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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX

Day 10, 11, 12: Flats, Fatigue, Finish Line – Oh Yeah!

Ok, sorry for not posting in the last few days, however we had no internet connection, no cell phone service, and even no TV for one of the hotels – which wasn’t a bad thing.

Day 10: Slept In

So, after my ordeal with the hail storm and Texas farm hands, I had a hard time getting to sleep early enough to get started at my usual 5-6am start time. So I slept in. I ‘thought’ it would be no big deal because I had a short 50 plus mile day. I got up around 8am and took Zander for a morning walk. We saw all the damage from the hail storm and Zander found a swing set on the camp ground we were staying at (we had a ‘cabin’ which was advertised as a luxury suite but turned out to be a cramped hotel room with a concrete floor shower.) Zander enjoyed the swing and I enjoyed the time I spent with him. Later I helped Stephanie pack the car and sent her up to the McDonald Observatory for the 11am tour as I finally hit the road. The elevation on the map showed a mostly downhill day. It seemed like a lot of rolling hills, a lot of climbing, and a few fun downhills. I actually enjoy the rolling hills more than the flat days, but it slows me down a bit.

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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX

Day 9: Headwinds, Hills, and Hail – Oh My!

The day started with me over sleeping. I got on the road at 7am local time – but before you give me too much grief – that’s 5am PHX time. Anyway, I started down the road at 7 and noticed there was a wind blowing that was headed my way. It took me an hour to get the first 8 miles behind me because of the headwind. Then I got my first flat of the day – yes, I said first flat. Apparently I ran over the metal fibers from a blow out at some point and those smaller-than-a-staple metal hairs have been working their way through the rubber on my tires since the first flat yesterday. Anyway, the real issue with this flat was that despite packing everything I needed to change the flat – a tube, a patch kit, a tire changing tool, and a CO2 pump, I still managed to forget to grab an extra CO2 canister! So, I had to call Stephanie at 8am (6am her time) to get up and bring me supplies 10 miles up the road.

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D-Tour 2007: Glendale, AZ to Del Rio, TX

Day 8: Mechanical problems – broken spoke, flat tire, and more…

The day started out great – I was feeling good and I left just before sunrise. I rode about 13 miles before the sun actually rose, and I was able to get some of it on my camera phone. I was making good time and my legs felt great. Then, about 20 miles into the day, I lost a spoke on my back tire. I may not have noticed it right away, except it was the spoke that had my computer magnet on it. So all of the sudden, the computer on the bike said zero miles an hour; since I was still moving at about 12 mph, I knew something was up. That has happened before – usually I just had to adjust the magnet a little to align it back up. When I went to adjust it, the whole spoke moved. So, I removed the broken spoke and took the magnet off by hand. I put it on another spoke and hand tightened it because I didn’t have a screwdriver.