Wednesday, July 17, 2013

When I heard from Karl earlier today they still had about 30 miles to go before reaching their planned destination of Little Sahara State Park near Waynoka, Oklahoma. They were being slowed down by flat tires. First, Karl got a flat from a thorn which caused a slow leak. They fixed his tire and only went a few miles before Zach got a flat, also from a thorn. This was Zach's first flat tire of the trip while Karl had two others before they left Maryland which were caused by a leak around the valve stem, not something they ran over.

If I hear from them later tonight I will update this entry. Since they plan to camp again tonight sometimes they might have trouble with cell phone service.

I heard from Karl again, around 9pm. He said that because it was getting late, they just stopped and got a hotel room in Waynoka, Oklahoma instead of riding the additional miles to the Little Sahara State Park.

Karl had more time to talk this time and told me that after they got in last night it rained hard. Fortunately, they picked a campsite near a pavilion so they were able to eat their dinner in the pavilion and stay dry. It also rained a little this morning so they got a late start packing up and getting away from the campground. The first time he called, they were just starting to work on Zach's flat tire so he hadn't known yet that Zach actually had 5 thorns in his tire. Even with 5 thorns in his tire, Zach's tire held air a little longer than Karl which only had one thorn. Karl seems to think they got them in the campground last night because Zach was riding his bike all around the campground after they got in.

 I almost forgot, they rode 56 miles today for a total of 1947 miles to date. They just finished their 5th week of riding. 

He sent some pictures; the rainbow they saw this morning and then a picture of each of them with their flat tire.