Ten lake tour

I had my first flat in two years about three weeks ago and I have now had another. I noticed earlier this week that the rear was soft but not flat. I pumped it up and it held well enough to ride. I did that a couple of times and my plan was to baby it along until this afternoon when I thought I would throw on a new set of tires. The mileage was short of what I like to get on a set of tires but tire mileage for me is determined not by what I wish for but by when I start having flats.

I went out this morning to pump the rear again so we could take the eight lake tour. It was not as soft as it has been the last couple of days so I was optimistic. Ooops. I pumped it up and I could hear the air escaping. Best laid plans and all that, we had to delay the ride while I patched a tube.

Then this afternoon I planned to do the new tire thing. I went to the basement to retrieve the tires and tools and discovered that I had a spare used tire that I had forgotten about. When I change a set of tires I always save the less used front tire to be used as a spare if something goes wrong with the new tires. So instead of new tires I put the spare on. The only down side is, as I told TOPWLH, I had blocked out most of the afternoon to complete this task and it only took about 20 minutes. More time to blog.

We rode out towards the eight lakes but deviated again at Highway 96. We continued north to Turtle Lake County Park, an additional 1.2 miles.A careful examination of the photo will reveal a water tower on the other side of the lake.

A controversy erupted at the lake when the model declined to be in the photo. She said she only wanted to be in one and she anticipated that her participation would be necessary for scale later on. I told her that this was certainly her call but that any failure to conform to the norm would be reported later. So there you go, a full report on why the model is not in the Turtle Lake picture.

Including Turtle Lake in the ride slightly alters the route. We travelled back south on Hodgson Road and cut behind the commercial development on the northeast corner of the intersection with Highway 96, left on 96 and on down to Rice Street. We got back on the route there, swinging in at the entrance to Sucker Lake park. Once back on familiar territory the steeds seemed to sense the barn and we completed the tour without much difficulty. I note for clarity that the eight and/or ten lake tour is not always exactly the same lakes. We don't always pass Wabasso, we often pass Emily, we occasionally get to Willow Pond or Lake Johanna, sometimes to Grass, or even once in a while Lake Valentine. Today I believe we counted ten.

I think it safe to say that today, June 30, the corn looks to be a prohibitive favorite to meet or exceed that knee high by the Fourth of July thing.Babe for scale.