In case you haven't heard by now, my Habitat for Humanity bike ride through southeast Minnesota last week turned into an atomic catastrophe, mainly caused by flat tires. Here is what I posted on Facebook a week ago Sunday...
The pothole that ruined everything. After riding into Spring Valley for Subway, I'm riding home and hit a massive pothole that gave me another flat... Front tire. I took out the tube...two holes. Took out my patch kit...the glue was all dried up. Saturday night in a small town... Out of options. Walked my bike two miles
Back to camp but stupidly took a bike trail that took me miles out of the way. Finally got back to camp and several barking dogs kept me up all night. No hope of getting a new tube or patch kit on a Sunday if I walk two miles back into town. And my tires are too wimpy on top of it all. I am aborting the mission. Sharon is coming to pick me up. I'm pi**ed, depressed, diasppointd, you name it. If you want your donations back I understand but I tried. Too many things went bad on day one for me to want to continue.
...So, as you can see, I rode from Rochester to Spring Valley,about 25 miles, before the flat times began to hit. No one was more relieved that I aborted the operation than my Mom who was worried about me riding in the stifling heat. I'll try again next year with thicker tires. By the way, thanks to donations from family, co-workers, my church (St. Mary's) and some friends, I raised about $1200 for Habitat of West Central Minnesota.
