Just Passing Through

Wesley and his Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross bike.

 On Monday when I arrived at work at Andy's Bike Shop I was running the show alone for the morning hours. It was a good thing that I have had almost 45 years of working with customers at a retail level under my belt because things started off with a bang. The phone was going nuts and I had multiple people on the sales floor several times throughout the morning. One of the calls I fielded was a bit unusual. 

The caller was obviously outside, judging by the wind noise I could discern during our conversation. It turned out I was correct because the caller was on the road near Denver, Iowa on a self-supported bicycle tour. He needed assistance with a poorly behaving rear derailleur and a wheel that was wiggly. I gave him the thumbs up to make an appearance at the shop whenever he could get there that afternoon. 

Eventually, after a couple of hiccups finding the place, a young man with an orange bicycle, laden with baggage, and sporting an American flag slid in through the front door. His name was Wesley, and he had a Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross, just like mine! Right down to the same size and everything. Pretty amazing right there. Wesley marveled at the fact that I had an identical frame and fork to his and then I got the heavily laden rig up into the stand to have a look. 

We got him sorted- a loose rear cable and a broken spoke turned out to be his issues with the bike, and then we had time to chat a bit. Andy had showed up by this time, and Wesley got our photograph for his You Tube video channel documenting his journey. Eventually he is to hook up with a companion traveler and together they are going to go to California via bicycle. Wesley thought the trip should consume about two months time. 

I told Wesley that if we were part of his story, he had to be part of mine, so he graciously posed for a photograph, and well, here is the story. I was pretty interested in his situation, having done a similar trip by bicycle twice in my life, (See "The Touring Series" link below the header above for those stories), but nothing cross country to California. That is a big adventure! I wish Wesley and his companion well! Hopefully they have some awesome, life altering-in-a-good-way type experiences along their way.