La Junta, Colorado

Whhoops,
I broke down on highway 96 ten miles east of Sugar City.  I was pedalin' along and shifted gears.  My bike semi-smoothly shifted up one gear and then was unresponsive.  Shit.  Well, I wanted to tighten the cable a little bit anyways.  I glance down at the cables.  Huh.?  That middle one looks a little loose. So I reach down and gave the cable a little tug.  The whole cable starts pullin' up from the gear box end. Ooohhh shit. 
I pull over onto a gravel pullout, unload my bicycle, pull out my tools, and sit down to see if i can fix it.
Minutes later a van full of kids pulls over and asks if I'm all right.  I'm great.  I can single speed it to the next town if i can't figure it out. No biggie.
wow, I wish I remembered more from that bike mechanics class I took four years ago.
A motercycle pulls up fifteen minutes later. "ya need a hand with anything?" he asks.
"Well... do you know how to fix a shifter?" Hey, he's on a motercycle, but he might still know how.
He comes over, sits down next to me in the gravel and starts fiddlin' around with this stupid shifter with me.  He has no idea how to fix a shifter either.  He calls a friend up.  This friend says there's no bike shop in La Junta, but he thinks he can figure it out.  Turns out, there's no bike shop for the next 200 miles or so. Ha, shit.  So Scott(this guardian angel biker guy) takes me on his motorcycle twenty miles off my route into La Junta, we pick up his truck, and go back to grab my bicycle.  His friend comes over, puts my shifter back together(we/mostly I, had taken it completely apart at this point) and Scott and I go get a new cable at Wal-Mart(which only sell full sets.)
Now, I can't even remember which way to turn the little knob on the rear derailer to loosen or tighten the cable, and we have to figure out how to make my bicycle shift smoothly.  Oh wow. 
We got it figured out though, I think.  I'll find out today.  It's riding smoothly so far. :)
It was about five o clock last night when we finished fixing my bike and  I ended up Staying at Scotts for the night.  Crazy Irish, biker, climber, traveller, correctional officer, train conductor, millitary man with a family in Winslow, Az.  We had a blast shootin' the shit, talkin' about correctional facilities, and zombie attacks. Hehe.
Now I'm headed twenty miles back onto route(which is about what I ended up biking yesterday) and hopefully making it to Eads or farther(my destination for yesterday.)  We'll see what happens.  All in the spirit of adventure. ;)