The Travelers Artifact

Along any journey there are going to be little bumps in the road, figuratively and literally. Well somewhere along the way we hit a little bump in the road, literally, a little bump in the road. The bump knocked the kids bikes loose off of the rack that I have mounted on the back of the fifth wheel. I had the bikes secured with a couple ratcheting tie downs and a 22 ft. cable to lock them on for added security. At some point the ratchet tie downs came loose and the bikes popped off the back of the camper. Fortunately I had the cable locking the bikes to the back of the camper so they couldn't fly off into cars behind me.

When the bikes came loose it was around 9:00 pm so it was plenty dark outside. I noticed in my rear view mirror sparks flying around behind me like it was fourth of July. Recognizing that there may be an issue, but not wanting to alarm the family I calmly explained to my wife that we have some sparks coming off the back of the camper which must be the cable dragging on the ground, but I had my suspicions that it was much more than that due to the fireworks exploding behind me. I took the next exit and pulled into a truck stop. I wanted to get back and check out the damage without bringing it to the attention of the kids, but no such luck. As I pulled in a trucker walked up to my truck and in front of the whole family says, "Hey Boss, your bikes are dragging off of the back." Well, as you can imagine, that sent the kids into a frenzy!

I walked back to survey the damage and found quite a mess of the bikes. After about 20 minutes of sorting through the carnage and a few passing jokes from the truckers we made it back on the road.

For you viewing pleasure, here is a glimpse of what asphalt will do to a bike.

This is the a handle that was worn off of Helaina's bike.