight! I can watch the sunset while I walk! Nevin hadn't noticed that I was not close behind him until he was out ahead pretty far, so he let me know where he was waiting, as his phone was nearly dead and we wouldn't have a way of getting hold of each other once that was gone. And on I walked. Gazing longingly at all the cars that went by. Chewing a few of them out for not stopping to help. Ha. And then I saw someone walking up the street toward me. Is it true? Has help really arrived? He asked if I was having trouble, and said that he was... Wait for it... A bike mechanic! And he lived nearby and had an extra tube at his house! I told him where Nevin was waiting, he loaded the bike into his car, we hopped in, and I said, "I'm Sarah."
"Spencer, nice to meet you."
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So Spencer took me to McDonald's where Nevin was, and asked if Nevin wanted help fixing the flat. We didn't have any more extra tubes along, so we said yes! He only lived a few blocks away, so he ran home to get a tube. Soon he came riding back on his own bike... And had the tire fixed and filled with air in no time!
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Who would have thought that out of all the many people flying past me, there would be a bike mechanic from Superior that was going to school in Virginia, and he would have what we needed to fix the bike and get us back on the road in short order? Once again, God knew all about it, and had everything planned out just right!
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And neither of our helpers would allow us to pay them for gas, time, parts, anything.
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What an amazing day. We were so very blessed!