Day 11: I feel stupid
I have quite a few notes to turn into a journal entry today so this could be a long rambling entry. Feel free to skip.
After writing yesterday’s entry, I met a retired British couple called Mark and Amanda. They are 3 weeks into a 1 year tour that will include New Zealand, Thailand, Cambodia and the states. Being British, of course they brought a fucking kettle with them… And tea bags… Amanda also walked the Camino with her daughter a few months after me so it was cool to reminisce on the Camino experience. They are aiming for the same camp site as me tomorrow after which I imagine our paths will diverge.
Speaking of paths diverging, Tyler from camp the last few days had a deadline for which he needs to be in San Francisco meaning he needs to average 120km a day. And I am not going to do that! Matt will take a couple days rest so won’t see him again either. I can feel there will be many hellos and many goodbyes on this trip.
The cycling today seemed slow starting out so after about 8km I decided to pull over and pump up the tires. I guess this logic was good as the rear was down to 30 PSI. However, when attempting to attach the pump, the tube valve core came unscrewed and the pressure that was left in the tire sent it flying. The tire instantly deflated fully. Fuck.
After an initial quick search, I realized it was going to be a needle in a hay stack kinda job to find this thing. So I started de-weeding the entire area to get a good look and then going through it section by section. I should say the ground was mulchy kinda stuff so the valve core was well camaflouged. After spending maybe 20 minutes searching, I hear footsteps behind me. A police officer had pulled in further up the road and walked back to me. I guess I must have looked like quite the crazy person crawling around at the side of the road. He was just happy I wasn’t hurt. He also confirmed there was no bike shop in the nearest town. Fuck.
I started to weigh up options. Hide my bike in the bushes and walk to the nearest town anyway. Google said there was a bike rental shop so they might have what I needed. But first I widened my search a little more and found it. It was a good 6 foot from the bike. I inserted the valve core and pumped up my tire. Problem solved.
I then see Cris (from camp the last few nights) cycling up to me. I tell him what happened. He just looks at me and says “This is why I carry a spare tube”…
I stare blankly. I had 2 spare tubes. Which of course has the valve attached. I could have taken one from them.. Or just changed the tube. Because it wasn’t actually a puncture, I didn’t think of this. I felt very very stupid.
The rest of the day’s cycling was pretty relaxed. Cris and I kept running into each other throughout the day. Normally I don’t listen to music when cycling but a friend recommended some artist called “Low Roar” so decided to try listening to music while cycling. I don’t have headphones so I just put the music on full blast from the phone which was in my pocket. It didn’t really work. I couldn’t really hear with the wind. So I turned it off. Am listening to it now while writing this tho and it is pretty good. I am not a big music guy. I normally just let YouTube auto play do its work. But if you have any artist recommendations, I am all ears.
Am now checked into Cape lookout state park for the night. I initially and unknowingly set up camp in the “day use” area instead of the hiker biker sites. A couple of park rangers came over just as I finished setting up my tent to move me on. I can only presume the sight and smell of homeless bikers was disturbing the local population.
Shared a beer with Kerry who I met yesterday. He is quite the experienced bike tourer and has lots of experience touring and traveling in Baja California in Mexico. The Baja divide is a bike route in Mexico that I am considering doing so he gave me tons of useful advice on this. He also lives in San Diego which I will pass through so it is great to have a contact in the city (Thanks Kerry!).
It is now 5.30 so it is time to finish up this rambling and make dinner. I am about to make all my Irish ancestors turn in their graves. I cringe at the thought of it but I have mash potato from a packet for dinner. This feels so wrong but Mark and Amanda recommend trying it so I will try it once. God I can’t believe I bought “just add water” type mash potatoes… What have I become? Will report back tomorrow on this experiment.
