Screw it! We'll just walk!

My tire was flat this morning after David filled it up yesterday afternoon, so he changed the inner tube. In the process, he discovered that my tire was in bad shape, and I'd need a new one. The closest bike shop would be in Alpena, where we plan to go tomorrow. Nothing to do but take our chances. 

Today's ride took us through Huron National Forest, miles of winding roads through beautiful country. We had a good 20 miles of quiet riding with very little traffic to interfere with the sounds of gears and crickets and birds. This is my favorite kind of riding.

Unfortunately, sometimes on  quiet rides there is nowhere to stop along the way, so when we ran out of water and became hot and thirsty, there were no businesses on our route where we could refill the water bottles. There was also no place to stop for lunch (don't worry- I made sandwiches). I kept hoping there would be somewhere to stop for water just over the next hill, but nothing ever materialized (thanks a lot, optimism!). Finally, we pulled over, and Alex used the water from the melted ice in the cooler to give us each a little more to drink. 

The first half of the ride, as I said, was fantastic. The Au Sable River would appear intermittently through the trees, sometimes with pasty white canoeists paddeling shirtless, sunning themselves like albino turtles. I haven't investigated yet how many Bigfoot sightings there have been in the Huron National Forest, but it seemed to me a great place for a Squatch to hide, along with his moonshine still. It had everything a moonshining Squatch would need: tree cover, a fresh water source... Why wouldn't he do this? What else does he have to do? And I'm pretty sure he would know how to deal with shirtless canoe people. 

We took more frequent breaks as the miles dragged on. About 1 1/2 miles outside of Harrisville, David got a flat tire.  Alex and I to went on into town to find something cold to drink while he pushed his bike in to change the flat. When a passing stranger outside the  grocery store asked us about our bikes, I explained our situation and asked him where to find a place to stay as we'd had kind of a bad day and didnt feel like setting up camp. That's when Alex noticed my tire was flat. Seeing we were in a tight spot, the stranger offered to take David to Kmart 15 miles away if necessary to purchase more inner tubes. 

After the patch work on the dead inner tubes didn't appear to be going so well, David gave the man a call from the hotel room we found to make life a little easier tonight.    I guess the only bad thing about staying here is that there is nowhere to wash laundry close by. I asked the owner if there wre facilities here, but she said no and proceeded to give directions to a laundromat. "It's only a mile," she said. "You could walk or ride your bike." True, but not what you want to hear after a lot of tough miles. I thanked her anyway but didn't explain. She probably thinks I'm lazy and rude because I may have rolled my eyes when she said it was only a mile. 

Tomorrow we set out early for Alpena to get to a bike shop before it closes at noon. At least that's the plan. 

Meanwhile, after David took his trip to Kmart, we were finally able to go out for a good meal. PBJ and bananas are great, but we needed some better fuel for our empty tanks. 

PS: the inner tubes David picked up are too big for our bikes. Let's hope the patch work he's done on the old one holds for the ride tomorrow. Also, Alex says he knows where we went wrong today and has suggested that when we are riding uphill in the future, we should push down harder on the pedals so we can go faster. What a scientist!