We took our newbie friend and her borrowed bikasaurus rex on our 50km pretty flat loop. She was doing very well considering the ancient 6 gear cassette and friction shifters! And I was doing very well on the hill that usually saps me completely, possibly since I wasn't trying to catch anyone! We stopped in the next town for a bathrrom break and a bit of fuel. About a block from there, her rear flatted. Well, I thought I had three unused inflater cartridges, but I only had one cartridge in my inflater, and it was *used*!! since I have never used the thing, I don't know whne that happened! DH came back and he had enough, so we (mostly he) swapped it out and filled it. But we put a presta tube in an old shrader rim and it promptly flatted. Between us we had one more tube and one more cartridge, so DH rode home to get the car and my friend and I hung out in the park a block away and chatted....
I am so grateful that it didn't happen further up the road which is way far away from anywhere nice to hang out and wait! And I'm wondering if the flat and poor preparation happened so I wouldn't crash when I had the next ice pick headace. Yup, my brain has decided to give me a new type of headache - the first one woke me up in the middle of the night! Before the ride I only had one more, but while we waited in the park (when we would have been riding) I had another. These are super sudden, very intense, and very short. I have no idea what I would do if one hit while I was riding on a highway at speed!!

It cetainly was a not-quite-what-we-had-planned kind of ride, but a good time, nonetheless.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~