W
wafflycat
Guest
There was me, driving back from Chalk Farm on the other side of Swaffham,
car full of plants, and I spy a cyclist on the A47 pushing a heavily laden
bike along, looking a bit, well, dejected. I happened to have a track pump
and a puncture repair kit in the car with me (as one does), so I pulled up a
bit in front of him, off the main carriageway, to enquire if he was in need
of assistance.
Turns out he was having a rest from cycling. No puncture, but a few
irritating things wrong with the bike. Strange accent - Canadian/Danish...
and basically this guy is working his way around the globe with his bike as
his transport & all worldly goods on it.
So it being Easter Monday, no bike shops for a long way - so I gave him the
address of Chateau Unfit Family and said that if he was heading in that
direction (he was) to call in and we'd see if we could help out with his
bike as Vernon has a garage full of bits and today he was doing bike
maintenance.
Anyhow - I'm back at Chateau Unfit Family (potting plants while Vernon does
the bike maintenance) and a while later, a globe-trotting Danish/Canadian
cyclist shows up.
His steed is an ancient German thing that has seen better days, as has his
luggage, containing his worldly possessions, as he tours around like this,
looking for work in various parts of the world.
Anyhow, we provide tea, cake and Vernon cleans his bike for him, does a bit
of maintenance work on the mudguard, headset & drum brakes - cleans the bike
too. We supply him with spares of Useful Stuff such as batteries, cable
ties, LED headtorch, rear LED, reflective stuff, bottle carrier for waist
belt, detailed maps of the area. Vernon is given a rather nice Leatherman
multi-tool as a thank you, and I'm given a stopwatch. We didn't want to
accept but did not want to offend.
He's now headed off in the direction of Fakenham, with Nathan going part of
the way to show him the route up the back roads, to avoid the busy roads.
It was a thoroughly interesting afternoon. Seeing a cyclist looking as if he
was struggling along the mad A47, I had to stop, as I would not want to be
in that position myself, and be stranded on a day when there's not that many
places open and in a strange place. As it turns out, Vernon & I had an
interesting afternoon chatting with a cycling stranger.
Cheers, helen s
--
~~
you may need to remove dependence
on fame & fortune from organisation
to get correct email address
~Noodliness is Good~
car full of plants, and I spy a cyclist on the A47 pushing a heavily laden
bike along, looking a bit, well, dejected. I happened to have a track pump
and a puncture repair kit in the car with me (as one does), so I pulled up a
bit in front of him, off the main carriageway, to enquire if he was in need
of assistance.
Turns out he was having a rest from cycling. No puncture, but a few
irritating things wrong with the bike. Strange accent - Canadian/Danish...
and basically this guy is working his way around the globe with his bike as
his transport & all worldly goods on it.
So it being Easter Monday, no bike shops for a long way - so I gave him the
address of Chateau Unfit Family and said that if he was heading in that
direction (he was) to call in and we'd see if we could help out with his
bike as Vernon has a garage full of bits and today he was doing bike
maintenance.
Anyhow - I'm back at Chateau Unfit Family (potting plants while Vernon does
the bike maintenance) and a while later, a globe-trotting Danish/Canadian
cyclist shows up.
His steed is an ancient German thing that has seen better days, as has his
luggage, containing his worldly possessions, as he tours around like this,
looking for work in various parts of the world.
Anyhow, we provide tea, cake and Vernon cleans his bike for him, does a bit
of maintenance work on the mudguard, headset & drum brakes - cleans the bike
too. We supply him with spares of Useful Stuff such as batteries, cable
ties, LED headtorch, rear LED, reflective stuff, bottle carrier for waist
belt, detailed maps of the area. Vernon is given a rather nice Leatherman
multi-tool as a thank you, and I'm given a stopwatch. We didn't want to
accept but did not want to offend.
He's now headed off in the direction of Fakenham, with Nathan going part of
the way to show him the route up the back roads, to avoid the busy roads.
It was a thoroughly interesting afternoon. Seeing a cyclist looking as if he
was struggling along the mad A47, I had to stop, as I would not want to be
in that position myself, and be stranded on a day when there's not that many
places open and in a strange place. As it turns out, Vernon & I had an
interesting afternoon chatting with a cycling stranger.
Cheers, helen s
--
~~
you may need to remove dependence
on fame & fortune from organisation
to get correct email address
~Noodliness is Good~