I’ve been having increased trouble with shifting on this trip, and an amazing mechanic named Janet, who has worked on bikes for 16 years, took a deeper look and it fixed it. There was rust on the end from all my riding in the rain, and I didn’t focus well in my pic but a hole wore all the way through the casing and into the shifting cable from a rivet on my back rear pannier. I also needed my front wheel trued again from all the potholes I’ve hit.😁 But here’s the tuffy. My bike has not been quite the same since replacing the assist level control. It started with a periodic hesitation the day I got it back, it became more and more threatening when I shift gears or assist modes, and now feels like it’s starting to shut down and going to quit on me at any time like before. It’s like how you know the feel of your own car. A loose wire connecting assist to power?? I don’t know, and don’t want to find out when I’m out in the boonies somewhere without a shop that can run diagnostics on a Bosch motor and have experience with this bike. We ran diagnostics today at a bike shop in Pueblo, but it didn’t show any error codes and the specialist was not in. Again, they need to be working with a Bosch tech over the phone as well. So my team will leave tomorrow at 6 AM, and I will be waiting for another shop to open at 9. If I’m not confident in the technician, I’ll hop on a bus 50 miles north to Colorado Springs, then figure it out from there. I am disappointed because I wanted to tour a monastery tomorrow that has a really beautiful garden walk, been looking forward to it for 8 weeks. But my priority is finding the right person to seriously listen to me about my bike and troubleshoot well. We’ve got the Rockies coming up, it needs to be reliable. So I’m a little grumpy tonight, well, definitely grumpy. Good thing I have a room to myself.🫢 It shows me that no matter how hard I worked to prepare, circumstances are beyond my control. I can control my responses, use my head, and enjoy the adventure, or not. Period. So I’m trying. My sore throat doesn’t help, but ear ache is getting better. Today’s ride was much harder on all of us than yesterday’s long one! Maybe because yesterday was so long then we were up at 5 to leave by 6. Maybe because of the rain and cold all day. At any rate, I learned a new trick. I still need to wear my neck gator or my sinuses & throat burn from the cold air. The rain was so constant it was completely soaked, and since it’s thin it was blowing into my mouth, so I could just suck in and drink fresh rain water anytime I got thirsty, 😂 ~ it worked! Oh, the train picture was cool because the whole thing was coal and it just went on and on! Quick laundry in the sink tonight, and that sidewalk snuck up on me, I was looking up for the place we’re staying! Love, Terri