What a wacky day. I called Bosch at 6 AM and had a good conversation about next steps to troubleshoot my bike and find qualified technician. I had a few special phone conversations this AM, decided to go to Colorado Springs for Trek dealers, and got my ticket. Last night I checked my route from hotel to bus depot, 11 minute by bike. I gave myself 30. Before I left the hotel, I checked the route by address: 32 minutes. Wait, what? I flew, but missed the bus and took a screenshot of the guidance, with right address and wrong address both on it! Instead of taking me to the bus station on 123 Court St, It routed me to the air museum on 123 Bell St.! Of ALL days, I couldn’t get my earbuds to connect so I couldn’t understand the friend who called to tell me I was heading the wrong direction. So I started riding back and saw a sheriff pulled over for lunch, and stopped to ask if he knew of any other transportation to Colorado Springs w/ bike. He didn’t but couldn’t believe where Maps sent me and didn’t want me crossing the highway, so he offered to throw my bike in the back of his pick up and drive me to the 🚂 station to check there. He pulled his favorite flavor Gatorade out of a cooler and wished me well. That visit and experience were great. So only one daily bus. I decided to go back to yesterday‘s bike shop where their supposed eBike expert was going to be in today. That was a terrible experience and cost my entire afternoon. So I rode 11 miles to the other certified Bosch shop in town, and that’s where I met Brandon, an hour before closing. He gave me a chair and a water, told me to breathe, and got straight onto the phone with Bosch. He worked so well and did some extra important things on my bike including adding a fiber sealant to my tubes, then filled them. You could actually hear air escaping from the front tire, then when he spun it, it stopped! I was that close to dealing with a flat tire tonight or tomorrow. Let me tell you about Brandon. I noticed a tiny cross tattooed beneath the outside of his left eye. I told him I liked it and he said it’s because he was hit by an 18 wheeler when he was 15. It took him two years to be able to walk and talk again. There is much more to that story and to his life since, but he’s been through almost 50 surgeries, with nearly as many metal parts in his body including a plate in his brain. He has incredibly mature perspectives for someone 38 years old. Every night his brain sort of wipes, and he starts over the next day. He gets to work 30 minutes early and his boss will have left him a voice message of what to do that day, then he reviews his technical notes from school. His wife will leave him reminder notes of bills or things he has going that next day. His life is such a miracle and he looks at the bright side of all of it, and treats every person as really special. It was overcast and sun was heading down before I could make it to camp. Kathy called to check on me and suggested I ride to Cañon City for a motel then work at catching up tomorrow. When I got off the phone, Brandon said he lives in Cañon City and would be happy to see if my bike would fit in his car if we removed the front tire. It did, and he drove me to the restaurant where the group was having dinner near the campground. We put the tire & panniers back on, a sweet prayer time and hugs, and he walked my bike up to the restaurant. Then today made sense. I love you, Terri