Soaked But Not Deflated

Yesterday ended up being a much longer day than I realized. It was only when I was finally getting ready for bed at 2:30am that I remembered that my day had started 21 hours earlier in Montauk. No wonder I was so tired this morning when my alarm went off at 6:30.

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about today. With all the flat tires I had yesterday, I was more than a little concerned that there might be an encore performance. I think that was a reasonable concern, considering I never identified a cause for all the flats. And as for the flats, I spent the morning patching inner tubes and fixing the flat that occurred at the end of the day yesterday. What a way to start the day.

Check-out at the motel was at 11:00 and I pretty much stayed there until then. It was somewhat fortuitous that there was a bike shop (East End Bicycles) about 2km down the road – in the direction I was going. I made a quick stop to stock up on inner tubes and to get another patch kit. Yes, it’s safe to say I was a little paranoid going into today’s ride. As such, I really didn’t know how far I would go today. As usual, I hoped for 100km.

Every 10km I went without a flat seemed like a little victory. And with each passing kilometre my confidence in my rear wheel increased (cautiously). I have to say to say that, despite yesterday’s issues, the new wheel rides really nicely. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep air in it.

The first 70km came and went without incident. Actually, it was a very nice ride. Relatively flat (and I use “flat” in the good sense for a change), and a fairly significant tailwind that was pushing me along at an average speed of about 25 km/h. All of that combined to help offset my late departure time.

The final 30km weren’t as incident-free but fortunately the only incident was rain. Heavy rain. At times it was very heavy rain. But I was alright with that. At least there were no flat tires to be had on this day.

Before I left this morning, I had pretty much decided that I would be staying at a hotel again tonight. It was just a case of finding a reasonably priced room. I found one but I didn’t book it as I wasn’t sure how far I would actually make it. I figured that having a hotel in mind would give me a target for which I could aim. That plan actually worked pretty well, so when I started to get close I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts to use their WiFi and book the hotel.

The hotel in question is the Lexington Inn in Queens – near JFK Airport. I’m not going to lie, Google led me through some pretty sketchy neighbourhoods as I worked my way to the hotel. And the hotel itself doesn’t seem to be in the best part of town – not that I need to stay in the best part of town. I’m just setting the scene. I arrived at the hotel shortly before 6:00. My reservation was confirmed and my room was ready. There was just one problem. They wouldn’t allow me to bring my bike inside. I didn’t really take this news very well. Despite all my pleas, the manager wouldn’t waver. Sadly, I didn’t have many options. I was going to have to leave my bike locked up outside. Did I mention I wasn’t happy about that?

I unloaded everything from my bike and set out to find the least unsafe place to lock my bike – realizing that I would likely never see my bike again, or it would be a severely damaged bike by morning. Did I mention it isn’t the friendliest looking neighbourhood? Then, as I was getting ready to lock up my bike, the manager comes out and tells me he’ll make an exception for me. I didn’t know if I wanted to hug him or punch him. Okay, yeah … hugging never really entered my mind. But I was very much relieved that he had come to his senses. I can’t be sure but I think I heard my bike give a sigh of relief as well. Of course, why he couldn’t have to come to this conclusion BEFORE I had taken everything off of my bike remains a mystery. Maybe he’s a sadist.

So, I am now in my room (with my bike) listening to the noisy street below through what I believe are the thinnest windows ever made. Seriously. I actually thought the windows were open. But I’m okay with that. After yesterday’s long day and the three hours sleep I had last night, I’m thinking I won’t hear much of anything tonight. And at least there will be some sort of breakfast available in the morning – although, based on some reviews I’ve read, my expectations are pretty low. Frosted Flakes would be nice though.

Today’s Totals:
Distance travelled: 101.14km
Time on bike: 4:36.15
Maximum speed: 42.63 km/h
Average speed: 21.96 km/h