"Billy...you're flat again"

This is what I heard from B as I was peddling up a hill in Ct. Probably the 4 worst words I possibly could have heard this morning by far. For those of your scoring at home its Road- 4 Me- 0.

Normally I am not a very emotional person, you can ask my family, friends, and probably a few ex-girlfriends that would say that usually nothing bothers me...I am usually very relaxed and just go with the flow of things. That said after my tire blew I had about a 2 mile walk to where we were hoping I could get a new tire, during that walk I felt just about every possible human emotion in the following order: anger that my tired went flat for the 3rd day in a row, sadness that I was now holding the rest of the group up for the 2nd morning in a row, disappointment that if I could not get my bike fixed soon my trip may be over and I will not get to enjoy riding up to Fenway like I had planned, the final emotion occurred somewhere around the 1 mile mark I decided that for some reason these flat tires were happening and that under no circumstance could I allow this to stop me from making it all the way to Boston. I don't care if i have to walk, or how many times I have to get my tire changed I HAVE to finish. If I dont finish it would make all the miles done before hand useless, it would also ruin the fact that we are doing this for charity. So despite all the previous feeling of just wanting to pull over to the side of the road, throwing my bike in the woods, getting in a taxi, and going home I am now more determined then ever to finish this trip... and hope that one of these days will be incident free.

Luckily for the 2nd day in a row I had a guardian angel looking out for me. After the 2 mile walk we found what I think was a furniture, or some type of wood refinishing company that we were told we run by avid bikers. When Liz, B, and Billy told them what was going on they were very happy to lend a hand. They gave me a new tire and a pump in order to pump the tire up with. Once again I was given a new life. I can not thank these people enough, they were so kind and even offered us some advice on the rest of our route.

The rest of the day was great... most of the miles were flat or downhill...lunch was terrific..and we arrived at our destination around 2:30 despite the fact that we were slowed for almost 45 minutes because of my faulty tire. The group really seems to be feeling strong, moving along at a good pace and getting better at this whole biking thing. We are now past the half way point with 3 days left and we are all very excited about moving forward. We are saying with a college friend of John, B, and Liz and he is showing us a good time, its nice to be in a house with friends rather then secluded in a hotel again.

Tomorrow is another day, and for my sake hopefully a problem free day. We are hoping the weather holds up for us. We are happy to have John back in the group, he was very much missed today. We also found out that we have avoided a hill that has been giving John nightmares for over a year, so thats good news. Here's to hoping that tomorrow bring more downhill miles... and stronger tires