Today was a tough day, but we made it!
Math Question: You have 6 extra inner tubes and you get 3 flat tires - how many inner tubes do you have left? In our case the answer was zero. Last Wednesday when we got 3 flat tires in 30 minutes we believed we had 6 extra inner tubes. After the first flat, we realized that the small bag under my dads seat was missing. We are still not sure whether we left it someplace or if it fell off - we are trying to track it down. That bag had 3 new inner tubes, and a lot of tools for our bike. Luckily 3 inner tubes were in a different bag and we used them all. We planned to stop in Alpine, the only city between Marathon and Fort Davis, to stock up on inner tubes at the bike shop. Seven miles away from Alpine I got a flat tire. I was too far behind my dad to catch up (trust me, I tried) so I decided to try to call him on our new pay-as-you- go phone. I decided it would be smart to ride slowly while I tried to call him. That turned out to be a pretty bad idea because the inner tube came out of the tire, and wrapped itself around the gears of my bike! The back tire was completely jammed up so walking the bike wasn't an option. I got in touch with my dad, and he came back to help. After untangling the tube from the gears, we decided to patch an old inner tube that had a small hole in it (luckily we had it, because this inner tube was shredded up and un-patchable). Thankfully the patch held out, and we made it to Alpine! The name of the bike shop was The Bikeman... and John (the owner) is literally that.... The Bikeman (he knew all the tricks for fixing bikes)! He adjusted our brakes, put a new chain on my bike, and sold us thorn resistant inner tubes (along with a few regular, less space consuming ones). He also put a new tire on my back wheel that is thorn resistant, so hopefully I'll have less flat tires! He gave us some great tips on tire changing, and he was kind enough to share some of his home grown/ home dried tomato 'chips.' They were delicious (see pics below of the drier)! He also told us in Texas "if it doesn't sting you, stick you, or bite you... its a rock!" As we rode away, we decide to stop at the next gas station to fill up our waters and get some snacks. As we were getting ready to leave the gas station, we saw storm clouds on the horizon. To our left, the skies were cloudless and blue, but to our right (the way we were going), the sky was almost black! We looked at the weather on my dad's iPhone, and saw that there was a stationary storm over Fort Davis, with frequent cloud to ground lightning. We waited for close to 2 hours before we started biking in hopes that the rain had stopped. We put on our rain gear and headed out. Before leaving we spoke to a man who told us we were going to encounter some significant hills that we would need to walk up with all our gear (he obviously didn't realize who we were, because we were able to make it up those hills without getting off our bikes). The rain had indeed stopped, but the head winds were the strongest we have encountered the entire trip! We were pedaling on flat ground, but it felt like we were going up very steep hills. We took off our rain gear because it was acting like a sail, pushing us in the wrong direction. We were worried that the winds would remain this strong for the remaining 25 miles, but they died down after about an hour. We hit some tough hills just before entering Fort Davis, and we were very happy to see our motel on the horizon. Tired from a long week, we showered, ate dinner, then went to bed.
The beer of the day was Miller Highlife. This beer was very drinkable, but lacked originality (which isn't such a bad thing). As for our rating, we give it a 6.7 out of 10.
Today (Saturday) we relaxed by the pool (it wasn't really swimming weather... it was cloudy/ rainy all day) for a little while, and spoke to Randell (the motel owner) who was very nice and very informative about the area. He told us about the EFI Club (Every "Freaking" Inch Club - where some bikers insist on doing every inch of the exact route on the Adventure Cycling maps) We assured him we are not part of that club. He then told us about a shorter way to get to Van Horn (about 12 miles shorter) which will help us avoid having to camp in Kent (a city in between Fort Davis and Van Horn on the Adventure Cycling maps) and also will help us avoid a significant rise and fall in elevation. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day, but we think we can do it... especially on a day's rest.
Today (Saturday) we relaxed by the pool (it wasn't really swimming weather... it was cloudy/ rainy all day) for a little while, and spoke to Randell (the motel owner) who was very nice and very informative about the area. He told us about the EFI Club (Every "Freaking" Inch Club - where some bikers insist on doing every inch of the exact route on the Adventure Cycling maps) We assured him we are not part of that club. He then told us about a shorter way to get to Van Horn (about 12 miles shorter) which will help us avoid having to camp in Kent (a city in between Fort Davis and Van Horn on the Adventure Cycling maps) and also will help us avoid a significant rise and fall in elevation. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day, but we think we can do it... especially on a day's rest.
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