Russian River Valley

March 28, 2022

Riding south today

Keith on the journal again today. There was a fair amount of rain overnight which is a good thing considering the long drought here in California. The forecast today had changed from rain in the morning to rain in the afternoon. So it was best to change our plans to a morning ride. The idea was to see if we could get out the door a bit earlier today. I noticed a coffee shop around the corner so we skipped that leisurely breakfast and grabbed something at the coffee shop this morning.

Good quality baked goods at The Plank coffee shop. A bit pricey, those cookies behind the glass look great but are $5.25 (that’s US dollars of course). However, the bacon and egg bagel sandwich was the best I have ever had.

We did manage to get out the door about 10:15 in cloudy and cool conditions. It was dry though, and good riding conditions. There was no shortage of wineries to check out if you are into that sort of thing.

We discovered a bike path yesterday which leads us directly to downtown Healdsburg, about 2 km from our hotel.

A little deferred maintenance on this structure.

There were about ten turkey vultures hanging around doing what turkey vultures do.

The original loop planned was around 45 km but we were able extend that by another 10 km, five of which put us onto a busier road. There was ample shoulder but were happy to bail back to original route.

The Redford Inn looked like an interesting place to spend a night or two. There were lots of wineries nearby.

At about the 40 km mark the Riverfront Regional Park appeared and was a perfect spot to stop for lunch. They had a feature we had never seen before. It was a selfie station. There was a metal box on a pole you placed your phone in, set the timer and…

Well we had to try it, didn’t we? It worked a charm.

Approximately 1 kilometre from downtown I had flat at a rather good place for a flat. There was lots of room to get off the road and assess the situation. I pumped the tire up hoping it was a slow leak and we rode to the local bike shop which was in our initial plan anyway and less than a km away. After a browsing in the shop I decided a DIY repair was in order…it has been two years since my last flat and keeping those skills sharp is important. Kathleen thought I was crazy. I pumped the tire up again and we made our way the short distance back to our hotel. I replaced the tube in the evening. An inspection of the tire revealed no obvious cause of the flat. Upon pumping up the tire after replacing the tube I had one last look to see what might have been the problem. I discovered a sharp piece of glass totally embedded in the tire not obvious visually or by feel. I used dentist like skills to detect and extract the culprit. This is only my second flat with this set of Schwalbe Marathon tires and I estimate I have close to 10000 km on them. It is time to replace though.

For a short video of the ride click the following link.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOnZwK81BO

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 588 km (365 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	5
Comment on this entry	Comment	1

Rachael AndersonGood video!
Reply to this comment
2 years ago