September 29, 2015
On to Roditis: Wind, and a flat tire, and Frappe, and rain!
When I got started this morning, it was overcast but not raining. I was happy to pass the point where I had been turned around yesterday. I kept my eye out for where there might have been a landslide, but the closest thing I spotted was an area where there had clearly been a lot of mud across the road, and it had been scraped away.
As I got away from town, it became windy. Exceptionally windy. It's tough to stand up sort of windy. I was heading due east, and the wind was from the north. It was pushing me around quite a bit, but traffic wasn't bad, and I was thankful it was not a headwind. I thought it was probably due to the weather system that brought all the rain I've been dealing with, which should be moving out today. Then signs started popping up warming of wind.
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It must be windy all the time! Or maybe this is even windier than usual. I don't really know.
Then I got a flat tire, the rear again. I first noticed that the bike handling got a little squirmy, then I slowed and it got bouncy. I stopped, and it wasn't completely flat. With the wind blowing the way it was, I didn't want to try to fix it there, and tried just adding air. No go, it wasn't ridable. I walked back maybe 300 meters to a bus stop I had just passed, and decided to work on it there. The bus stop used to have glass windows. They were shattered, which meant there was a lot of broken glass in the shelter, but also that there wasn't as much protection from the wind as I had hoped.
I took the wheel off and pulled out the tube. I tried to find the puncture. I think I'm usually pretty good at that, and usually pump up the tube and feel or hear the air leak against my cheek or ear. In the wind, that didn't work. I carefully checked the tire for something that could have caused a puncture. I found 2 things, a thorn and a small piece of metal, maybe the tip of a pointy knife. The thorn came out with my fingers. I had to dig the metal out with my pocket knife. Then I put in a new tube. I hadn't repaired the tube from my flat a couple of days ago, so this was my only good spare tube, which made me nervous. As I was working on the flat, a few vehicles passed. A truck from a food supply house of some sort pulled over. It was there a few minutes before the driver got out. He said something, and pointed at my bike, and handed me something that turned out to be an instant frappe. Add water and shake.
We did our best at communication. I said I was heading toward Istanbul and had started in Sweden. He shook my hand, and offered me a ride to Komotini, where he was heading. I politely declined and said I'd fix my bike. He asked about spares (I recognized "reserve") and I said I was okay. He shook my hand. Then he said he had to get to Komotini, and we said goodbye, and he shook my hand. Then he gave me the double cheek friendly kiss, and left. I finished my repair, pumping the tire as hard as I could, and continued on, wondering if I should have accepted the ride.
The road continued on, winding a bit but without significant hills. It approached the motorway in places. I could see some toll booths, so I was glad I had not tried to ride the motorway.
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The small road I was on was nice, and despite the wind I was making good progress.
I stopped for lunch in a small town. I had a gyro, and ended up picking out the filling and eating it, and leaving most of the bread behind. I wonder what people think when I do things like that.
After lunch it was sprinkling a bit, and the road was noticeably wet. Before too long, the sprinkles turned to rain, and I stopped to put on my rain jacket. I rode through the city of Komotini in the rain, following my Garmin prompts to find my way.
Then I stopped at what had shown in my searches as the last hotel leaving Komotini. It's the Chris and Eve Hotel, and is a large hotel actually in Roditis, just east of Komotini. With this hotel, I won't need to go through the city and the city traffic in the morning.
I got my room. First thing, even before showering, I found and patched the holes in both of my tubes. They are sitting pumped up, to make sure there are no additional punctures that I didn't find. That hole from the first flat was tiny!
With the tubes repaired, and after a shower, I walked into Roditis to a mini mart. The proprietor there spoke some English. He asked what I was doing in a place like this. I guess Roditis us not a usual tourist spot. I explained that I was a bike trip, and this was a good place to stop today. He asked more questions, and I explained that I'd flown to Sweden and taken a boat to Estonia and had been cycling for nearly 3 months. He shook my hand. He said he would be scared to do a trip like that. I asked why, and he said he might meet bad people. I asked if he meant bad people like him, and he laughed and he shook my hand. Then I paid for my purchase, and he threw in 2 chocolate bars a gift.
Today's ride: 52 km (32 miles)
Total: 3,113 km (1,933 miles)
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