Finally, a Flat Tire! (Cindy says this one is for bike geeks)

When Cindy and I rode across country ten years ago on a tandem, we had flat tires almost daily. We replaced both tires several times and got very good at patching tubes and pumping up tires along the way. But it was not fun.

This trip has been the opposite. (Yes, hear the loud knocking on wood once again), Joe and I have not, until today, had a flat tire.That means we have ridden a total of almost 3800 miles and have had one flat tire. That seems almost impossible to me, and I have yet to have a flat. For those of you who have an interest in things bicycle, I have been riding on Schwalbe Marathon tires.The rear tire is getting pretty worn at this point so I've ordered a new set of them and had them sent to a post office down the road aways so I install them on my bike.

You may have read a few days ago on my blog that I am riding the oldest Trek 520 made from the year 1983. My riding buddy, Joe Ossmann, is riding a brand new Trek 520. While almost everything has changed about the 520's between 1983 and 2010, the 520 is still the bike to buy if you want to do cross-country touring. His bike is as steady as any bike I've ever seen. It is built to carry heavy loads and deliver them safely at the other end of the country. The bike comes with the Bontrager touring tires that have seemed not to wear at all over these first 1800 miles, until today.

Despite the flat, we are now in a beautiful little town called Watford City, North Dakota. We are in the Central time zone, but because of a really zig-zag time zone line, we will be back in Mountain Time tomorrow night. Joe and I will leave extra early tomorrow morning because we have an 85 mile day and they are predicting heavy head-winds in the afternoon. We'll try to get in as many miles as we can before the big winds start.

Hope you all are doing well. We miss you and look forward to our return to the Sacramento/Stockton community.