Bike stuff mostly

So I haven't made a new post for almost a week. I know, I'm getting sorta lazy doing this plus I just don't have much exciting stuff to really talk about.

I got my first flat tire on my bike the other day. I was riding out to the mountain by myself to go climb it when I look down and see my front tire is flat, so I get off my bike and start walking back, looking for a bike mechanic. I stop at a motorcycle mechanic and they pointed me to a place across the street where a bike mechanic was. The guy put my bike on a stand and removed the tube from the tire without taking the wheel off, something I never do - I like to take the wheel off the bike and the tire off of the wheel, but this guy did a good job fixing it without doing either. He patched the hole in the tube and found the culprit - a small bit of sharp metal in my tire I must have picked up.

There were a handful of young boys hanging out at the shop and after I got my bike fixed I played with them some by trying to ride their 2-wheeled skateboard thing. I've seen these things in the states, it's basically a skateboard in two parts that can be twisted, and each part has one wheel that swivels. It looks completely unstable, but I tried to get it going and had some success after watching and imitating how the boys were riding on it.

I'm glad I decided to buy one of those LED headlamps before coming on the trip. I'd been wanting one for a while for biking and camping purposes and figured it might come in handy over here. It has, as I use it for biking at night - it really helps light up some of the darker roads and helps me be seen by other people at night. I plan to use it in the future for biking, as it makes a decent headlight to see somewhat and mainly to be seen. It'll be great for touring since I'll be able to set up camp in the dark with both hands free.

Speaking bike touring, I'm currently planning a fairly big bike trip this summer soon after I return. I'm planning to drive to Pierre, South Dakota in my car with my brother Will and my bike and gear. My brother will drive my car back separately, and I will be left to bike back to St. Charles following the Adventure Cycling Association's Lewis and Clark route, which follows the Missouri River for most of the way. The route I'm doing is about 1000 miles and will probably take about 2 weeks to complete.

Bike touring is a great combination of two of my favorite activities - cycling and traveling. I do unsupported, fully-loaded touring, which means I do not have a support vehicle and that I carry camping gear in order to camp along the way. Everything I need to live is on my bike - it's a pretty interesting way to travel. I started doing this last summer, mainly taking short, overnight trips. I want to try something a bit more ambitious this summer, so I'm riding part of the Lewis and Clark trail. And I'll most likely keep a blog or a crazyguyonabike.com-journal of the trip. Other than that, I still plan on taking lots of short tours again around Missouri.

I started (re)reading Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions a few days ago, and I'm already about 2/3's the way through. I finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the second time recently, and I enjoyed it again. I used to think reading books twice or more was useless, but now I see that reading a book multiple times isn't so bad, and helps you enjoy and know the book more.