Father's Day Failure

The old blog frequency has really dropped off since I broke my thumb; I guess I don't think writing about riding back and forth to work isn't very exciting. To compensate for the lack of content, I've given the blog a "fresh" new look.

Saturday I did a nice hilly loop through the Farmington Valley. Technically I don't know if it was actually the "Farmington Valley" but I did see the river two or three times, so that's good enough for me.

But for Sunday I had hatched this great plan; I'd ride down to the beach to see my Dad for Father's Day. Being Father's Day, I had carte blanche to do what ever ride I wanted, so this seemed like one hell of a plan.

I had some route ideas, but I consulted Google Maps to get a second opinion. They have this nifty feature where you can drag the route over to the roads you want, and it appeared "my route" was going to be a little longer than I wanted. So I chose a Google "bicycle" friendly route of about 50 miles.

Bad move. Google shot me through all sorts of residential, and commercial areas that I probably would have rather avoided. Then I miss one of Google's turns and ended up on an even crappier route. North of Middletown was all like this.

Once I got to Saybrook Rd. / Rt 154, I thought it would be smooth sailing, only it seemed years ago DOT tried a paving experiment that failed along the first stretch of road. The road was concrete and the shoulder was asphalt. The concrete had a sharp, defined edge, so you could either ride in the center of the lane pissing off motorists, or take your chances with the debris in the broken, neglected tarmac.
I chose the latter.
Not a lot of fun.

Finally out off Middletown and into Higganum, and Haddam the road starts improving. So does the scenery. Bucolic country roads. Nice. Making up for some wrong turns...

Pfftttssssssss.

I get a flat!
A quarter inch gash that the sealant won't plug.


Normally no big deal, I'll just slap on my spare and continue on.
But I must have done the best job ever of gluing my tire on, as the base tape is sticking to the rim and the casing is pealing away from it.




Thumbs are helpful changing tubulars.

Now here's where I really blow it. While I'm trying to strip the stuck base tape off the rim, I loose track of what I'm doing and touch the rim to the ground. Now my glue has been effectively nullified.


I could meticulously scrap the debris from the rim with my mini-screwdriver, but looking at the time, and how far I am from my parents house, the towel is thrown in. Of course Kim's phone is off, so It's Mom to the rescue.

Got to see my parents, and got 40 miles in so I guess the glass really is more than half full.