Another good reason to rent from Big Daddy's

Mark Maund is bicycling North America to raise awareness for charity, but it wasn?t until he got to South Walton that he learned a firsthand lesson on the subject.
It was, he said, an act that ?blew my mind.??
Peggy Sheehan, owner of Big Daddy?s Bikes and Beach Sports shop, on County Road 30A, was touched by Maund?s frustration when his touring bike was damaged about a half mile from her shop, threatening to end his cross-country odyssey.
Without giving it but a minute?s hesitation, Sheehan led Maund into the shop, up to a display of new Bianchi touring bikes and told him to pick one out. ?I was blown away,? said Maund, ?totally blown away.
Sheehan said she only did what anyone else would have done.
The $1,200 bike replaced the bicycle Maund had used for several years.
?It was a bittersweet moment,? said Maund afterwards. ?My old bike is an old friend. We have been together since 1997.?
Without Sheehan?s intervention, however, Maund?s cycling expedition would have ended in Blue Mountain Beach.
Maund had left Grayton Beach the morning of May 18 after having spent the night there. He was traveling on the 30A bike path just east of Blue Mountain Beach. Unbeknownst to Maund, a small section of the bike trail recently had been repaired but then covered with loose sand.
He had no idea there was a problem until he drove into the sand and immediately felt the soft and tacky asphalt underneath it.
?It was like glue on my wheels,? said Maund.
His bike wheels turned into a gooey mess. Rocks, stuck on the wheels, scraped against the frame.
Maund stopped twice and cleaned his wheels, but the sticky asphalt grabbed everything the tires rolled over.
When Maund saw a sign for a gas station about a half mile up the road, he decided to walk the bike there and do a more thorough clean up. When he topped the hill, he saw the sign for Bike Daddy?s across the street from the gas station. He pushed the bike to the shop and enlisted help in removing the crud from his wheels.
It was service department manager Judah Imhof who first noticed the damage. The rocks rubbing against the bike had made it no longer safe to ride.
?He became very distraught once I pointed out the big hole in his frame,? said Imhof.
Maund?s overwhelming disappointment and frustration touched the storeowner.
As Maund stood over his bike trying to figure out what to do, calculating how much a new frame was going to cost him and where the money would come from, Sheehan told him to come inside and they would see what they could do for him.
He was not expecting a new bike.
?She didn?t even say much,? exclaimed Maund. ?She just walked right up to this rack of bikes and said, ?Take your pick.? ??
Sheehan then helped Maund to find overnight accommodations at Magnolia House while his new bike was made rewady for the next stretch of the 15,000-mile tour.
?I was shocked at how far she went,? he said. Sheehan said she felt bad for Maund. There had been no warning on the bike path and admitted there was just a touch of embarrassment at her hometown?s lack of safety warnings that played a part in her decision.
?There was no signage or cone to warn people. It was covered with sand.? she said.
Her charitable act was also done ?to call attention to the need for safety on the bike trail.?
?If anyone sees anything that needs to be repaired (on the bike path), they need to call the road department or their (county) commissioner and ask them to please fix it,? she said.
A 3-D animator and Web master, Maund maintains a Web page chronicling his tour and listing the charities he is representing. Big Daddy?s is now the ?official? bike shop for the two-year tour and is featured prominently at www.northamericacyclingexpedition.com .