Several hours later at about 18:00 while watching TV with Steve my phone rings.
It Hong Yu! :clap
Well the young fellow is just having a hell of a day.
He is stranded with two flat tires about 25 miles south of us. It's dark and cold (now about 35 degrees) and a local sheriff's officer is on the scene keeping him warm and safe for now. Hong asks if I have an inner tube he can use and I say we can help him. The officer tells me exactly where he is.
Steve has over heared this conversation and says he's going to get a shower and go with me. That's a real good thing because it's been years since I spooned a tire onto a bike rim.
We arrived where he was and thanked the officer who in turn thanked us and Hong said he was 'so embarrased'. We dismissed it and loaded his bike in the truck with plans to find a lite lot to work in.
Hong looked worn out, emotionally if not physically, so when he asked us to host him tonight, we didn't hesitate, and turned towards home. It was now about 19:30 and it would be 20:15 before we got back home.
On the way I learned he had been in the States a year and was in college for mechanical engineering. He was taking this break to visit friends in Florida. In spite of his virgin long distance bicycling experience, he otherwise seemed to have his poop in a group.
We arrived home where Steve started woring on his bike and I show him to his room and where he can get a shower. Then I go to the kitchen to fit him some food.
Oh to be that young and new to travel! :freaky
A distance of 800+ miles with nothing more than a paper map from Google Maps. :bow :clap
I heating him up some beef stew over rice and fixed him a glass of tea. For desert I gave him some of the Christmas cookies I had baked earlier today.
He really enjoyed it and asked questions about how it was made because he had never had anything like that before.
Then he asked Steve to show him how he (Steve) had adjusted his derailure because it had not been shifting well.
I hope he is resting well right now.
Tomorrow, after breakfast, Steve suggested we haul him and his bike south of Charolottesville to get him past all that bad traffic and that way he won't have to RE-RIDE the distance he lost.
The good news...Hong will tell his story when he finishes the ride of the kindness of strangers and he may pass that kindness on. He'll have his wild youthful fling before a job, a mortgage and a family nails him down to Earth, wherever that may be.
I've been blessed many times over from strangers and frankly it's just good to give a little back.
Merry Christmas you'll. :2thumbup:
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