Sep 14-16 - where do I start ?

Recap -- I flew to Buffalo on Friday, arriving there at 9pm.  I then drove to Port Elgin Ontario, arriving there before 2am on Saturday but did some bike work until 3am (prep for ride, change tires); rode 200k on Saturday starting at 8am and attended a dinner that night; went to Mass and then the Annual General Meeting of our bicycle club on Sunday, then drove to Florida, arriving on Monday around 5pm.  It was indeed a whirlwind.

The flight and drive went like clockwork.  It's a long haul from Buffalo to Port Elgin, mostly on Route 6 through Guelph and northwards, jogging through small towns but it was very late with little traffic. 

The trip south I modified for variety, driving from Port Elgin to Sarnia, crossing there and getting onto I94 to Detroit then I75 south.  Rather than drive through Atlanta, I opted to head east on I40 through Tennessee which links to I26 then to I95 and the usual route south. 

I75 through Ohio is unpleasant, heavy traffic the entire time in Ohio Toledo=>Dayton=?Cincinnati.  This used to be our route to Florida and it hasn't gotten any better.  I opted to sleep at Rest Stops along the Interstates, catching 1.5 hours the first time and then 2.5 hours, sleeping in the back seat of the car.  I stopped at 10:30 on Sunday night for the first few winks and then 3:30 to 6:00 a.m. along I26.  There was an 8 mile backup approaching Columbia that took 1.5 hours to traverse.  Nasty.  They were just cleaning up the accident when I got to it so didn't really see what was blocking most of the highway, which is almost 6 lanes wide at that point where two lanes head to Columbia; two lanes to I26 and two lanes to I20. 

When I got to the border in Canada, the guy said -- where do you live -- "Florida" -- anything to declare -- "no" ... go ahead. There were about 6 open lanes with 3 occupied.  In contrast, the border at Sarnia was unpleasant.  Unpleasant isn't the correct word ... flat, humorless, you're-probably-trying-to-put-something-over-on-me.  There were only 4 cars ahead of me but it was very, very slow, taking about 5 minutes per car.  "Where've you been" was the first question -- "we have a cottage north of Parry Sound, coming from a bike ride in Port Elgin" -- "Anything to declare ?" -- "no" -- "Food ?" -- "no" -- "You've got a lot of stuff in there, sure you didn't acquire anything in Canada" -- "no"  (the car was empty !, two small bags and the bike) -- long pause, trying to find something else to ask me, something to hold me there for more time ... then go ahead.  There was probably another question in there but I forget what it was. 

The bike ride would have been great, despite the cold (2C) start.  I'd only gone 25km and got a flat.  Rats.  Then I remembered that a) the little carbon pump on the yellow bike isn't something that you want to have on a 200k; b) I didn't have any tube patches if I really had multiple flats.  I couldn't find the leak, couldn't even pump the flat tube up fast enough with the stupid pump to find a hole.  Ah well, put in new tube (only had three, one had died the night before replacing tires) ... wouldn't pump up.  Remove tube, try to pump up, no go.  DOA Tube, that's all that I need !  Put another tube in, pump up.  It takes 250 pumps to get enough pressure in the tire to ride.  Fun.  It's still soft though.

So, with one tube remaining and no patches, I ride on, now about 1/2 hour behind everyone else (25 riders) thinking that if I really run out of tubes, I'll have to pay someone to take me back to Port Elgin.  Great. 

I gradually catch the bunch up, getting more confident as time goes on that obviously I don't have some tire problem that is going to work its way through this tube.  At 120km, Owen Sound, they're all at the Tim Horten, some about to leave.  I've done pretty well in the wind by myself, all things considered.  I add a little more air to the tire (this is the rear tire) using Rolf's pump -- same one that I have on the Lynskey, nice pump.

I drink down my chocolate milk and ride off, catching up to Dick and Vytas who are with Carey and Donna, who are on a tandem.   We come into the next Control, now around 160km ridden, and stop for a few minutes, suck on a gel, get my card signed, then Dick and I are going to continue.  I walk my bike onto the road from the sidewalk and then psssttttt, with a loud-but-not-bang, the tire goes flat.  What the heck ?

