Day 8 May 19th

Christiansburg to Radford 13 miles
Bad day. It started out good at Colin’s with breakfast and goodbyes. I made it to the bike shop in Radford where I had to get my wheel fixed from my fall and that took over an hour. But I made it back on the road before too long. After I left the town the bike was getting a little bumpy but I thought it was because of the poor road condition but my back tire was slowly deflating. I tried to fix it with the other patch Colin had given me but I found that there were three holes and there wasn’t anything I could do on the road. So I decided I had to make the 5 mile walk back to Radford to get the tire fixed. I decided to get a new rear wheel since people were telling me that this one probably wasn’t strong enough to carry the extra weight. But this was a problem because my gears aren’t compatible with most wheels used in the US. Dave, the mechanic, figured out a way for him to fix it but it would cost $100 and the gears weren’t going to work as well. But I was confident that the new tire would be able to get to me through the entire trip.
By now its 6 pm so I called the Lee family who I was planning on staying with last night but never made it. They said it would be fine with them if I stayed the night and even offered to pick me up from the bike shop. Thad Lee is a doctor specializing in geriatrics and Sarah is a nurse who teaches at Radford University while also getting her PhD. I had raviolis waiting for me when I got in and my second shower in two days after dinner. I spent most of the night talking with them and got to spend the night in their guest bedroom. Today is my brother Greg’s birthday and it was good to talk to him on the phone while I was at the bike shop. I also ran into Mike and Dan at the bike shop. They were going to be staying in town until Thursday because Mike’s sister lives close by. So we wished each other luck and said goodbye.