A ride with a few hiccups!

Today's ride started off like any other. I set out to do a loop that went to Sweet Home out by Foster Lake, took the back roads to Lebanon and went out the other side towards Brownsville and back home to Crawfordsville. This is the first time I have done this loop and was very excited about it cause it took me through 4 different towns and I didn't have to do another out and back ride!

Today was overcast and about 42 degrees when I started off. It was pretty cold in the start of the ride and I was very glad that I remembered to grab some gloves, otherwise my fingers would've been unable to operate by the time I was half way through my ride. The first section of my ride had some rolling hills and that got my body temperature up. Before I knew it I was already in Sweet Home and on my way towards Foster Lake. By this point the sun finally made an appearance. It felt nice to feel the warmth from the sun. I was now just shortly past Foster Lake and then I felt something a little weird on the back end of my bike. So I looked down and my back tire had gone flat! I did not have my repair kit with me cause it won't fit on my bike, but thankfully I had my phone and was able to call my sister to bring it to me and was not too far out on my ride.

Waiting patiently for my tire repair kit

I waited for about 20 minutes before she made it to me. I was so thankful that it was not raining or real windy. Instead there was a light breeze and the sun was out. I took advantage of this time to refuel and drink some water since it's so hard to drink when its that cold. It didn't take me too long to change my tire, as it has from previous times. For some reason, every flat that I have ever gotten has been on my back tire. Does anyone know why that is? By the time I was finished and ready to get back to my ride I realized I now had to go to the bathroom, and I wasn't about to try and go on my bike....it was too cold and I have not gotten comfortable with doing that...yet.

Now it was time to scout out somewhere I could stop and go to the bathroom. I went about 30 minutes before I found a spot and by this time it was starting to get serious. I found a tree farm that was a ways from the houses that were around it. It was fenced but I figured that whoever owned it wouldn't mind! So I hopped off my bike and set it against the fence and went in. I must say though, it wasn't very good cover under the trees but at least it wasn't a busy road. And by this point I'm used to going out in nature so it doesn't really bother me anymore.

Now that I was back on "empty" and my tires were good it was onward to Lebanon and then to Brownsville. I did pretty good on keeping myself fueled and had just the right amount for the ride. I use the clif shot bloks since I can't stand gu's. They remind me of mucous and the texture of them is...ew! Slimy, nastiness. Anyways, I had three "shots" left for the last part of my ride and when I went to get them out of my pocket, they were gone! This made me very sad, as I was starting to get really hungry. So I tried to quench that by drinking more water, but that was very difficult!

There are 6 bloks in a packet

My ride ended up being about 3 hours long and then it was followed by a 20 minute run. Finally I was now able to consume as much food as I wanted. And that I did :D