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I had every intention of leaving town today, I swear. I ran some errands in the morning: a trip to the outfitter to get a new water bladder (to replace the one that burst the other day), a trip to the bike shop to ask a question, and a stop at the grocery store to resupply and get lunch.

As I ate lunch, I spun my pedals, wondering how long they’d last. I did not like how one of them felt and decided I needed to do something about it to avoid being left stranded. I started dialing home to ask my mom to ship out a spare set to a town ahead. I stopped, though, because something told me the pedal wouldn’t hold out that long. So after lunch, I headed back to the bike shop to drop another hundred dollars on pedals (the expensive ones were my only option).

It must have been meant to be because I met three divide riders at the bike shop! If you haven’t picked it up from my more recent entries, I’ve been having a more difficult time with the mental game recently. This was just the medicine I needed. The new wheels are Josh, Jenny, and Tre; I hope you’ll hear their names more in coming entries. Josh, Jenny, and I are splitting a room tonight while Tre is out stealth camping somewhere.After leaving the bike shop, I received an email from Swinde, who’d been in the back of the bike shop when I picked up my pedals. We swapped stories over dinner; Swinde is from Germany and started riding her bike from the southern tip of Argentina 20 months ago!! She’s headed towards Banff to work for the winter before continuing to Alaska. Guess what. Swinde rides unicycles, too!! You can check out her blog here: http://www.swinde.de