Day 33: Bike Problems.... again

So I woke up this morning to John asking me a question. "I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first, well the bad news is that you have a flat tire, the good new is that it is 5:30 and you got an extra half hour of sleep." What a great way to start out the day, the flat tire was on my trailer and not on my bike. So I went into all of my spare tubes and grabbed the spare trailer tube. I pull it out to find that the bike shop in Winthrop Washington gave me the wrong tube - it was too big. So I decided that only option was to patch up the existing tire. Once it was patched - 30 seconds later it was flat again. So I once again try patching it, once again it goes flat. The tire now has 5 patches on it and I decided it is just not going to work. So John and I head to the gas station in town. I ask about the closest bike shop and found out that it is about 20 miles away. It is 7:oo am, and the shop does not open till 10:00am. My options are leave my trailer at the bike shop and bike there, leave my bike and trailer at the gas station and hitchhike there, or see if I can pay some one from the bike shop to drive the tube down to me - That is assuming that the shop has the right tube for my trailer. I go eat breakfast at the only restaurant in town, John takes off at this point and we make plans on meeting up eventually in Monon, 70 miles away. After breakfast I head back to the park and fall asleep on top of a picnic table. Eventually 10 o'clock rolls around and I call the shop to find out that they do have the tube I need. I ask him about driving it down but he says that they are short handed, but he will call around to some friends. After a half hour of waiting I call again. He says he will call me back. By 11:00 I get a call from him with the number of a taxi company in the town he is at. So I end up paying a taxi $30 to drive two of the tubes I need down. One expensive tube! So I hit the road at 1:00, which does not make me too happy. I get a call from John 40 miles into the ride. He says that he is in Monon and wants to head on from there to Denver, Indiana which is 110 miles from our original starting point. So I say Ill do my best to make it there if not we'll meet in the morning. I get hit with occasional rain throughout the day and a persistent cross wind all day long. I get a call from John at 9:00 pm - he says that the only food place in town closes at 10:oo. So he says he will put in the order just before 10:00, so I have food waiting for me when I get there. The ride into Denver was amazing, heavily wooded, fast down hill and it was dark by this point. There were fire flies illuminating the road for me though, quite a spectacular site. I did not mention that I crossed into eastern time zone. So technically I did not start my ride until 2:00 pm. My ride time was 6:50 and total time was like 7:45. Not much time for breaks since I was racing the sun. I pull into town John has two large pizzas waiting, what a guy. I ate like there was no tomorrow, found the local park and used a hose for a shower.

Miles Biked Today: 113
Miles Biked Total: 2,615