Leaving Holbrook - I'm glad this dinosaur is going the opposite direction that we are.
Today was flat tire day. The riders had many flats along I40 - all caused by the thin stiff wire from shredded truck tires. Yesterday, one of the riders saw a truck tire blow out a couple hundred yards in front of him. He said that there was a flash of a blue flame. Another rider said that truckers use nitrogen gas instead of air in their tires to make the tires run cooler. After helping Randy change the tire above, I walked back to my bike and found a low front tire - my first flat of the tour. My heavy Scwalbe Marathon Plus tires (advertised as "flatless") have failed me. The pressure is now off me to maintain a flatless tour. At home in Iowa, I probably don't have more than one flat in two or three years. These interstate highways are treacherous for bicycle tires.
A sample of the wire that causes our flats. We can see wads like this and dodge them. It's the little bitty broken off pieces that we can't see that cause the problems.
We stop often to check our tires for wires like this and pull them out before they are driven in deep enough to puncture the tube. Many don't stick out like this one and are pretty much invisible. We don't find them until after we have the flat.
Entering Indian country.
Linda (from Michigan) with a flat!
Bicycle pow wow at a sag stop.
Are those storm clouds? My small group managed to miss any rain although we saw lighting in the distance. A group before us and a group after us were doused and one group had to pull off the road because it was raining so hard that visibility was poor.We crossed into New Mexico late in the afternoon but missed the state line sign because of a detour off I40 at the state line crossing. We also lost an hour but will be able to start an hour later in the morning so we can get our beauty sleep.
Tomorrow we head for Grants, NM, a distance of 68 miles.
Bye for now and thanks for the comments.
Bob
