May 18, 2003 The bike had its day today. We broke a spoke at some point, and had to solicit some long distance advice to get it fixed. We couldn’t get the adapter that holds the disc brake rotor to come off of the hub, so that we could rethread the spoke. Finally, with some help from Bill Schum of our local bike shop, and Phillip (He put the rotor on the bike) of College Park Cycles in Maryland, we were able to figure out what to do. However, by this time we had lost so much time that we could not finish our day. LaValle and I are doing fine. We seem to be able to handle the mileage, and are recovering properly. We are sure eating a lot of food! Today was a lot like the ending of yesterday. As we left the motel in Harper’s Ferry, it was raining pretty hard, and this continued through the day. It was also cold – 48 degrees most of the day. Our plan today was to ride from Harper’s Ferry to Cumberland, MD – 100 miles. With the spoke problem, we didn’t feel that we had time to get there, so we cut off the ride in Hancock, MD – a town adjacent to the C&O Canal. Riding from the confluence of the Shenendoah and Potomac Rivers to this historic waterway was a thrill in itself. The roads today were not as nice as yesterday. The traffic was pretty heavy until we changed our route as result of advice from a local, and ended up paralleling the Potomac River on a lightly traveled road. The quality of the roads continues in the good – excellent range. The scenery today was obscured by the rain and fog, but what we did see was lovely. Our stats today are not that impressive, but what the heck: We rode 53 miles, gained 3030 feet and averaged 13.5 mph. Our saddle time was 3:55. Ron