Day 120: September 29: In Republic, WA

As I was getting out of town, I parked my bike at the grocery store and broke the kickstand. I didn't really want to try to use the bike with no kickstand (I've tried this before, and it's a lot harder), so I decided to try to fix it. I asked around town and found out that there was a guy who had a bike shop that was open by appointment after he got home from working at the school, about 3:30 PM. So if I wanted to get a kickstand from him, I'd have to forget about riding today.

My knees were still swelled up, so I decided to take the day off and fix the stand as well. So I hung around the city park playing my guitar and harmonica, and reading the book Erewhon by Samuel Butler.

I even got a haircut from Les the Barber, who is also one of the bike people in town. Finally, I got the kickstand and put it on, had dinner, and rode back the way I'd come to the hostel. I wish I'd stopped at the hostel last night, as it's only $11 instead of $40, and is run by some nice people who moved here from Santa Cruz, but now I get to go back up the hill to Republic tomorrow morning.

Oh well...