Three Flats!

Well it's Sunday and the last day of the 3 day weekend is here. Because my rides have either been missed or I was able to go and then got rained on I was happy to be about to get out of the house today around 11:00 AM and get going on my ride for the day. I needed to get home to be able to mow the lawn because it's super long, I missed mowing it last week because of all the rain we were getting and it was completely out of control and hecka thick and long.

Flats

So on my way out and doing a nice warm up loop, planning to then come down from it and head wherever I decided to go for the day. About 5 miles into the ride I noticed that my rear tire was feeling a little squishy over the expansion cracks in the road so at the top of the hill where there was some shade from a tree I stopped and checked my tire - yep, flat - dammit!

I proceeded to change the tube with a new one that I had in my seat bag and whatta you know, the dam thing had too short of a presta valve so I was unable to inflate it. Well I am sure glad that I have been carrying that dam thing with me for weeks "just in case" I got a flat. By now I had wasted probably 15 minutes changing the tube and needed to take the tube that I took out and find the hold and patch it up.

Hole found and patched, double check that it holds air, yep it holds air. I put it all back together, sorted all my stuff out and packed it back in the seat bag and headed back to the house since I was so close to the house I figured I would get another tube to take along since I was planning to go far. On the way back guess what? Another flat friggin' tire, yea no joke! Rather than change it I just made sure there was enough air in it and rode home to change flat #2.

Home I put in the 3rd tube and started pumping up the tire and what, what is that sound? Oh it's the sound of air escaping a tube - well F me man! There was a problem with the tube I guess from the factory or something so it was leaking near the valve - ugh! Back to putting in another tube and getting the dam tires off the bike. Yea I should have mentioned that I put a new tire on as well while I was at it just to be on the safe side. The tires are a nightmare to put on and I am not sure if it's because they are new or it's just how they will be. Either way I figured out a decent technique to get the tire on and it worked really well.

This put a HUGE dampener on my riding because after all of this it was now nearly 3:00 PM. I ate a quick snack and headed out anyway. The skies were looking dark like it was going to rain but thankfully I was able to get in a nice 40+ mile ride and only deal with the wind.

Back Home, Again

Back to the house after my ride and I immediately started to mow the lawn, blow the clippings and all of that jazz. Thankfully my lawn mower has LED headlights because once I was done with the front and charged up the battery and started mowing the back - it was dark. This didn't stop me of course, the headlights work great and the mower is so quiet that I seriously doubt that my neighbors even heard the noise from it.

Once done it was back inside to wash up a little bit and have some rice and vegetables that Cicely's mom made us for dinner. It hit the spot big-time as did the big salad that I had with it as well. A little while after it was dessert time and I could not resist a Drumstick vanilla cone with hard chocolate covering. Super good way to end a long day that's for sure.

Sudden Storm

Around 11:00 PM tonight we started to get a bunch of thunder and lightening booming the sky and figured that the rain was on the way. Well that was the right thing to think because at just before 11:30 PM the big raindrops that always turn-up during the summer did just that and it dumped hard for nearly a 1/2 hour and was gone as quick as it came. I am super happy that I went ahead and mowed, the lawn will love the free watering and it saves me a day of watering expense.

So Yea

That pretty much sums up the biggest highlights of the day for me. I am beat, exhausted actually but I knew it would happen - well to some extent. I had planned to do my ride and be back home before 5:00 PM and do the yard then but because of all the flats and time to get the new tire on and stuff it was not possible unless I only took a ride that was much shorter than what I ended up doing. It still will not meet my goal for August which is 80 miles for one ride. Its going to be a really hard one to accomplish, but I will give it my best shot.

With that, it's time to call this good and enjoy the tiny bit of time that is left in the weekend. We are talking minutes, not hours but I want to get the most out of them. Until tomorrow have a good one and I hope your week starts and ends well!

Photo: This is a photo that I snapped when I got to the top of this climb that I have been avoiding every-time that I go past it on one of my other climbs - the street name is Belmar. It's rating sums it up as a gnarly climb and it really is. I did have to stop one time to be able to make it all the way up, but I think that is still really good progress and now I have a goal to eventually make it up, no matter how fast, all in one shot without taking any pit stops.