The forecast was for rain to day and boy did we get it. I
started out with everything I own on however after only a mile I stripped down
to just the jersey and rain coat and shorts and rain pants. The ride was 77 miles with picnic at the 39
mile mark. The ride had a lot of climb in it at 4800 ft. This meant that you always had a hill in
front of you.
Four years ago we had perfect pavement at the infrastructure
program had paid for all the back roads to be paved. Today these roads are falling apart. Most of the roads are extremely rutted and
the pavement is broken in to cobbles. To
illustrate how bad the roads are my mirror has vibrated apart. This is Mountain
Equipment Coop mirror and is meant for mountain bikes.
At about the 25 mile mark I was crossing a bridge and got a
puncture on my rear wheel. I heard it
pop. So I rolled across the bridge and changed the tube. Nothing like fixing a flat in the pouring
rain. Then about 5 miles further on I
hit some thing else and got a flat on my front tire. Only this time what ever I
hit caused a T shaped tear in the tire.
The top of the t was probably 3/8” long.
So I put a boot in the tire which looks kind of suspect but it was the
best I could do. Just then the van comes
along and I have my last new tire on that van. This means changing the tire
again in the pouring rain however a much better solution. That front tire had about 1500 miles on it
when I got to the tour and now I put another 3900 on it.
I am thinking picnic should be coming up as it was at 39
miles and my trip odometer shows 80 miles.
Somehow it has decided to act up in the rain. Swell, Just Swell!
Tonight the school we are staying in will only let us sleep
in the halls. Greg went across the street and got the people to let us set up
in their yard. Looks like Earnie and I
are the only two takers. It is still
pouring rain and I mean pouring rain.
Terry
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