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August 26 Friday Bicycle touring from Cook Minnesota to near Duluth Minnesota Sabotage! I was sabotaged in Cotton! Now wait a cotton picking minute. We stopped to buy munchies at a gas station and left our bikes leaning up against a window. We went over to some chairs in a grassy area across the parking lot. I couldn't see my bike as a huge ice machine partially hid it from my view. We had just commenced riding and I hit a crack in the road. "Flat tire!" I yelled out to Sharon who was riding ahead. I squeezed my brake levers on hard and rolled to a stop. Both of my bike tires are completely flat. We push our bikes to a crossroads and I try to pump up my bicycle tire, but no air will stay in. It is leaking out faster that I can pump. We took the tires off and ripped the tubes out. I had two snakebite holes in my front and one in my new rear flat proof tube. We tried patching them, but the patches wouldn't stick. We finally put new tubes in. About 15 miles farther, my rear bike tire went flat again. We have to take off my rear panniers, all the load on top of the rack, and then fiddle with the rear derailleur to change the bike's rear tire.I think the problem started when we were in that gas station. Did someone let the air out of my tires? I tried to think back if anyone could have had the opportunity to do so. I had been watching our bikes from the chairs but then I had gone to ask a truck driver about the shoulder on Hwy 53. I was around the corner talking to him, but Sharon said she would diligently keep an eye on the bikes. However, when I got back I noticed she was laying with her head against the chair which was facing away form the bikes. It cost me $15 for new tubes. I guess I'll consider that a wake-up call. From now on I am locking the bikes right away or leaving one of us with them. If someone had enough time to flatten both of my tires and put the valve covers back on, they could have easily had enough time to steal the bikes too. We hit the road, cycling at a fast pace, trying to burn off some of my outrage. We cycle our little bikes a hundred kilometres in three hours and twenty-one minutes, averaging a tad over thirty kilometres per hour. Not bad for loaded bicycle touring. Some of the shoulder was smooth, and some was terrible with lots of frost cracks and debris. The sun was shining and it felt good to crank along with a slight tail breeze. We pulled our bikes into a roadside restaurant and ordered deep dish pizza. The way they made it is a new one on me. They put two crusts on top of the other. It wasn't too good. We biked down the road a ways, then stayed overnight behind some trees in a rest stop about seventeen miles before Duluth. Some people stopped about 1:30 AM, but I had my earplugs shoved in real tight and I never heard a thing. Sharon says we had a raccoon family in the tree next to us. I guess they are partial to leftover deep dish pizza? |
