Search and Rescue

I was walking along the familiar streets of Tuebingen yesterday when I noticed something in distress. I was walking over the bridge in the park and I saw a bike in the river. I was on my way to class, so I wasn't able to rescue it then, but I did start creating a plan to save it from eternal rusting in the cold waters.

As I was on my way home for the night, I again crossed the bridge where the bike was with the intention of rescuing said bike. However, I was unable to fulfill my mission due to the fact that I was wearing pants and the water was rising from the rain that had been coming down all day long. I decided that I needed some backup.

I came back up to my room and changed into a pair of shorts while calling up the other half of the dream team, my friend Erin. We grabbed a few necessary tools: leatherman, allen wrenches, headlamps and such before heading hack down to the river.

We got down to the river and managed to get relatively easy acces to the water after climbing throu a series of hedges designed to keep people away from the waters edge. We entered the water and waded toward the stranded bike. We reached it and pulled it out of its submerged state. We hauled it back to our enry point and hoisted it out of the river.

After we had also exited the water and had managed to get back

up the bank and into the park we gave the bike a once over. The handlebars were severly bent and the chain was wedged between the gears and the frame. After a bit of work, and getting grease up to our elbows, we had the chain back on the gears and the handlebars once again perpendicular to the front wheel. Actually, we had a functioning bike. We road the bike to the bus stop and brought it back up the mountains with us. Rescue mission: Successful.