the Way of the Turtle

ADVENTURES IN TRAVELING
One Flat & One Slow Leak
Friday, October 9, 2015

Took my bags out to the car for the drive down to Rosendale - and the front passenger side tire was totally flat. Given all the construction zones I've been driving through, not a huge surprise, but still - bleagh. Twenty sweaty minutes later I had the temporary spare mounted... given that I couldn't stay home without forfeiting both the race fee and (more expensively!) the cost of tonight's hotel room in Kingston, I decided it was worth the risk of driving down with no backup if another tire went flat. And hopefully I could find somewhere to get the tire repaired after the race tomorrow morning.

Just on a whim I checked the other tires after lugging my bags into the hotel room - and found the rear passenger tire much softer than it should have been. Aaargh! So I broke out the Fix-a-flat air pump I bought a few years ago, eventually figured out how to use the thing to actually pump sealant into the tire, and then drove over to Walmart to pick up a few more cans of Fix-a-flat, in case it's low again in the morning (or after the race.)

So right now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the back tire will hold air well enough to get me to Rosendale and then to someplace where I can get both tired checked and repaired as needed. It made it from Albany to Kingston without going flat, so it's not an unreasonable hope. And I guess if worst comes to worst I'll finally use my AAA membership for something other than hotel discounts.

JMH