Flats. And More Flats. And Then...More Flats.

Today Bobby and I headed out, bikes strapped to our car, to meet our friend Matt and his friend Laura. We planned to drive to the trailhead, bike a portion of the bike trail that follows the river, eat lunch in the neighboring town, and then bike back to our cars. Round trip we'd be doing about 35 miles in great fall weather. Plus, the restaurant we were going to is seriously the only good Mexican food I have had since moving to Colorado. It was worth biking 15+ miles one way to be rewarded with that veggie chile relleno at the end. Trust me.


Bobby, ready for a (potentially cold) bike ride

Me, modeling my sweet argyle socks and "I'm a real cyclist!" padded shorts. They are pretty much not flattering at all because you look like you're wearing a diaper. But that extra half inch of padding truly does make a big difference.

I was telling Bobby he looked creepy driving with his gloves- there may have been a "Dexter" reference in there somewhere.

We got to the trail head and Bobby so kindly unstrapped our bikes from the car. It had warmed up a lot, and instead of being 49 degrees it was high 60's/low 70's.

I'm ready to go! Mostly I wanted to get to that Mexican food asap.

The start of the trail- fall has been beautiful here, but unfortunately the wind has been blowing like crazy this week and most of the leaves are gone now.

We did our first leg- 15 miles- and arrived to a patio table at the restaurant. Good food was had by all, we rested a bit, and then headed back out to finish out the ride.

Matt and Laura, waiting. Waiting for what, you ask? Oh just this...

Bobby discovered a flat tire as we were getting reading to head out. Luckily, he was prepared with a spare inner tube. He fixed it, and off we went to the Panaderia we had passed on the way in- I love traditional Mexican bakeries, freshly made churros are incredible.

So, we hit up the Panaderia, get a bunch of treats, and continue on our way in the lovely fall weather. There are no bike lanes in this town, so we had to use the sidewalk. We come across a toddler- seriously, younger than 2- playing in the sidewalk, unattended, in front of a house that faces a 4 lane busy road. While this was troubling, we were more concerned with the open front gate that was blocking the sidewalk completely. We had to veer off into the rocky strip that bordered the road, and as soon as we were back on the sidewalk, we discovered our tires were full of goathead stickers. Bobby's tire immediately went flat. Mine was full of stickers as well. Matt and Laura seemed ok. We decided I would wait with Bobby while Matt and Laura biked back to our cars. So, they left us, and we walked our bikes up to the park where the trail joined the street. As we turned the corner, we saw a girl walking her bike towards us... it was Laura. Her tire was now flat.

Laura decided to call her friends, and Bobby called Matt to let him know we would be getting a ride to the trailhead.

Once everything was settled, we tucked into our bakery treats and waited to be rescued. Laura's friends picked us up, and we made it back to the trailhead safe and sound. And as soon as we got home we headed straight to REI for new tubes and tires.

All in all, it was a very good Saturday.