Tour Day 92 Bustin Balls Sept 25 2010

Last night I was sitting trying to fall asleep but my mind was just racing with thoughts about nothing. I was even trying to write a poem in my mind about the day that had past. I knew that I was starting to loose my mind again so I turned on the t.v. (the motel owner gave me the foreigner discount and charged me $20 bucks because I gave her 3 loonies) and forest gump was on. Now forest gump is one of my favourite movies and just gets better with age. What makes it even better now is that I have traveled to the same places he went to. For some reason this really got me thinking, just the thing I was trying to avoid and I broke down. It was like the day I got out of terranova park in Newfoundland (day 48 if I remember correctly).

When I woke up I felt surprisingly refreshed. That was until I grabbed onto my bars. In the night one of my palm calluses popped and made it painful to grip onto the bars in one of my three positions I ride in. After a while once my body got warmed up I was able to deal with the pain.

I was on the road to Houston and decided to look at my piece of garbage map to try and plan a route through Houston. Thinking ahead I even made a back up plan, and wouldn’t you know it worked. I was so pumped because I finally got through a large city without having to do circles for 30minutes. I must say Houston was a pleasant surprise. It was really clean and very well laid out. Even better the roads were amazing. If you got on the freeway you had 3 lanes of uninterrupted traffic then two lanes on the side where all the stoplights and such were. It helped avoid some anxiety because in some cities you have to fight with traffic passing you at 65 miles an hour.

By this point in the day it was getting hot. It was getting close to 95 degrees and I was sweating like a beaver yet again. Luckily it is starting to become a dryer heat but still hot as balls none the less. I was really starting to regret my 1 litre of milk at my snack break by lunch because it was just ripping apart my insides. Really though that did not bother me because I was having a good day. I mean I got stopped on the freeway by a guy looking to tour across America, I had a neutral wind and the roads were flat so I could lock into a cadence and shut off my brain.

All was going well. I passed my rest stop and pushed on the extra 21 miles in the scorching heat. I was running low on water so I stopped at the bk lounge to top up with some fresh ice. At that point I was 3 miles away from my rest stop. I come out the door and hop on my bike and ride 20 feet and notice my rear tire is soft. No way, not now, not this close to the end of a good day. I just kept riding hoping I could make it to the end. I wanted so much to believe it was not another flat. I wanted to think my luck wasn’t that bad. It kept getting lower and lower so I stopped and pulled the tube out but because I was on the freeway I couldn’t hear where this pinhole flat was coming from. I did not want to waste a good tube so I just pumped up the tube and limped 2 miles. By this point I had the city within sight and the pinhole flat was a full-blown hole because no pumping was going to get this inflated. I just mashed the power through the pedals and got increasingly frustrated with every metre. I threw the bike in the ditch and gave it one last pump to get some morsel of air. This is when I realized I have been using my pump so much the shaft has started to bend. By this point I was grinding my teeth with anger but I still kept pedaling to the downtown.

I pulled into the motel and could care less about my bike I simply left it where it lay and walked in with sweat burning in my eyes again. This is where the lady asks “would you like a room for the night?” “Yes I would”. “How much?” $100” “holy piss you bustin my nuts right”. “no the antique show is in town. I know its ridiculous. Just bad luck.” “Is there anywhere cheaper in an 18 year old bike tourist I cant do that”. “the cheapest place is 3 miles away and is $79”. “Screw it lets just do it here in tired, sweaty, and frustrated”. “I can see that. Have a good night sir.”

Damn antique show I mean how many people come to town to buy old used garbage. That’s like saying o we have raised our rates because the local waste transfer site is open to the public.
Trip Distance: 198km
Ride Time: 8:46hr
Avg. Speed: 22.61km/h
Total Distance: 14003km
Total Ride Time: 647hr
Destination: Brenham, Texas