Spanner in the works

Rocinante is in trouble. Bad trouble. She may not recover.

This morning's ride to Brescello was pleasurable and uneventful, but after lunchtime, setting off for this evening's campsite, she began rattling and wheezing a little. It's fiercely hot here right now, so I stopped for a while and let her cool off in the shade while I had a nap under a tree. Then we pushed on a bit further.

As we were coming round Sassuolo she began making some really worrying noises - clattering and puffing - and I quickly pulled off into an industrial estate. Good job I did; we'd only gone round the corner into the estate when she gave a great shudder, a heaving wheeze, oil spilled out onto the road, and she ground to a halt.

I don't yet know what's happened but it's clearly bad. I'm prone to anxiety in situations like this, so I deliberately just say for a while under a tree, gathering my thoughts. I was trying to figure out my first priority when a woman came past, saw me, and immediately began talking with me animatedly in Italian. She had zero English, so it took us a while to communicate. She wanted me to bless her rosary. Apparently prayer was the first priority, so I prayed for her in words she couldn't possibly understand, and she seemed delighted - and left.

I figured my next step, in the late afternoon, was to figure out accommodation for the night - obviously I wasn't going any further today. So I picked a few essentials out of my luggage and started the long (5 mile) walk in the hot sun into town, trekking alongside heavy traffic on narrow footpaths but with no public transport options. It was hard going; I prayed the Jesus Prayer as I walked to keep my spirits up. 

It was 7pm by the time I found a hotel with a room available. It's a kind of Premier Inn place: clean, serviceable, basic but comfortable. The price is decent (€70 per night including full breakfast, equivalent to about £59) but it's very high compared to campsite prices and astronomical compared with last night (wild camping is free!) I've booked in for two nights. I'll go straight to the local repair shop in the morning, but I doubt I'll be back on the road anytime soon. 

So tomorrow, questions loom. Can Rocinante be repaired? What can I do with her if not? How can I carry on, if I want to reach Assisi in some way? And what then? But these are tomorrow's questions. "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself," said Jesus. "Each day has enough trouble of it's own."

Well that's true enough today. So right now, being exhausted, I'm going to sleep.

///interpolated.fang.flock