The best worst day ever

I huffed and I puffed and I found a convenience store small enough to have a makeshift bathroom installed into one of their closets.

Instant relief!!!

Ahhhhhh the "annoyance" was as least 82% better and I strolled outside the door to see the boys riding up to me. "Feel better Gene?" Adam shouted.

"Like you wouldn't believe! Let's get out of here". 70 miles down and 60 to go. I couldn't close my eye, every time my lid hit the spot on my eye the inflammation got worse, so I let the wind have it's way with cyclops.

We were about 10 miles out of what I guess we'll call "that town", and we were riding at a strong pace when a loud explosion went off beneath my bicycle seat. Startled, I stopped immediately and looked down the road in hopes to find the item that set off said reaction. I followed the yellow line on the shoulder closer and closer to my bicycle right up to my tire and there it was... bye bye tire. I can't even imagine how it happened. Somehow the tube INSIDE my tire erupted and blew a hole THROUGH my tire. We only had one tire casing and fortunately it was mine (yes, my father packed it), there was also only one tube left. So I raced like Nascar to flip that bitch so we could get rubber to the road and back on our way again to Saint Marys, GA... only another 50 miles.

We fled like banshees to make up for lost time. The sky was starting to burn, the sun was setting and the horizon's edge was turning to amber. It must have been about 7 O'clock right then and my phone started to ring. I reached into my fanny pack (yes, if by now you didn't realize I was wearing a fanny pack... you should have. Because it was awesome. And yes, sometimes I wore it to the bars. Because I could) and pulled my phone out. It was Brian Ross, a connection from a friend in Denver, friends with the Brian from last night that helped us get our day off to such a fast start, and our "host dad" tomorrow night in Jacksonville, FL. "Gena! How's it going!" I couldn't do anything but burst out laughing knowing good karma had to be waiting for us around the corner. However, we'd have to wait a few corners, because this corner let out a hisssssss. We were maybe 15 miles beyond the tire blowout and I thought... SNAKE! Firecracker! ah! Steve shouted from behind me, "GENA. PULL OVER". What now...

I rode to the side, unclipped from my bike and looked down to see a Nine Inch Nail... no just kidding, it was only a 2 inch nail piercing through my tire... twice. Yes. My brand new tire now had breathing holes and our last tube was shot. "SSSSSSHIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!"

Steve told me to calm down, which was actually very hard to do while standing in a swarm of evening mosquitos. I google mapped for a bike shop but nothing was nearby and they were all closed anyway. Should we thumb a ride? At first I didn't know what to do, I stood there in a daze just thinking, "really?? today of all days...". But then instinct and common sense kicked it. We still had the back-up. Thank God for Derek and the Bunny Hop Bicycle shop 800 miles back. Our "host dad" and BMX guru, Derek, 11 homes back in Richmond, VA made us keep a tube with a small leak, "you never know when you'll be in a pinch with no access to a fresh tube. Just keep it, this will be an easy one to patch" Thank you Derek.

30 minutes later we were back at it, the sky was fading back to blue and gray by this point. Traffic was getting heavy too as we were edging further into another community. There were a lot of corners to take and street signs to watch for, but I let the boys take the lead on this one. In hindsight... looking back... no, looking up at Adam from a tangled mess of aluminum, bent handle bars, and blood on my knuckles made me wish I hadn't been the one following. See we must have taken a wrong turn, but without a map or the ability to read Adam's mind there would be no way for me to know this unless one of the guys shouted back or signaled "turning". Which of course they didn't, thus why I was tangled in aluminum (I'd ran into Steve's trailer tire as he turned right. Since I was riding on Steve's right and his bike discontinued forward motion it was basically an obstacle just waiting to be hit). I looked up at them with disgust. Severe disappointment. I was in the smack dab middle of the lane and a car was heading straight for me, but I didn't want to get up until they could both see how extremely PISSED OFF I was! Argh!

I scraped myself up and drug my bike to the corner and very quietly and full of contempt said, "next time you turn... make sure you signal". Adam burst out laughing! "You so want to kill us right now don't you?! You are so angry. You know you owe Steve and I a shot right? Your hands are bleeding." I could hardly contain myself... I wanted to be mad so bad! but I couldn't keep from smiling, "You idiot, let's get outta here".