Day 70
August 10, 2005
Today went much better than yesterday; no flats..!
This morning I looked in the phone book for a bike shop in Frankfurt to swing by before getting on the road. The closest bike shop I saw was in Lexington, 30 miles up the road from Frankfurt. I finally rode about 12 miles successfully last night on the cursed, flat-prone wheel into Frankfurt and figured it would be alright to ride on it over to Lexington; I really had no other choice. I grabbed some lunch and got on the road.
It was so nice to actually ride the bike again, instead of stopping every ten minutes to fix the bike. It really was a nice ride. I got to Lexington in just over two hours; it felt good to get back on track again. The scenery was quite nice today as well, lots of well-kept ranches with plenty of land for their horses to run and stretch their legs.
I got to Lexington and called my aunt for the address to the Lexington Herald-Leader. After asking a local for directions over to it, I rode over to see if they’d be willing to help out. Thankfully they were, in more ways than I expected.
I called up to an editor from downstairs and she said she’d find someone to head down and chat. Sam, one of their reporters, came down and spoke with me for a while and asked me a few questions for the story. After speaking with Sam a bit, Brett, the photojournalist, came down to take a few pictures. The three of us spoke for a few minutes before Brett and I headed outside.
I had told the guys how I was thinking about hanging out in Lexington for the night while we spoke inside. It seemed like a cool little town and I also wanted to take a little better look at the University of Kentucky campus. As Brett and I walked over to the little park across the street he asked me where I thought I might stay if I stayed in Lexington. I told him I wasn’t sure and asked him if he knew of a good spot to check out. He definitely knew of a good spot. He said I could head over and crash at his place if I wanted. I asked him if he was sure, he said he was, and the deal was done.
After he took a few pictures, we went back inside so he could upload them and submit them to the editor. While he wrapped things up with that I chatted with Pablo, another photographer on staff, who is also a cyclist. He, too, was really friendly and suggested my rim tape may have been the cause of all my flats yesterday. The spokes may not have been visibly coming through, but if there were holes in the tape, the tube when fully inflated would creep down in there and find the spokes, causing the flats. The scenario fit the situation rather well, I think he nailed it; I did have a few holes.
After Brett wrapped things up with the article, we grabbed all my bags off the bike and tucked her away at the bike rack in the stairwell and headed out for the bike shop – yes, that’s right, in a car! Brett drove me over to the shop where I picked up some tape, two more tubes, and a free presta/shrader valve adapter. After that we headed over to a nice little Mexican restaurant for dinner where Pablo met us shortly thereafter. It was a good time.
After dinner we said goodbye to Pablo and headed over to the house, which is quite a nice house. It actually belongs to his brother; I didn’t get to meet him, he and his family are in Cincinnati right now. Brett is staying with them while he wraps up his internship before heading up to Michigan to start his new job on Tuesday. So a big thank you also goes out to Brett’s brother for letting me crash at his nice home, thank you! We hung out downstairs and watched a some TV on a nice little 61” television, with surround sound, while we chatted, fixed a broken spoke, and put the new rim tape on the rear wheel. It was really nice of him to let me come over and stay here tonight. Thanks again Brett!
So as you can see today was quite the contrast from yesterday when I spent more time fixing the bike than riding it. I am very thankful for the kindness found at the paper. It’s another big one and should reach a rather large audience tomorrow, not to mention the great hospitality found there in Brett. Just a good stuff on a good day.
We’ll see what tomorrow has in store…
Today: 34.56 Total: 3,264.39
Today went much better than yesterday; no flats..!
This morning I looked in the phone book for a bike shop in Frankfurt to swing by before getting on the road. The closest bike shop I saw was in Lexington, 30 miles up the road from Frankfurt. I finally rode about 12 miles successfully last night on the cursed, flat-prone wheel into Frankfurt and figured it would be alright to ride on it over to Lexington; I really had no other choice. I grabbed some lunch and got on the road.
It was so nice to actually ride the bike again, instead of stopping every ten minutes to fix the bike. It really was a nice ride. I got to Lexington in just over two hours; it felt good to get back on track again. The scenery was quite nice today as well, lots of well-kept ranches with plenty of land for their horses to run and stretch their legs.
I got to Lexington and called my aunt for the address to the Lexington Herald-Leader. After asking a local for directions over to it, I rode over to see if they’d be willing to help out. Thankfully they were, in more ways than I expected.
I called up to an editor from downstairs and she said she’d find someone to head down and chat. Sam, one of their reporters, came down and spoke with me for a while and asked me a few questions for the story. After speaking with Sam a bit, Brett, the photojournalist, came down to take a few pictures. The three of us spoke for a few minutes before Brett and I headed outside.
I had told the guys how I was thinking about hanging out in Lexington for the night while we spoke inside. It seemed like a cool little town and I also wanted to take a little better look at the University of Kentucky campus. As Brett and I walked over to the little park across the street he asked me where I thought I might stay if I stayed in Lexington. I told him I wasn’t sure and asked him if he knew of a good spot to check out. He definitely knew of a good spot. He said I could head over and crash at his place if I wanted. I asked him if he was sure, he said he was, and the deal was done.
After he took a few pictures, we went back inside so he could upload them and submit them to the editor. While he wrapped things up with that I chatted with Pablo, another photographer on staff, who is also a cyclist. He, too, was really friendly and suggested my rim tape may have been the cause of all my flats yesterday. The spokes may not have been visibly coming through, but if there were holes in the tape, the tube when fully inflated would creep down in there and find the spokes, causing the flats. The scenario fit the situation rather well, I think he nailed it; I did have a few holes.
After Brett wrapped things up with the article, we grabbed all my bags off the bike and tucked her away at the bike rack in the stairwell and headed out for the bike shop – yes, that’s right, in a car! Brett drove me over to the shop where I picked up some tape, two more tubes, and a free presta/shrader valve adapter. After that we headed over to a nice little Mexican restaurant for dinner where Pablo met us shortly thereafter. It was a good time.
After dinner we said goodbye to Pablo and headed over to the house, which is quite a nice house. It actually belongs to his brother; I didn’t get to meet him, he and his family are in Cincinnati right now. Brett is staying with them while he wraps up his internship before heading up to Michigan to start his new job on Tuesday. So a big thank you also goes out to Brett’s brother for letting me crash at his nice home, thank you! We hung out downstairs and watched a some TV on a nice little 61” television, with surround sound, while we chatted, fixed a broken spoke, and put the new rim tape on the rear wheel. It was really nice of him to let me come over and stay here tonight. Thanks again Brett!
So as you can see today was quite the contrast from yesterday when I spent more time fixing the bike than riding it. I am very thankful for the kindness found at the paper. It’s another big one and should reach a rather large audience tomorrow, not to mention the great hospitality found there in Brett. Just a good stuff on a good day.
We’ll see what tomorrow has in store…
Today: 34.56 Total: 3,264.39
posted by SuperByron3000 at 8/11/2005
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