Days 68&69
August 10, 2005
What a day. It’s 12:22am and I’m quite exhausted. I was tempted to just crash and put off the journal for another day or so, but I couldn’t go to bed without filling you in on the disastrous record I set today. I’m just going to tell you – today I had 6 flats in the span of 12 miles. 6 Flat Tires!!! 6 and a half if you want to get kinda technical…
Yesterday I decided to take the day off in Louisville. I was able to get some laundry done, stroll around town, pick up some inner tubes, eat some pizza, and go to a Louisville Bats game. The Bats are the Triple-A farm team of the Cincinnati Reds and they have a nice little stadium to play in that can’t be more than 3 years old. They played Indianapolis; I missed the Tides, the Norfolk Tides, by one day. All in all it was a pretty good day.
Today before leaving town I swung by the paper and was able to speak to a real nice reporter whom I can’t remember the name of right now, my apologies – it’s getting late... But he was really nice; we had a great chat. I’m pretty sure that’s the biggest paper to feature the story so far. Thank you to the Courier-Journal for your willingness to help! It should run in tomorrow’s paper. They gave me directions to get out of town, I swung by McDonald’s, and got on the road.
Now, the thing about the tubes I picked up yesterday is that they were pretty skinny. My tires are a little wider than the normal road tires and the only tubes the little shop had were for thinner tires. But being that the difference was only a matter of about ten millimeters, and that was my only option, I went for them anyway; I picked up two. It was a primarily a skate and BMX shop, so I was thankful they had any tubes at all, I figured they’d at least get me to another shop to pick up some others. On the way out of town today I found another bike shop.
I picked up two more tubes and a patch kit from the real shop I found this afternoon. Now having three spare tubes, I left the shop thinking those may be the last spares I get for the trip, now I’m thinking that may not be the case…
It took me over 8 hours to go 50 miles.
I was a little bummed when I picked up the first flat, but I changed it out and went over to Burger King to treat myself to a milkshake as a reward. Thinking that would be my speed bump for the day, I figured I’d get a little pick-me-up for the ride to Frankfurt; I had close to 40 miles left. I guess I was about 10 miles down the road when my second one came, and as you may remember from the first half of the trip: one flat kills your momentum, two flats kill your nerves. That still holds true, and being so, I can’t even describe what 6 flats does to you.
I was actually okay with the first several flats. Seriously, what are you going to do? You’re gonna fix it, you have no choice. There’s no use getting all bent out of shape and making things worse for yourself. However, the fourth was about the last one that I was able to hold on to that perspective. The fourth was also the first one I had to patch having just blown through my three new spare tubes. I had just patched the hole, put it back together, checked the evenness, and was pumping it up to put back on the bike when I heard the foul sound of air pouring out of the tire again. Somehow a new hole bit into the tube as I was pumping it up, hence the added "half-flat." I checked the tire before putting the tube in, and I had been checking the rim to see if any spokes were popping through all along, so I don’t know how that little hole happened, but it did and I wasn’t too happy about it.
Then the fifth and sixth came back-to-back, no more than 3 miles down the road. One of my theories is that, again, the tubes were too skinny for the tire and in inflating them to fit the tire, I was stretching them a bit too thin making them more vulnerable – I really have no idea… I ended up chucking the shoddy tire at a tree after getting it off the rim after the fifth flat. After putting my skinnier old “spare” tire back on the bike, I went and picked up the trash tire so I could have another thrill of vengeance by dunking it in a trash can when I got to Frankfurt, if I’d ever get there…
Of course I did get here, five minutes to nine, starving and exhausted. I went straight to Chili’s to fill the tummy then came here to rest the body. I really started asking to have “the lesson” revealed to me in those 6 flats tonight. I’m still not exactly sure what it was but at least, I truly pray, it will act as another McKenzie and I’ll be able to say, “Well at least it’s not as bad as 6 Flats!”
