2020, Day 33: Rocky Day

IT'S THE FI-NAL COUNT-DOWN

DEW DEW DEEEEW DEWWWWW

THIS IS IT. Only one more day of riding after today! After today, dad's ridden over FOUR THOUSAND miles of tread across the northern US, scaled hills, braved storms, battled headwinds, and weathered flats. Nothing can keep him down! GO, DAD, GO!

October 12, 2020

Ten miles out of Ellsworth this morning, I got another flat. My first one since Ohio. Last year, when I got a flat in Minnesota, I bought two tires; one I put on the bike, the other I have been carrying as a spare. Well, with 80 miles to go, I was glad I had it. I also used my last spare tube. Riding on a prayer now, because I have no backup, and the nearest bike shop is probably back in Ellsworth.

Now that we are down on the coastal plain, there are still a lot of hills, but they are less steep and not so long. Other than the flat, which set me back the better part of an hour getting it changed, then deciding to use the new tire instead, then trying again because it didn’t seat in the rim correctly the first time; there wasn’t much exciting to talk about. Every once in a while we would cross the upper part of a bay, so we could look out toward the ocean, and it does smell like sea water.

We finished up in Jonesboro, 50.9 miles in 5 hours, including repair time.