Day 4 - things you notice when you slow down!

Well, today was another reminder that my days this summer will not necessarily go according to plan... even if I have a plan! So, after all is said and done, "Thank God I got a flat!"

The original plan for the day was to join Karla and Jane on the BARS bike ride in Bay City. That was cancelled due to fireworks (Bay City starts early for the 4th of July celebration!) Besides, the forecast called for rain all day... Well, even the rain was cancelled for the day. It turned out to be beautiful!

So, since I had to wait for my friends to get done with work anyway, I decided to take a short bike ride down the rail-to-trail path down the road from my friends house. I'd be back in plenty of time to see some of the afternoon Tiger game (in Michigan, the magical place where the Tigers are on TV at the push of a button!). Well, I got to the end of the trail (5.35 miles from the start), turned around and started heading home. The bike seemed a little strange, the front wheel was wobbly ("Did the ride under the bus on Tuesday kick it out of alignment?", I wondered.) No! Moments later it was clear. It was wobbly because it was slowly loosing the air, in less than a minute it was totally flat.

Well, long story short, same as it happened in Central Park, I had everything I needed to fix the situation except an air pump. Hmmmm, I was now at the marker 4.5 miles from the start of the trail. I did the math. It takes me 20 minutes to walk from my house to school, 1 mile away. I've got over an hour before I'm going to be back to Sheri's house. OK, better get started! : )

I called Karla to tell her I might be a little late for our dinner date. I called Bev, hoping she had the time to chat as we had planned. "No problem" and "Yep, I'm here" were the answers. Bev and I chatted most of the way back, which really helped!

The rest is too much detail to share. But I have to give a shout out to Sandy, Charlie, Greg, Dianne, Max and their two labs. The neighbors were home when my friends were not and the flat got fixed and I'm ready to go again!

Now, don't worry... the only reason I had to walk back was because I didn't have my whole pack with me. This scenario would not happen while I'm on the road because I'll have everything with me. And now that I've changed an inner tube once with these new tires, I am better prepared for when it happens on the road and I'll have to do it alone.

I'm not making this stuff up! Every step of the way, there is reason to the madness.

Now, if you've made it this far... Here's something else that was fun about today's ride. The slower you go, the more you see. I saw a frog, a crane, an angry gander protecting his gaggle of geese, two live snakes, a swarm of dragon flies dive-bombing me (these new glasses came in handy today), one determined turtle trying to cross the road, a bright yellow finch and another little bird flying close enough for me to touch it (if I had wanted to).

Catching up with old friends, meeting new friends and seeing what's in front of my nose, these are definitely good reasons to enjoy a flat tire!

#Lessonslearned #wildlifenature #PeopleVisited #PeopleMet