Three highlights of the day: First, as mentioned, encountering the kindness at the Courier-Journal. Second, chatting with Tom while fixing the third flat. Tom was heading home from work when saw me working on the side of the road and stopped to make sure I was alright. He was real nice for stopping and was even nicer for getting out and chatting a bit while I wrapped things up. I also saw he did indeed check out the site when he got home and signed the guestbook. I love when I meet people out here and they take the extra step to go online and learn a little bit more about the trip and everything that’s attached to it. So Thanks Tom! It was great to meet you! Thanks for stopping by and making sure I was in good shape. And the last highlight of the day was the sun just before it set. It was a vibrant orange/pink/magenta color; it reminded me of my sister Janice. Janice likes to collect rubber bouncy super-balls you get out of the gumball machine. The sun looked like a big super-ball tonight, it was pretty nice. Janice is going to be a freshman in high school this fall. My other sister, Christina, just celebrated her 19th birthday this past Saturday, that’s one year away from 20. Everybody’s getting so old; I’m not too sure I like it…
Another little tidbit about Tom is that he has a five-year-old little girl. He told me about how he and his wife have a tandem and they like to hook up the little baby-caboose to it and go for rides as a family. As he told me about his little girl, I thought of another little girl I recently learned of battling CF. One of my new friends, Molly, has a nine-year-old niece who has CF. She sent me a picture of her this morning and my heart broke to think of such a beautiful little girl having to confront such an awful disease. I thought of how fortunate Tom is to have a healthy daughter; I didn’t think to mention it to him, but he seemed like the type of guy who is already well aware of it.
Tomorrow I’ll find the paper, a bike shop, and head out for Mt Sterling. With the off day in Louisville, I’m now slated to hit VA on Saturday, two weeks from the Finish Line!
Day 69: 53.82 Total: 3,229.83
What a day. It’s 12:22am and I’m quite exhausted. I was tempted to just crash and put off the journal for another day or so, but I couldn’t go to bed without filling you in on the disastrous record I set today. I’m just going to tell you – today I had 6 flats in the span of 12 miles. 6 Flat Tires!!! 6 and a half if you want to get kinda technical…
Yesterday I decided to take the day off in Louisville. I was able to get some laundry done, stroll around town, pick up some inner tubes, eat some pizza, and go to a Louisville Bats game. The Bats are the Triple-A farm team of the Cincinnati Reds and they have a nice little stadium to play in that can’t be more than 3 years old. They played Indianapolis; I missed the Tides, the Norfolk Tides, by one day. All in all it was a pretty good day.
Today before leaving town I swung by the paper and was able to speak to a real nice reporter whom I can’t remember the name of right now, my apologies – it’s getting late... But he was really nice; we had a great chat. I’m pretty sure that’s the biggest paper to feature the story so far. Thank you to the Courier-Journal for your willingness to help! It should run in tomorrow’s paper. They gave me directions to get out of town, I swung by McDonald’s, and got on the road.
Now, the thing about the tubes I picked up yesterday is that they were pretty skinny. My tires are a little wider than the normal road tires and the only tubes the little shop had were for thinner tires. But being that the difference was only a matter of about ten millimeters, and that was my only option, I went for them anyway; I picked up two. It was a primarily a skate and BMX shop, so I was thankful they had any tubes at all, I figured they’d at least get me to another shop to pick up some others. On the way out of town today I found another bike shop.
I picked up two more tubes and a patch kit from the real shop I found this afternoon. Now having three spare tubes, I left the shop thinking those may be the last spares I get for the trip, now I’m thinking that may not be the case…
It took me over 8 hours to go 50 miles.
I was a little bummed when I picked up the first flat, but I changed it out and went over to Burger King to treat myself to a milkshake as a reward. Thinking that would be my speed bump for the day, I figured I’d get a little pick-me-up for the ride to Frankfurt; I had close to 40 miles left. I guess I was about 10 miles down the road when my second one came, and as you may remember from the first half of the trip: one flat kills your momentum, two flats kill your nerves. That still holds true, and being so, I can’t even describe what 6 flats does to you.
