Day 4: Castle Rock to Longview
June 2st, 2024
15 miles
We got up and had breakfast with Susan. We were also able to do our laundry. We said our goodbyes to our hosts and headed off. It was raining steadily outside, which was miserable. We got 10 miles into the ride when my friend got a flat tire due to a puncture. We tried to put a patch on it, but the glue wasn’t sticking because of the rain. We were 2 miles away from a bike shop called Bob’s Sporting Goods, so I told him to keep pumping air into the tire until we got there.
We rode the 2 miles only to find out that the shop was closed. We tried to fix the puncture under the bike shop's awning, but the stem on my friend's tube was ripping, and he didn’t have a spare tube. We decided to get a hotel recommended on the Adventure Cycling map. I gave my friend directions so he could walk his bike there. It was about a 9-minute ride for me and a 30-minute walk for him, both in the steady rain.
Once we checked into the hotel, I told my friend that things would get easier once we adjusted to this new lifestyle. We just need to keep moving forward, no matter what adversity we face. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant across the street, then headed back to the hotel and went to bed.