Tandem Jaunt

So it was a pretty busy weekend. Some of the gang from work hit the slopes on Friday and spent a very nice day snowboarding and skiing. I had a very good day, hardly fell at all except for one memorable tumble on a packed cat track which made me quite happy to have a helmet. Even with the helmet I came out of it slightly stunned and with a sore head. I of course accused Sinan of taking us up that run just to get rid of me. Dick explained to him that he should have invested in a breakaway helmet for me.
Anyway we had a great time and on the drive down I got a call from Max my tandem buddy. She wanted to know if we were riding the next day, Saturday. See we made plans (wine might have been involved) to do a 100k and 200k in early March. So some time on the bike was in order! We agreed that around noon was a great time to start out.
So Saturday after a bit of a lie in and some excellent oatmeal (plus some house cleaning but let’s not go there) we set off for an unknown distance on an unknown route. It was a beautiful spring day so the route gradually morphed into one with a maximum of lakeside riding eventually ending up as a south lake Washington loop route. Max was really feeling her oats and pushed the pace any time any racer boys had the temerity to get close or even worse pass us. I on the other hand was feeling the snowboarding I had done the day before. The legs were a little tired, but it was such a nice day it did not really matter and we flew down towards Seward park. In one of the route morphs we decided to do a south lake loop and so I made an abrupt turn to head up. In the turn I felt that strange out of control feel in the bike that told me that we had a flat. On stopping we found the rear tire soft but not flat so decided to pump it and go on. A few miles down the road in a busy Rainier avenue we had to stop and pump again at which point we knew we had to change the tire but decided to see if we could get to a more pleasant spot to do it. After a quick pump we went off and around the Renton airport and rolled to a stop in a Boeing walkway to change the tube. At this point I realized several things: only 1 of my two spares was the correct size, I was being particularly clutzy and my patch kit had migrated elsewhere. So between the being a clutzy and being extra careful I took forever to change that tube. In randonneur mode I could have had dinner and a nap in the time it took! No worries though no one was waiting for us or laughing at us so off we went…. Eventually….
After a quick stop for some supplies at target and a bathroom stop at Gene Coulin park we continued on around the lake when another turn and I felt that same squirelly feeling along with a sinking feeling about the lack of patches or spares…. No we had not missed a piece of glass this flat was due to a defect in the rubber near the stem. In any case we called for a pickup and started walking. Pretty soon an older gentleman came along and offered help. He had a patch kit and a lecture on being more prepared for us and pretty soon we were on our way…..