Bishop Bike Adventure Day 57 August 26, 2010

After a long delay awaiting our breakfast at the motel this morning, we were off to a late start on what we hoped would be a day with a lot of miles. Upon exiting the motel, it became apparent that this would be a raw day. The wind was strong and there were many dark clouds dominating the sky. Throughout the day, the clouds in the sky were impressive--often dark, but also some billowy white ones--big, big clouds.

After about 30 miles, we had what has been an unusually rare mechanical issue--a flat tire. It was Tim’s rear tire, which is a bit more challenging to repair. A good omen, however, was when a young man came out of a house to offer help. He was wearing a T-shirt with a logo for a Christian school. That logo shone like a reassuring beacon! The photo here shows the repair site.

We repaired the flat by replacing it with a new tube. However, the tire soon flatted again. We had been too hasty to replace the tube without checking thoroughly enough for the cause of the flat. On the second attempt to repair the flat, we discovered a tiny wire stuck in the tire, which had punctured both tubes. When we pulled this out of the tire and put another tube in, the air held. The second replacement happened much more quickly--we are new to these issues since we‘ve only flatted once for the entire trip. With the practice, we were faster on the second time around. And it should be acknowledged that the actual pumping of the tire happened much faster since Debbie was “manning” the pump the second time around! It pays to marry a strong woman!

All was not completely well with the new replacement, however. The ride down the road was very “lumpy.” Deflating the tire and re-inflating it took care of the issue and we were off after a significant delay. What we had hoped would be an 80-mile day with a nice tailwind, ended up less than 50, yet in a pleasant, bucolic setting.

The silver lining to our mechanical woes was that the dark clouds toward the east had moved on. We would find out later that we had averted more rain! We rode to our overnight accommodations without rain. We are staying at a lovely furnished apartment that is primarily used by snowmobilers in winter. It is a very nice unit in a very remote area. The proprietors let us borrow their car to go to supper! How’s that for customer service?