The First Break Down

Well yesterday was our first break down. The game plan was to do between 40 an 60 miles on the Lake Wobegon Trail but that didn't go as planned. Kelly got in a thirty mile ride while I only got in a 15 mile ride and about a 3.5 mile walk in as we were about 15miles into our ride and my back tire blew out. It was beyond simple repair and patch it needed to be completely replaced and we didn't have an extra tube with. So Kelly made the 15mile ride back home got the car and picked me up in Saint Joseph, MN. During the walk back to the trail head a nice gentle man stopped and offered to fix it but he also only had a patch kit but he gave me some encouraging words since he had just recently road across Peru on his bike and was himself planning a cross county ride for 2010. It also goes to show how many nice people there are in the world and we look forward to meeting many more not only in our training but on our actual trip! One thing we learned is that we always need to be ready for anything! This has spurred us to continue adding to our gear and purchasing extra tubes along with a carrier. It's starting to come together very slowly, but we keep getting more and more excited with each ride and the increase in our gear!