__________ George, yes sir, I am heading towards Spokane

Continues_________

At around 3 pm James stopped at a gas station near Caldwell, where I
unloaded a bike, wrote down his address, promising to send a post card,
thanked him for all he has done, shook the hand with a good bye and pedaled
into the town.
There was supposed to be a bike shop, as a young man answered me, and I went
further looking for it. After some more wandering around 100 year old
buildings, I finally found the place but it was closed on Monday, so I will
have to come back tomorrow.
The rest of the day I spent in the library, and rode to Wal Mart, several
miles further going towards another little town Nampa. The neighborhood of
this towns makes a pretty big place, so the Wal Mart (super center) parking
lot, was full of cars. Great, this store had food section, so I could buy
nice stuff for good prices. I ate some fruit salads, bought an extra tube
with patches and talked to a nice guy in bike section of the store who was
riding Nishiki, he suggested that 95 north is prettier than going on 26 back
to Oregon and is also closer to go to Spokane that way. Since I had so many
flats recently, I bought this tube and at the register, cashier lady asked,
if my tire was flat right now? I said - no, but few minutes later, when I
took a glance at the rear wheel, it sure was sitting on the rim. 15
minutes , the tube was fixed and I went down riding further to Nampa.
Evening was cool, and riding was very easy. The sun already set and big moon
was in the sky... Gorgeous. I stopped to eat some sandwich with peanut
butter a little later and enjoyed the evening, sitting on the bench, in a
place I never been before, somewhere in Idaho...
Next day, after running around the bike shop, the master finally showed up
near 11 o'clock. The bike shop was his hobby, while he was really a fire
fighter, so he didn't have a fixed schedule when he is in the shop and would
come there anytime he wanted to. I'll make this part short. The guy was
really thinking that buying a new wheel is the only good choice, even though
the wheel he had was black and 35$ is still a better option that rebuilding
the old one with new spokes. Well, I started to do it; luckily he had the
right spokes. Since I couldn't work on his property because of insurance, I
set up my "shop" outside, on the other side, near the railroad, on the
grass, not bothering anyone. 4 hours, 10 new spokes, pretty straight wheel,
I finished. The job - 5 dollars, 10 spokes at 50c each. :-) Plus real
experience, now I can do the same on the road.