Waking up to a flat tire and going immediately into repair mode is never a good start to a day. But that is what happened today. After fixing the flat, I got cleaned up and we went to breakfast before we got rolling out of Ansley, later than we had planned. Fifteen miles further down the road, I had two more flat tires! My rear tire wouldn't stay on the rim until I put a brand new inner tube in. Apparently, it didn't like the one that had 8 patches. Guess I got my money's worth out of that tube. This series of events, so early in the day, amplified my need for two new tires. However, they are hard to find in the middle of corn and wheat fields. 

We covered 17 more miles to Ravenna and took a break at Skip's Liquor Store. We didn't buy any liquor but there seems to be plenty of it out here in these corn and wheat fields. Bike tires are apparently low priority 'round these parts. At Skip's the people inside, including the staff, were truly amazed at what we were doing and how far we had ridden (so far). The told us to stop at the local newspaper office. We did so and ended up being interviewed and photographed for a news story. We were told we would be sent a couple of copies of the paper when the story appeared. But, I don't remember ever receiving a copy and do not know if we ever had our 15 minutes of fame in Ravenna, Nebraska. No matter, it was fun to talk with the locals and at least be shown some kindness.

Thirty hot miles lay between Ravenna and Grand Island (GI). A loose cotter pin, like the one that plagued me on the way to Bellingham (Washington) reared its ugly head again. I tried to have it repaired when we go to GI but the bike shop did not carry the right size pin for my bike. We ate at another all you can eat salad bar, in another Wendy's restaurant and then we secured a covered "campsite" in the garage of a Catholic Church Rectory. The church has really come through when we needed something on this trip.

Not every day is all wine and roses when you are on the road of a long bike tour. Some days, you merely survive while on others, you are on top of the world. This one lay somewhere on the lower end of the spectrum but it wasn't all that bad and it could have been a lot worse. We were still alive, still rolling, and the big city of Lincoln was ahead.