Daily Miles: 105
Total Miles: 3102
Avg: 13.9
Max: 34
Time on the bike: 07:34:35
I woke up to a flat and sad rear tire. It was quite clear this problem wasn’t going to go away on its own. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it and had a hard time sleeping. Or was it the dog that kept me up? Someone that lives here has a blind dog. All night it kept running into the wire fence outside the pool room. Poor thing.
I took the tube out and tried to find the leak again. I inflated the tube much larger than I usually would to try and locate it, since it was small and I had been unsuccessful at finding it earlier. It was a success. I found the hole and patched it and was out riding by 7:30. I had a feeling this tire was still going to be a problem for me. It is really worn out, and way worse than the front tire, which doesn’t see nearly as much pressure. I really needed a new tire but hoped I could at least finish the ride and worry about that later before going to South Korea.
The ride in the morning was good. I left Blythe and entered vast farm land in the valley before heading up to a small mountain pass. Wayne had warned me that highway 78 was a little dangerous from miles 70 to 50, and he was spot on. The shoulder I had been riding vanished and it was just a two lane road. It was curvey and had steep up and downs which provided a lot of blind spots. There were large semis and people in large RVs traveling the road, and I had to pull off into the gravel and sand to let a few trucks pass when there was heavy oncoming traffic. Other than a huge RV getting far too close to me, whom received a flurry of middle fingers from both hands and a barrage of fowl language he could not hear, I made it safely over the pass and down towards the Imperial Sand Dunes.
Large tan sand mountains stood before me under clear blue skies. I felt like I was in the Sahara instead of Southern California. I passed into Glamis which is a hub for people recreating with dune buggies and ATVs. There was a large RV park and people riding around in thier buggies. It would have been a great area of it weren’t for the screeching dune buggies zipping over the dunes. Of course people invented a way to take a motorized car galavanting over the prestine dunes. Of course they did. Now there were tire tracks all over the darn thing, along with the whining engines that echoed into the air, turning an otherwise unique and peaceful environment into a carnival ride.
I stopped to eat lunch in Glamis and then noticed my tire was soft and losing air again. It was’nt flat so there must have been a small hole and slow leak again somewhere. Great. I wasn’t going to take everything apart but was going to just fill it back up. In 30 miles there was a bike shop in El Centro, and I would go there and try to find a new tire and replace this tube. There wasn’t any point wasting a bunch of patches for this doomed tire.
My strategy worked and I stopped a few times to pump the tire back to optimal pressure. About 5 miles out from El Centro I passed a blue Honda pulled off to the side of the road as an incredibly old looking man got out. He looked like he was 100. When he got out squinted and looked into the sky directly at the sun. He looked very confused.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, slowing down.
He mumbled something in Spanish and said at one point “Bueno”, and smiled and gave me a thumbs up. I guess he was okay and I road on.
A few minutes later he passed me and we both stopped at a red traffic light. He kept inching forward and looking left and right, and eventually he just blew through the red light and continued on his way. I wondered if he had Alzheimer’s and was out joyriding, completely lost. Things like that happen sometimes and this guy looked and acted the part.
I arrived in El Centro at the bike shop around 3:30. It had been a long day but I was happy to finally be able to replace my tire. I walked into the shop and there wasn’t a whole lot in there. There was mostly BMX bikes and a few odds and ends. A worker came rushing from the back, a short Hispanic looking gentleman with short black hair.
“What can I help you with?” he asked.
“I’m looking for a tire, a touring tire, 26 inch. Have anything that would work?”
He led me to a wall with a few tires. Mostly racing tires and large mountain bike tires.
“The closest thing we have are these cruiser bike tires.”
I looked at these things and almost laughed. They were pink and huge, exactly what you would see on a beach cruiser by the ocean. It wasn’t going to cut it.
“Yeah, I don’t think those will work.”
I was really bummed. I didn’t know what I was expecting. The name of the mostly BMX bike shop was called “Pro Cycle Shop”, which made it sound a lot different than what it turned out to be.
Plan B, I thought. Buy another tube and a patch kit.
If I couldn’t get a new tire I needed a bunch more stuff to fix it to the ocean. I bought what I needed and left the store, heading to a cheap motel in town.
On my way I came to a stop sign and for some reason forgot to unclip my cleats from the pedals. My mind was stil on my tire and I wasn’t paying attention. I suddenly found myself on the ground, having tipped over and unable to get my feet out of the pedals fast enough. I banged up my knee pretty good but otherwise I was okay.
It was a long day. I’m ready to be done with this ride. I’m almost there.
Google Maps says 112ish to go. I may be in Ohio but I am very excited for you to see that ocean.
And at/under the two month mark, I am very impressed pal. Relish that sunset when you see it.
(Did you ever name that bike of yours?)