Late last night as we were giving the bikes a light cleaning, Johnny D discovered El Rojo had another broken spoke (2 in the last 10 days) in the rear wheel and the wheel was no longer true. With the help of some other bike guys at the hotel, we pulled the wheel, cassette, tire, etc., and did an emergency spoke replacement and wheel job.
Much later in the evening, after much thought and reflection, even with the new spoke, we decided that El Rojo’s wheel issues were too severe for us to ride 5 days through remote areas to get to a bike shop. If the wheel failed in the middle of nowhere, we really would be in a precarious situation… So, this morning we hired a man with a pickup truck to drive us, bikes and gear to Jackson Hole, WY- the closest quality bike shop. El Rojo is getting a brand new rear wheel and Ernie is getting a new rear tire.
We checked in to our hotel in Jackson Hole around 1:00, dropped off our bikes at the bike shop, had recommendations for dinner and were sipping margaritas before 2:00!
We are very grateful this potentially catastrophic situation turned out so well.
Now the new route planning starts in earnest…
Our ride to Jackson Hole:
Dave Bikes America 
Good to see that you didn’t push ahead after a hotel wheel job, the younger Buck Steele would have done that. It was probably fun and good practice repairing El Rojo. To me, it was just another slight delay but well worth it (you needed the extra rest and margaritas).
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Glad to hear you took a rest day. Your dad thought you were graced with a good samaritan. I won’t dash his beliefs. But so did my mom. Mom had some bad and good news. Bad news: wedged compressed fracture at T-9, T-10., no idea how it happened. Age, osteoporosis, twisting, lifting something. Good news: now she has a concrete reason for the pain. No longer a phantom hurt. PT to teach her what not to do for the next 3 to 6 months while she heals. So no more housework. Just need to convince your dad, that he can’t pick up the burden. Not like they both can’t afford a housekeeper. Just need to convince him!!! You both ride safe. Your in our prayers.
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