Blowout!

Here at the Carolina Clan Gathering, during the day, you pretty much can do what you want, when you want.  There is no hard and fast schedule, a few times we did have some activities like the great kayaking adventure.

Another day we had a give away, everyone could bring something that they no longer needed and anybody that wanted the item could have it.

Bill, having had a career in sales, did his best to “sell” the unwanted items to folks gathered around.   He had no idea what most of the items were.  But then,  with his talent, he could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo.

His best sale?  This item, which he had absolutely no idea what it was…

…to Nancy, his wife!  She almost jumped over the others to get it.  ;c)

Huntington Beach State Park has beautifully paved roads great for bike riding.  Marti and I couldn’t wait to jump on our Dahon foldable bikes and take a spin around the park.  We hadn’t used them in a while and the tires were low.  No big deal, I whipped out my tire pump and aired up all the tires.  Just as I finished the last tire…POW!  I think I over inflated the tire causing it to blow.  Duh!

The rear tire on my bike blew out.  Great.  Some years back, I had a flat and I bought two tubes, one to fix the flat and one to keep as a spare for a future flat.  Yep, do you think I could find that tube? 

A search ended up in a complete reorganization of some of our basement compartments, and…no tube.

Hence our trip to Walmart to get a tube. Not only did I buy two tubes (another spare to lose somewhere else in the Journey), I bought a new tire pump with a built in pressure gauge.  Not going to make the same mistake twice.

Back to the Journey, I removed the wheel, inserted the new tube and put everything all back together.  Then the fun began.  The new tire pump has a different attachment for the tube valve stem.  It works exactly opposite of my old pump.  Somebody thought they had a better mousetrap. Not!

 

To use the new one and prevent it from pushing the valve stem into the rim before it can be locked on, I had to use some vice grips to hold the stem.  Sheesh!

I inflated the tire, put it back on the bike and spun it to make sure everything was aligned properly and found the tire also has a hole in it where the tube blew out.  Double Sheesh!!

Hence, another trip off to Walmart, to get a new tire this time.

Yada, yada, came back, put tire on wheel, put wheel on bike, inflate and finally it was done.

Now we were ready to go for a ride…finally.  Now we’re Happy! 

Off we went for a trouble free ride.  Right….

A little ways down the road, my rear fender started rubbing on the tire.  A bolt (seen here on Marti’s bike),

fell off of my bike, letting the fender drop down on the tire.

What to do?  Bungee cord to the rescue!

Good thing I had a bungee cord, because I wasn’t carrying any duct tape!  :c)

The End! 

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