I pull off the tube and tire, check out the tube and find that the hole is on the inside, facing the spokes.  Oh oh.  I check the spoke holes and the thin plastic rim strip is all rippled, looks almost like it's been melted (Aaron riding hard on the trainer?), and several spoke holes are exposed.  More oh oh.  I do the best that I can recovering the holes and use some electrical tape from Dick to help.  Both Dick and I tried to use Aaron's CO2 inflator, but it seems to be DOA as well.  Dick lends me his and I inflate the tire.  So far so good.

We ride off -- Dick, Carey and Donna, Vytas and I.  Dick drops back and then I end up dropping Carey/Donna and Vytas on a hill.  I get a few more kms down the road and I've got another flat.  Now about 20kms from the end, I stop to fix.  I have a tube from Dick in my pack.  Carey/Donna and Vytas go on, they're trying to hit the LCBO before it closes.  Dick and many others are behind, so I'm not worried.  Besides, I'm getting close enough now to either ride on the rim or walk. 

I start fixing the tire, Dick comes along.  He says that he's going to ride on but as we chat, I replace the tube, opting for a very soft inflation so as to reduce chance of spoke-hole damage.  I finish the ride with Dick, catching to to Carey/Donna because she has an LCBO bag slung over her shoulder -- the advantages of riding tandem !

It would have been a great ride except for the flats.  I was on edge the entire time to Owen Sound thinking that I'd have another flat and be hiking back to Port Elgin.  I didn't pass any Canadian Tire stores or anything that looked like it might sell bicycle tubes.  This is really small town Ontario.  The weather was great; the wind is always present on the shores of Lake Huron.   That's why there are seemingly hundreds of windmills there on the Bruce Peninsula. 

There are many morals to this story.  Check equipment prior to ride even if it's "only a 200k".  It isn't enough to check wheels -- had I changed those tires at the cottage, I could have done something about the rim strip, although I still might not have believed that it was going to cause me problems.  Don't be lazy.  Don't leave things until the last minute.  Why didn't I use my normal rando wheels ?  Why didn't I have electrical tape, my normal spares, a patch kit for heaven's sake ...  I know why I didn't have my normal pump -- I forgot to bring it from Florida.  Three tubes would have been enough, except for the DOA.  Four tubes is my rule but I lost one changing the tire the night before the ride (morning before the ride, to get technical). 

This is randonneuring, all about self-sufficiency.  That said, it's ok for your buddies to help you.  I've helped others with tubes and tires, other mechanical issues.  This was my quid-pro-quo.  Dick saved my ride but the problems took the fun out of it.  Oh well, I've added another story to my bag.

Dinner at Rosario's was great, a good crowd and we had a separate room.  The AGM was somewhat anti-climactic, after all the work done on the Granite Anvil this year, so matter-of-fact.  Perhaps I expected some motion from the floor to acknowledge the work that the committee did, the success of the ride, who knows.  We got a lot of praise from the riders, that's what counts.

I left the AGM at 1pm, stopping at Canadian Tire just down to the road to get a socket splitter so that I could plug cell phone, NAV etc. in at the same time.  Not too long afterwards I cooked that by plugging the coffee maker into it, forgetting that there would be a fuse in the plug.  Rats.  Every time I stopped on the way down I looked for those little fuses, with no luck.

The coffee maker made what amounted to one shot of espresso before it died.  I didn't have a screwdriver in the car to open it up; I knew exactly what the problem was, had happened before -- another lack of spares ?  The X5 has spare everything in it, our normal travel car.  I bought another coffee maker at a Pilot Travel Center, a better one than the Canadian Tire one anyway.  I made soup and coffee, three times each, along the trip.

Sandy's car needs work, that's why we brought it down.  Clutch just about done and shuddering, was definitely a problem along that 8 mile crawl up hills with that accident.  I was wondering if I'd make it.  There are other vibrations in the front end, like out of balance wheels/tires.  The radiator fluid level came on as I arrived in Port Elgin, something else to worry about but I figured that it was just the miniscule leak of a cup per month that I've experienced since the thermostat replacement.  I topped it up and it didn't cause problems.  I don't think that the old hoses mated well with the new thermostat.  I'll check that out at some point.

Onward ... no conference calls with RO for a bit ...