We woke up early today and somehow (I'm still not exactly sure how) we got out of Oxford by 8:30. It was raining (as per yuszche) and actually quite cold, though nothing really happened for the whole morning. Yeah, we took a few wrong turns. Sure, we got lost twice. And while I admit that we were wet, cold, and tired by noon, we were doing fairly well.
Then, disaster struck (as per yuszche). I got a flat. I probably realized it faster than yesterday since it was the front tire, not the back. Unfortunately, we still didn't have a wrench. Fortunately, I got this flat in a very small town (really just a couple of gardening shops), and there was an antique store where a passerby told my I should be able to find a wrench. I go inside, explain to the owner my horrid situation, and if he has a wrench that I can borrow. He goes through a white door and brings out an open orange tool box with about thirty wrenches inside. "Will this work?" he asks. "I'm sure one of them will fit," I say with a chuckle. I bring the box out into the insistent drizzle, and try a couple; the second one Jacob tries works. Armed with our expertise from watching the bike shop owner from yesterday, we remove the wheel from the bike, pull one side of the tire off of the wheel, pull the inner tube out of the tire, check the inside of the tire for stuff that might re-poke the inner tube, find a piece of rock lodged in there, pump up the wheel, find the hole...and get stuck there. We intended to patch up the old tire that broke yesterday, but never exactly got around to it. Between biking a lot, dinner, and sleep, we didn't exactly have time (although I suppose we could've made time). Anyways, after a little trial and error, we manage to get the patch on, and it seems to hold well enough after pumping it up a little. We reattach the wheel, pump it up as well as possible (it is still quite flat due to our weak hand pump, but seems to hold), and head on our way. For one mile.
You see, my bike was dying on me. As a result of the tire changes, the brakes were all messed up. (I bet the week straight of biking without a tune-up didn't help.) By that point, my back brake did absolutely nothing, and my front one didn't do much either. We went one mile to Tring, got some lunch, and decided to catch a train to London instead of biking the remaining thirty miles. We biked two miles to the nearest station, bought two (relatively cheap) tickets, got on it, and relaxed as we rode on tracks instead of bikes into the Euston Station.
Now I know what you're thinking:
CHEATERS.
But calm yourself. In that situation, that was probably the best option we had. By that point, neither of my brakes really worked (it took a good twenty feet of squeezing the brakes completely to stop from going ten miles per hour), so it would have been dangerous to continue as we had been. Additionally, we had to get to London by 19:00 because that's when the bike shop from which we rented our bikes closed. And finally, we were tired. We had already biked forty miles by that point, which is plenty for most people. Additionally, you have to remember that we did bike at least three hundred seventy miles in the past eight weeks. 30/400=7.5% of the total trip that we intended to bike, we took the train instead.
If you still think we should have continued, I simply don't give a single damn. So get over it.
You see, my bike was dying on me. As a result of the tire changes, the brakes were all messed up. (I bet the week straight of biking without a tune-up didn't help.) By that point, my back brake did absolutely nothing, and my front one didn't do much either. We went one mile to Tring, got some lunch, and decided to catch a train to London instead of biking the remaining thirty miles. We biked two miles to the nearest station, bought two (relatively cheap) tickets, got on it, and relaxed as we rode on tracks instead of bikes into the Euston Station.
Now I know what you're thinking:
CHEATERS.
But calm yourself. In that situation, that was probably the best option we had. By that point, neither of my brakes really worked (it took a good twenty feet of squeezing the brakes completely to stop from going ten miles per hour), so it would have been dangerous to continue as we had been. Additionally, we had to get to London by 19:00 because that's when the bike shop from which we rented our bikes closed. And finally, we were tired. We had already biked forty miles by that point, which is plenty for most people. Additionally, you have to remember that we did bike at least three hundred seventy miles in the past eight weeks. 30/400=7.5% of the total trip that we intended to bike, we took the train instead.
If you still think we should have continued, I simply don't give a single damn. So get over it.
Congratulations micah and jacob on a mission completed! I don't think you cheated at all. If you read Mary's and George's letters etc they often "hopped on a lorie" or stayed where they were for a day or a week waiting out the rain. Since you didn't have the luxury if time, taking the train was definitely the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Mary talks about "fish" stories when reporting the mileage completed on some days!
Look forward to seeing you soon.
Sleep well and travel safely.
Mom