Punctures and Precip

It had been so long since I'd flatted that I was wondering if my CO2 cartridges had expiration dates. I'd just left the house a couple of minutes earlier on very dark Monday morning, looking forward to an easy twenty miles on the levee. The bike lane along Carrollton was littered with Oak tree debris from Olga, the surprise tropical depression that had hit with winds easily twice what the weather service had predicted. My headlight was helping, but with the occasional car driving past me I had little choice but to ride through the mess and hope there wasn't something big enough to bring me down. I wasn't even to Willow Street when I felt the rear tire suddenly go flat. Up ahead I could see the bright light of the GNO Cyclery sign, so I limped a couple of blocks more and pulled into the parking lot. There was no sign of anything left in the tire that might have caused the puncture, so I put in a new (ok, all my spare tubes are patched, so not technically "new") inner tube, inflated the tire and continued. All was well for the rest of the ride, although it did get me to wondering just many miles that tire had on it.

This morning I was greeted with damp roads from an earlier shower and a weather radar image that looked like it would be OK for the next hour or two before the predicted three-days of rain would start. I was running about five minutes early, which was fortunate because as soon as I got up to the meeting spot on the levee, a train came by that would have otherwise stopped me in my tracks. At 6 am there were four of us, I think, and we knew that a couple of the regulars weren't planning on riding that day, so we went ahead, hoping we hadn't left anyone stranded on the other side of the train tracks.

There was a bit of wind, but nothing too severe, and once we got warmed up the pace was nice and steady. I have no idea what the speed was since it was too dark to read the computer, but probably around 23, with is fairly typical. By the time we were upriver of Jefferson Parish, though, it was just Rich and me. I always feel sorry for him when this happens since I know I don't offer much draft, even to normal people, and Rich is a fair bit taller than normal. Anyway, we kept up a pretty steady pace out to The Dip where we planned to turn back. Naturally, as soon as we got there, at the farthest point from home, we started to feel a few raindrops. That kind of kept us pushing the pace a bit on the way back, but fortunately we never got anything heavy enough to qualify as "rain" until the last few miles. We were just getting to the Jefferson Playground when my rear tire suddenly went flat. I immediately wondered if I'd missed something embedded in the tread the day before, but when I checked it I quickly discovered a piece of metal, like a staple, sticking out of it. I did a quick inner tube change and we continued on. I was thinking I'd get back home just before it started to really rain. Then the tire went flat again just as I was turning off of the bike path and going down to River Road which was at a standstill because of another train. So I rode up to the tracks and immediately found another metal staple sticking out of the tire. The train cleared, so Rich headed home after making sure I had another tube and CO2. By the time I got the tire fixed there was a steady stream of cars filled with frustrated drivers going both ways, so rather than try and cross the tracks right there, I instead rode in the opposite direction to Monticello and from there to Willow, since I'd have been there forever trying to get across both lanes. So if flats come in 3s, I guess I should be good for a while now!

By the time I got home it was raining, so I did end up getting somewhat wet. I had to get the dog to the Vet for a $600 checkup, and drop The Wife off for her own doctor's appointment, and then go back home to drop off the dog and then back to Baptist to pick up Candy to drive in to work, all in the rain of course. On the plus side, everything went quickly and I was at work just a bit after 10 am.