Day 5 (87 miles)

Today was all about great roads, until it wasn’t.  We started out fast going slightly downhill in smooth pavement.  Later the road turned to gravel, but still remained relatively smooth.  Later, the roads got more bumpy with washboard surfaces.  My bike was jiggling and I felt wetness (like rain) striking the back of my thigh. It turned out to be sealant from my rear tire. The sealant plugged the tire, but running across the washboards kept opening up the hole.  I inserted a couple tire plugs and gave the tire a few minutes to let the sealant cure where the hole was plugged. It managed to work so even though some sharp piece of gravel punctured the rear tire, it held up for the rest of the day. This was the longest day of riding we’ve had on the tour so far. 

Later we ran across a rest station and were filling our water bottles when the attendant came by and asked us if we knew anything about a bunch of boxes of baby food left at the rest area.  It turned out that the attendant was the brother of the bed and breakfast owner in the town where we are spending the night.  He recommended the Wild Bill’s bed and breakfast, then when we got into town, Paul was flagged down by the owner’s wife and she made sure we got to the bed and breakfast just fine. This family is working to keep this business going.