August 23
My Adventure Cycling route took to through Indianapolis, but to get to Sheila and Tom's place west of there, I used RideWithGPS to get a route to load into my Garmin. It turned out to be a fairly pleasing ride, through scenic and upscale Zionsville and along the edge of Eagle Creek Park to get me to Avon . I stopped for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Avon and was approached by another diner who started off with "You're living my dream". He was a local rider with hopes of touring someday. When I told him my derailleur cable was failing, he told me I was in a great area for bike shops, and named some shops that could take care of it. After lunch I went up to Sheila's. After a warm welcome, a first round of conversation and a shower, I got a lift from Sheila to a nearby bike shop, which had said on the phone they could do a repair. I am carrying a spare cable and I've done this repair before in my home shop, but getting a shop to do it seemed lower risk than doing the repair myself. Round 2 of conversation occurred while the repairs proceeded. I now have a new shifter cable, very capably installed by Jeff of Gear Up Cycles. I requested a check for chain stretch. It revealed end of life for that chain; Jeff installed a new one and a new cassette.
I wonder if the sand riding and/or rain riding had prematurely worn the chain, which I had replaced "only" about 2000 miles previous. Special immediate-service shop treatment for touring cyclists was very helpful here, and later in the tour too.