[pictures added, journal entry below]
June 25, 2018
Day 8 – Ontario, OR to Boise, ID – 64 miles, 1,640 feet vertical
Ten men are sitting in a bar having a drink. Each man makes $30,000 a year. Bill Gates walks in and orders a drink. Now each man is making over $100 million a year – on average.
Well, on average, I’m getting less than a flat a day. But yesterday I had three.
Before I bore you with the gory details, let me first apologize for this late posting about yesterday’s ride. To celebrate the successful completion of the first segment of our ride (Astoria, OR to Boise, ID, 653 miles and 32,000 feet of vertical), and in anticipation of our first rest day, Audrey organized a beer pong tournament after dinner last night – “for all you older folks,” she said. Audrey is a former high school math teacher who is riding across country before switching over to Law School. She’s also the youngest female on our ride, but makes it a point to put up with us geezers. All I can say, is that after a couple of hours of beer pong, and then hitting a couple of downtown Boise bars, I was in no position to write anything. (Audrey is wise beyond her years and cautioned me against posting anything from the second bar. And it’s too bad, because it would have been really funny.)
Anyway, back to the statistics lesson. My bike had been fine since the double flat on Day 2, but yesterday morning, as I wheeled my bike and luggage out to the 7:30 load, I noticed something odd. The bike wasn’t rolling well. Uh, oh. I looked down and saw that both tires had gone flat over night. Ace tire changer Judy sprang into action on the front wheel while I changed the back. My hammer train stood by patiently (or impatiently, I really couldn’t tell), but we had waited a half hour yesterday when Jay’s crank fell off, so I figured we could beat that easily. And we did. The only problem was, we couldn’t find the reason for the flats. “Was anyone in your room last night?” Judy asked. “Um, … no.” “Are you sure?” she continued. “Hey, look, I was pretty tired, but I think I would have remembered.”
The good news was we finished the repairs pretty quickly, but the bad news was that we couldn’t find the reason for the flats. And, inevitably, the rear wheel went flat again at 48 miles. Garry kept me company as I fixed it and found the culprit – the tiniest and sharpest little piece of metal that had wormed its way into the rubber. I pulled it out with my tweezers and we were rolling again. Tami, Jay and Rich had waited for me under a shady tree. Randy had already peeled off to visit his Aunt, who happened to live near our route. Last night, I found the remaining culprit in the front wheel, so I hope that’s it for awhile.
Ok, enough of that, and thank you for listening.
The morning was sunny and clear, the air was fresh and crisp and we set out over beautiful and lush farmland. We smelled fresh spearmint. (Was spearmint a crop? I thought it was a weed.) Everyone was in a great mood, not just because of the change from pine-covered forest to farm crops, but because the weather was fantastic, we had an easy day of riding and a rest day ahead in Boise.
The hammer train even stopped for photo ops. (Let me repeat that – we actually stopped for photo ops!)
We got to Boise so early (just past noon) that we all decided to stop for a relaxing lunch at a wonderful bistro. When we got to a beautiful Courtyard by Marriott, all our rooms were ready. Life is good.
Click on the first picture below for an annotated slide show for more about today’s ride and don’t forget to click on “Where’s Jeff” at jeffblye.com
Journey with Jeff 
Three flats? “quelle poisse” as we say in french.. i remember that on my trans I didn’t experience a single flat from San Fran to …….. you going to laugh now.. “Paterson, NJ” where i got two in a matter of hours. Keep the writing, even if it means writing post beer pong. I am sure all who read it will agree it’s worth waiting for it
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Thanks for the solace, Andre. I may yet switch out my tires for a more impervious brand. Will reassess over the next few days. Et, merci beaucoups pour les gentils mots sur mon “blog”. Je suis content que vous l’appréciez.
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