Intentional Community Tour Day Three
This morning the flat tire was defeated. After a very slow drive through Valley Forge for the second of three times, the helpful folks at Norristown Tire Center made short work of the problem, mounting the spare tire on the rim quickly. The other trip participants stayed at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills (http://www.camphillkimberton.org/) for breakfast and further conversation with our host there. I picked them up on my way past and we proceeded further west. Our first stop of the day canceled due to a COVID outbreak in their community, fortunately giving us enough time to resolve the tire problem without falling behind schedule.
We moved on toward Hundredfold Farm Cohousing Community (http://www.hundredfoldfarm.org/) for our second stop of the day. Unfortunately, along the way, disaster struck again. One of the wheel hubs failed, flattening the bearings and winding up red hot before I could pull over to diagnose it. Another casualty of the missed maintenance cycle due to the house fire eating all the time I had planned to spend on trip prep in the last two weeks. I sent the other participants ahead in a cab while I started working the problem. They made it there about an hour late and spent the evening on tour and conversation and a meal.
I called a mobile mechanic to come while I hitchhiked to the nearest open hardware store to buy some chain and other hardware. The mechanic opened up the hub, extracted the now-flat bearings, and unmounted the wheel. When I got back in a cab we coordinated to jack the hub up so I could chain it up in a driveable position. Then I got underway to Hundredfold Farm. I met half the community there, had a bit of dinner, shared a recap of my adventure and heard about what they had been doing with the tour group. Then we parted ways, accidentally leaving them more bread from other communities than we intended, and taking more snacks from them for the road.
I called a few truck stops with 24 hour service along the way to Pittsburgh and one said they could help us. 90 minutes later we made it there, just to find out they wouldn’t do any of the work we needed. As I write this, we are going to sleep in the bus. We are two hours behind schedule now, since we were supposed to sleep in Pittsburgh tonight. Again “fortunately”, my friend who was going to host us had to cancel for family reasons. Tomorrow morning, very early, I’ll start the remaining two hours of drive to Pittsburgh, then search for a mechanic that can do at least some of the needed work. I may stay with the bus while the others take a cab to our Pittsburg community stop, or I may go with them. The mechanic will have about 4 hours until our scheduled departure, or longer if we use one of the alternate plans we’ve been brainstorming. More on that tomorrow. Good night.