L1. Rain
2. Hills
3. Flat tire
1. I was so glad to finally have a rainy day! As we were loading the trailer, we were getting sprinkled on, and then a couple times before lunch we got hit with a few drops. After lunch there was a pretty good shower, but when I was about 10 miles away from the host going over one of the last hills, I got poured on. It may be a little more dangerous, but its also refreshing to ride around in the rain. What was weird was about 3 or 4 miles up the road it hadn;t rained there yet. so I was soaking wet but everyone in that area was dry and out enjoying the weather, mowing the lawn, and other fun stuff.
2. Today was a hilly day. There were constantly rollers, and then the occasional big climb/mountain. Going over the last hill before lunch I took off on my own so I rolled into lunch first maybe 5 minutes ahead of the next group. After lunch, I left with the same group, and as they were chugging up the hill, I decided to take off on my own. I got the the top and they were still a whiles back. I didn't really want to wait so I decided to just finish the day on my own. Little did I know that we had a mountain to climb. I'm talking 14% incline that went on for the better part of a mile. After that there were still several hills to climb going into town. At the end we had a 14% decline which would have been fun, but I was stuck behind a car, there was a stop sign at the bottom, and the road had some gravel in it. I ended up getting to the host a little before 3:30, the next group didn't get here till like 5. I have no idea how I got that far ahead.
3. I woke up this morning and took my bike outside. I noticed my front tire was flat so I assumed it had a leak so I quickly replaced the tube before we left. After lunch, when I was on my own I noticed my tire was flat again. I stopped in a driveway to replace it when I couldn't figure out the adapter to my hand pump. At that moment it started to rain, so I figured I would walk up to an underpass and wait till someone I was with would come by and help. As I was walking, a truck drove by and then stopped under the underpass. I saw he had a bike rack on top of his truck, and thankfully, he actually had a pump and some tools in the bed. I told him what had happened and he took the tire and tube from me and actually did all the work for me replacing the tube. I guess he lived in the area, because he gave me a little heads up on what was down the road. I believe he said something to the extent of, "you'll have 6 or 7 miles of gradual uphill, then all the sudden you'll be faced with a 14& upgrade for about a mile." He was right. Thanks, Kevin, you made my day a little brighter.
I checked the tubes tonight, and I'm not entirely sure what happened. I used the underwater method, and couldn't find anything in the first tube. I'm going to let it sit overnight and see if it will hold pressure or what the deal is. The second tube had a little baby hole, so I have a feeling it was like that from the manufacturer.
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