After the storm passed last night I set-up my tent to block the rain and was treated to the roar of semi trucks on wet pavement for the rest of the night. Being so close to the road it sound like they were in the tent with me, but I can’t complain too much since I made it through the storm unscathed.
I got up at dawn and stared drying everything out as I made breakfast with my eye on the time to make sure I would make to Sanderson to get my mail drop.
Three miles down the road I discovered I had a flat front tire. First of the trip and only when I was on deadline.
Figures.
I pulled over and changed it out. After it was back on the bike and pumped up I realized I put it on backwards and had to remount it. While taking it off again the tire lever tore through the tube and so I had to find another tube for it. That tube had a leak so I had to fix it. Finally the front tire was back on the correct way.
I decided to check the pressure on all the tires and discovered the tire on the left side of my trailer was flat. I changed that one out and remounted it only to find out the replacement tube had a split in the seem. So I changed it out again and starting pumping it back up only to realize that my pump was failing and wouldn’t hold air. Luckily the tire pressure gauge could be hooked up to the pump and had a one-way valve to keep the air in the tire. Two hours later I was back on the road and feeling pressed for time.
Five miles further down the road my gears started skipping and I noticed that I had a piece of someones old break cable wrapped around my rear cassette. It took a while to untangle it and get back on the road. Now at least I had nice greasy fingers to smear all over my handlebar wrap.
Two miles from town I got another flat on my front tire. Seriously? WTF!!
I didn’t have time to change it so I road all the way to town and another mile and half across town to the post office. Thankfully, I made it just in time and got all my package from Amazon in addition to replacement headphones, they broke on the first day of the ride, that I had delivered to Patricia’s house. Thanks for sending them to me!
I was so hungry that I decided to ride the mile and a half back to the other side of town and the one restaurant that was open – The Ranch House. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was starving. The food and service were top notch. I downed a plate of brisket nachos and a bacon cheese burger with spicy fries in addition to 4 huge cups of tea!
I felt sooo much better and though I would pass out once I got to the motel, but ended up watching most of a panel discussion on CSPAN about the Iraq War that was hosted by Hofstra University. The panelists ranged from Bush administration officials, like Former Press Officer to the Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority Tom Basile. He defended the decision to dissolve the Iraq Army by Paul Bremer. To journalist and political commentator Phyllis Bennis who believes Bush and company should be tried as war criminals. It was well moderated and everyone was well spoken and seemingly earnest. I’d like to watch it again in it’s entirety at some point as I think it would help in my thinking on the subject.