On Saturday morning, four of us pedaled to the MOC house instead of taking the yellow submarine. There were the tortoises, Marta and Gigi, and the hares, Dave and myself. The tourtoises found a reasonably quiet way off the island but we hares, unable (unwilling?) to catch up to them, took Park and other busy streets. We blasted past strip malls, intersections and car dealerships, then Dave got a flat. Luckily, Dave is a Responsable Cyclist: he had all the tools nesecary to fix it up on the spot. As we kept going north we passed a Canadian Tire. Dave, being a Responsible Cyclist, stopped and bought an extra tube to replace the one he had just used. Sure enough, he got another flat (same front tire) and was able to fix it quickly. So we got to the house after 3:30 hrs on the road, or 2:30 hrs cycling. The girls found the bike path in St Jerome and avoided the highway for the last 30km. They rolled in after 5:00 hrs on the road, 4:00 of which where biking. On Sunday, Dave biked home early, abandoning me (the wannabe hare) with the girls. Now Gigi somehow got a lift back to the city so poor Catherine was stuck pedaling the former's bike, in the good company of Marta and myself. Many things went wrong with Gigi's bike: chain, derailer, gears, strange sounds and last but not least, a 1" nail through the back tire. Unfortunately, no one had a 26" inner-tube handy. In fact, we didn't even have the appropriate tools to take off the (non-quick-release) wheel. So while Marta biked down to the nearest Canadian Tire to pick up an inner tube, Catherine and I scrounged together the tools necesary to fix the flat. With a (nearly) aligned wheel, and a full tire on Gigi's bike, we continued the trip and we all lived happily ever after.
The moral of the story: WHEN YOU'RE BIKING, ALWAYS CARRY THE STUFF YOU NEED TO FIX A FLAT!
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