Almost a great ride

The other day someone told me about this great site called http://www.bikely.com/ so I checked it out and found a route new to me and near my area. Quite a bit of it followed along the Grand River so I was looking forward to that...of course I didn't end up seeing the river till the point in which I was turning off that Hwy, lol. Oh well.
Today was a great day for a ride though. Absolutely beautiful weather out, 18 degrees when I started, rose to about 24 degrees. 15km/hr NW winds. Wasn't too bad. Traffic was fairly light for the most part but it's funny how the cars seem to drive by in packs.

So anyhow why was it almost a great ride? Well after having riden already 58 km I was on the home stretch, back on familiar roads, about 7 km left to go. Feeling a bit hungry and a wee bit tired but otherwise feeling great. I was setting up for the 3rd last hill, hitting some higher gears when I felt it and heard my rim scrapping against the road...noooooooooo. I had blown a tube somehow, though funny I hadn't heard it blow, shoot must have ridden over something sharp.

So off I get, dump everything out of my seat pack, thinking I sure hope I do this right this time. I was actually doing pretty good too, managed to get the tire off the rim fairly easily, took out the tube, didn't see where the hole was so I ran my fingers along the inside of my tire just to make sure there was nothing sharp still in there. So I got my tube in all set to be blown up, set up my CO2 cartrige and...nothing...great...what did I do wrong this time. Stupid valve didn't get punctured and there was noooo way I could tighten it any tigher. That's it, I am done with those cartriges, they never work for me!! I am officially buying a small pump for my road bike!

So now what to do? Well this is why you always carry a cell. Called home to see if my roomate happend to be there...nope...next called a few friends from Brantford...none of them were home....hmmm. Well you know maybe I will just go knock on that lovely house's door across the street. Thankfully a girl about my age answers the door. "Sorry to bother you but by chance would you happen to have a bike pump?" Well she didn't have a pump but she was on her way into Brantford and would be willing to drop me off at my place. WOW how awesome is that. "Thank you sooo much I really appreciate it." So I went and put my bike back together as she finished getting ready, then loaded my bike in her truck and off we went. It's amazing where you can find good samaritans, eh! Sure saved me about a 30-40min walk back home lugging my bike along.

So sadly I didn't get my full ride in but up to that point it was great none-the-less.
58km in 2 hours 10 min. (suppose to be a 66km route)
26.5km average