What do I have to do to keep air in this thing?

As well as pumpkin butter, great mac and cheese, and a world-class collection of mosquito bites, I also brought back from Wisconsin a large chunk of metal in my rear tire. The fact that it only caused a very small leak is testament to Gatorskin tires.

I patched it when I got home with an old instant patch which failed as soon as I started riding last weekend. I put another patch on from the same batch, which also failed (duh!). Instant patches only have a shelf life of a year or so it seems.

I put in my spare tube which immediately failed with a flaw near the stem. It happens. Amber got her instant patch kit out, which turned out to be empty. Then she got her regular patch kit out, which had no glue in it - it had dried out.

So we went from two spare tubes and three patch kits to nothing in the space of 30 miles. Good thing this didn't happen on the Million Meters of Milk.

The lesson here is that regular and instant patch kits don't last forever. I should add 'replace all patch kits' to my new year's resolutions. I put Amber's spare tire on and prayed. I knew we would be passing a bike shop twenty miles up the road so I would be able to stock up there.

It was amazingly hot climbing Santiago Canyon and unusually humid for Southern California so the sweat was absolutely pouring off me especially into my eyes. We were very ready for food at Cook's Corner but it took 45 minutes coming. With the tire problems and the slow service we were not doing well on time.

The descent to the coast was as enjoyable as always and there was some cloud cover so the ride became a lot more pleasant. I went to the bike store in San Clemente to buy tubes and patch kits and discuss, with the owner, the deficiencies of instant patch kits.

As you know, there is a protected bike lane alongside PCH from Palisades Drive in Dana Point to Camino Capistrano. What you probably don't know is that the protected lane was recently extended all the way to San Clemente. That's great news, especially for North bound cyclists.

While I was buying bicycle supplies, Amber got us some Hawaiian shaved ice which I had never had before. Basically snow, flavored sugar syrup, and condensed milk. Very nice.

We continued down the coast with a slight headwind and after a while I started having gastric distress. I'm seeing a pattern of eating sugar heavy meals while riding and stomach cramps. I have to be very careful of this in future. I have had this problem before, but I've only just made the connection between high sugar snacks and cramps. At least I know what not to do now.

We only had 30 minutes to spare when we arrived in Oceanside so we decided to skip Angelo's and use the Burger King at the Amtrak for our last control.