Day 30 Rest Day St. Joseph.

I was up just after 8.00am and that constituted quite a lie-in. After breakfast there was a spot of communal bike cleaning and maintainance to the strains of an MP3 player with a little speaker. The music was mainly 60's and we formed quite a good choir. Richard Walsh from Ireland was interviewed by the local TV station, a pre-arranged interview to do with his charity in India. Various of us were in the background cleaning. Richard's interview was then on the local news later in the day.
The gentleman mentioned yesterday, Jerry Mogg, came to the hotel with his wife in separate vehicles and they then proceeded to shuttle people into St. Joseph to go to the laundry, shopping, bike shop or the museums, what a great couple. Al, Steve, Alan and myself went with Jerry and got a run down on the history of St.Jo while we drove into town. We visited a bike shop first and Alan and I entered into urgent discussions with the mechanic re our technical problems. It was arranged that we would cycle back later so he could see the bikes, so Jerry then dropped us outside the Pony Express museum and we arranged a time to be picked up.
The Pony Express was an amazing venture that only lasted for around 18 months before being superceded by the telegraph, but it is firmly a part of American history. The museum was brilliant. My hero is a bloke called 'Bronco' Miller who was 11 years old when he started riding for the pony express, he lived to be 105 and at the age of 81 wanted something to do so he rode a horse from New York to San Francisco, as you do. Then strolled up to see the house where Jesse James was shot and killed, but it was closed. Having been picked up and taken back to the hotel Alan and I then venture out onto Frederick Boulevard to return to the bike shop. The shop does not normally open on a Monday, but had done so in order for Sean, the mechanic, to catch up on a backlog of work, instead he dedicated himself to helping us out.
Alan's chainring problem was instantly diagnosed as the incorrect middle chainring being fitted. Ther wasn't one available so he eneded up with a Shimano compact instead. My bottom bracket problem was found to be an incorrect size spindle, despite what I was told in Gunnison. The correct size was fitted and a quick spin around the block was confirmation that the problem has now been solved. There may be people well ahead of me in the puncture award section, but I'm in league of my own with regard to bottom brackets!!
Back to the hotel and a spot of dinner then I did my laundry, because by now the rush for the machine was over and I had a free run.
Today's distance was 7.83 miles.