- Mile
High Mishap (Denver, CO)
- Monday, May 17, 1999
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- Annette flew back to the Midwest to
work a few days with teachers in Illinois
and Indiana. Meantime after dropping her
off at the airport, Larry spent the time
working at the RV. One of Annette's last
concerns was to remove the bicycles that
were mounted onto the roof rack of our
toad (Explorer). She was worried that we
might forget and drive underneath a low
overhang like an airport parking lot.
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- So anyway, Larry was working, writing,
and catching up on business. Each day, one
of his 'breakout' activities was to spend
a few hours cleaning up the RV's exterior.
Road construction through Missouri and
Kansas had given 'Harvey' and the 'toad" a
spattered coating of road oil and asphalt
tar. A helpful campground neighbor
suggested that he purchase 'Goo Gone' for
removing the oil and tar.
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- A visit to a nearby WalMart had him
stocked up with both 'Goo Gone' and a
competitive product called 'De-Solv-It.'
Both products worked, the latter may have
been even faster and both have a pleasant
citrus smell. Thanks were due the helpful
camper. By spending a few hours each day,
the large job was completed. On one of
those days a passing female camper
quipped, "I believe I like this RV
lifestyle, the men finally get to do some
housecleaning. 'Bout time!" Grins. The
vehicles are looking better; even the
tires and wheels are shining.
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- Annette called from her hotel, another
small reminder, "Are those bicycles still
on the roof?" No problem, he'll take care
of it.
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- Wednesday, May 19th
- Another small chore was to connect two
printers (laser and inkjet) to Larry's
computer. We had been using a wireless
printing peripheral (had used it for about
a year in the Evansville home), but
combining this with a power supply and
interrupted electrical connections was not
working. All the variables were just too
much for the AC adapters units, so a
decision was made to switch to direct
printing and put in cables and a transfer
switch. So late afternoon Wednesday found
Larry making another trip to the nearest
Best Buy, located close to WalMart, via
the busy I-25, still with the bicycles
fastened to the roof. And after a brief
stop and purchases, Larry was heading
home, back up I-25, just at twilight.
Being a recently displaced Midwest
flatlander, he was still just getting used
to traffic whizzing by at 75 mph.
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- Just a few miles from the campground,
a glance into the rear-view mirror caught
sight of a bicycle spinning through the
air. Thoughts rushed through the mind,
traffic is heavy, egads (or something like
that) those bikes were expensive, somebody
could be hurt! Slamming on the brakes,
pulling onto the shoulder, snapping into
reverse, remembering to push on the
emergency flashers, backing up as fast as
possible, while searching the lanes (at
least four-wide northbound here) for
what's left . . . he's thinking at least
its my Gary Fisher, instead of Annette's
bike, what the hey! Glimpsing something,
stopping quickly, leave the lights on and
the engine running, check the lane, yes
it's the bike or part of it, it's clear -
- rush out and scoop up the bike, check
the lane again, on-coming traffic is
merging over, still whizzing by. Finally
off to the shoulder, trying to see if
there is anything worth salvaging, the
rear-tire is bent in every direction, a
few scratches but it's really too dark to
see the full extent of damages. Is the
frame ruined, what about the gears, has it
been run over, will it ride again? Then a
state police cruiser pulls up, lights
blinding, flashing, and asking if he can
help. Larry gave a hurried explanation
that the bike was just swept off the roof.
The jumbled response is followed by the
officer's rational concern that "your
vehicle is too close to traffic, you need
to move it over onto the shoulder." Larry
gives a dazed "thanks, I'll do that" and
pulls over as far as possible.
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- Okay, back to trying to determine the
damages. Can it be that the bicycle was
not run over, that it hit no one? Did the
rear wheel absorb most of the drop? Larry
crammed the mangled bike into the back of
the toad, checked that Annette's bike was
secure - - really secure. Adrenaline was
still pumping when Larry returned to the
campground, concern. It's time to take
Annette's bike off the rack! Better late
than never, right?
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- Too restless to sleep, Larry finished
connecting the computer to printers. When
sleep finally came, he dreamed of
cartwheeling bikes in the air.
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- May 20th
- The next morning, Larry loaded up the
damaged bike and headed out in search of a
repair shop. The "bike section" of the
phone book had been ripped out at the
campground pay phones. Don't problems run
in threes? Of course, there were no other
phone books in sight. A stop at a local
gas station produced a Denver phone book.
After a short drive to the city, Larry
arrived at a bike shop. The young clerk
exclaimed as he saw the mangled bike, "Wow
what did you do, wipe out on a 360?" LJ
grinned sheepishly, thinking this kid
believes he would even attempt some
maneuver like that? Reality sinks in as he
realized that the fellow was just
astonished at the pretzeled rear wheel.
Amazement came when up on the repair rack
the test for frame alignment and checks of
the derailleur and handle bars turned out
fine; could it be that other than a few
battle-scars the bike is OK? Okay, so the
wheel is destroyed, but astonished,
relieved, grateful . . . that's all!
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- Then back home (the campground), Larry
remembers that one of the bike repairmen
commented that he had never heard of a
bike coming off the rack like that. They
did share some other disaster tales, but
none with the famous Yakima brand. As he
is preparing the rig for departure (the
next day, we are heading to Estes Park),
Larry finds two pair of wheel straps that
he put safely in the console when he
assembled the rack (over a month ago, back
in Evansville). They have been sitting
there forgotten for over a thousand miles,
oops! So the Yakima reputation is not
tarnished. That leaves "pilot" error.
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- That afternoon, it's off
to the airport to pick up
Annette. Her flight is
sandwiched between the
President's Littleton arrival
and departure. Air Force One
is parked at a hanger. Oh
yeah, Annette, about the
bikes! Was it premonition?
Live and learn, the hard way,
but really . . . we're
thankful, it could have been
much worse. Let's take a
break; let's go to Star Wars
tonight. Wow, pod racers! Can
we get a pod racer rack for
the car?
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Created by Annette
Lamb and
Larry
Johnson,
1/99.
- Updated, 6/99.
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