I was actually okay with the first several flats. Seriously, what are you going to do? You’re gonna fix it, you have no choice. There’s no use getting all bent out of shape and making things worse for yourself. However, the fourth was about the last one that I was able to hold on to that perspective. The fourth was also the first one I had to patch having just blown through my three new spare tubes. I had just patched the hole, put it back together, checked the evenness, and was pumping it up to put back on the bike when I heard the foul sound of air pouring out of the tire again. Somehow a new hole bit into the tube as I was pumping it up, hence the added "half-flat." I checked the tire before putting the tube in, and I had been checking the rim to see if any spokes were popping through all along, so I don’t know how that little hole happened, but it did and I wasn’t too happy about it.
Then the fifth and sixth came back-to-back, no more than 3 miles down the road. One of my theories is that, again, the tubes were too skinny for the tire and in inflating them to fit the tire, I was stretching them a bit too thin making them more vulnerable – I really have no idea… I ended up chucking the shoddy tire at a tree after getting it off the rim after the fifth flat. After putting my skinnier old “spare” tire back on the bike, I went and picked up the trash tire so I could have another thrill of vengeance by dunking it in a trash can when I got to Frankfurt, if I’d ever get there…
Of course I did get here, five minutes to nine, starving and exhausted. I went straight to Chili’s to fill the tummy then came here to rest the body. I really started asking to have “the lesson” revealed to me in those 6 flats tonight. I’m still not exactly sure what it was but at least, I truly pray, it will act as another McKenzie and I’ll be able to say, “Well at least it’s not as bad as 6 Flats!”
Three highlights of the day: First, as mentioned, encountering the kindness at the Courier-Journal. Second, chatting with Tom while fixing the third flat. Tom was heading home from work when saw me working on the side of the road and stopped to make sure I was alright. He was real nice for stopping and was even nicer for getting out and chatting a bit while I wrapped things up. I also saw he did indeed check out the site when he got home and signed the guestbook. I love when I meet people out here and they take the extra step to go online and learn a little bit more about the trip and everything that’s attached to it. So Thanks Tom! It was great to meet you! Thanks for stopping by and making sure I was in good shape. And the last highlight of the day was the sun just before it set. It was a vibrant orange/pink/magenta color; it reminded me of my sister Janice. Janice likes to collect rubber bouncy super-balls you get out of the gumball machine. The sun looked like a big super-ball tonight, it was pretty nice. Janice is going to be a freshman in high school this fall. My other sister, Christina, just celebrated her 19th birthday this past Saturday, that’s one year away from 20. Everybody’s getting so old; I’m not too sure I like it…
Another little tidbit about Tom is that he has a five-year-old little girl. He told me about how he and his wife have a tandem and they like to hook up the little baby-caboose to it and go for rides as a family. As he told me about his little girl, I thought of another little girl I recently learned of battling CF. One of my new friends, Molly, has a nine-year-old niece who has CF. She sent me a picture of her this morning and my heart broke to think of such a beautiful little girl having to confront such an awful disease. I thought of how fortunate Tom is to have a healthy daughter; I didn’t think to mention it to him, but he seemed like the type of guy who is already well aware of it.
Tomorrow I’ll find the paper, a bike shop, and head out for Mt Sterling. With the off day in Louisville, I’m now slated to hit VA on Saturday, two weeks from the Finish Line!
Day 69: 53.82 Total: 3,229.83
posted by SuperByron3000 at 8/10/2005
3 Comments:
I read about your ride and followed the link from the Cincinnati Enquirer website. Keep up the good work! I admire your commitment to the cause, and I think the website with a journal is an awesome way to document the journey. Thanks for sharing!
That many flats means you have something in the tire wall puncturing the tubes. If you always place the tire on the rim the same same way you can find the problem quickly. Always line up a letter on the outside of the the tire with the valve stem. If the punctures are in the same place, you know where to look inside of the tire wall. It will be very small, a sliver of glass, a fragment of wire...
Regards...
Will (who used to live in Va, Beach years ago, before the jetties)
Courier-Journal had a very nice article!!! Sorry about the flats, what doesn't kill ya makes you stronger... right??? :)
Natalie K
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