How to change a bike tire.

1) Get a flat tire. Or, if you're me, manage to break the valve so that the whole holding air mechanism thingy just won't hold air.
2) Find KDom who is handy and ask very nicely for help at 7:30am in the morning on a Saturday. (Thank you thank you thank you thank you.)
3) Watch and learn.

Turns out that changing a tire is not that hard. I would not have been able to figure out the whole chain situation on my own, but I think moving forward, I can make it work. This is good news and a big step. Woot.

Here we are on April 3rd, early in the morning. My goal for the day - 102 miles, or double the LA Bikeway Loop that starts and ends in the lovely town of Long Beach, CA.

My only time constraint is a 7pm date with Puerto Rico in Glendale.

My only problems were:
1) It took me an hour to get my bike into my beetle (but I only cut myself once, so that's good).

2) When I finally got my car out of the garage it blew up at me - red flashy lights and the kind of loud noises that make you regret owning a car. HUGE SHOUT OUT here to Nelson Curz at the VW dealership who not only remembered me from three weeks ago but stopped everything to check out my car and the coolant system (FOR FREE) to get my on my way in time to still get in a good ride. Nelson, you sir, are a good man.

3) When I finally got my car out of the shop I had to find Long Beach. Yes, I've been there hundreds of times. Yes, I have a GPS. No, I couldn't find Long Beach.

4) When I finally found LBC, I had to get on the right bike path. Note that in the lovely Shoreline Village there are 4 different options for bike paths. I picked incorrectly three times. The good news about picking wrong is I happened on a bathroom. The bad news about going to the bathroom is that apparently it's really hard to get back on your bike afterward and you might fall down after you clip in, in front of a 20 something on his cell phone who might come up and ask you if you're ok when you really just want him to not exist. Yes, I'm that awesome. Yes, it's terrible to be alone when you're embarrassing yourself. Sunny, have I told you yet today how much I miss you?

5) When I finally stand up and shake the remnants of my pride off of myself, I can start on the right path with a bruised and throbbing right knee, with equal parts frustration and excitement.

The first 2 miles is all along the Long Beach shoreline, shops and roller coasters and some random street racing track being set up in the wee hours (10:45) of Saturday morning.

The next 12 miles are all LA "River" bike path until you hit the Rio Honde "River" bike path. The day and the scenery are amazing. I was enjoying riding with my mouth open and collecting thousands (literally) of gnats as protein. I learned this from Bear Grylls, so it's OK.


Another 10 miles or so and you hit east LA and the wonderful Whittier Dam and Whittier Narrows. Up until now, I was doing great. I hadn't run over any lizards at this point (which BTW are worse than squirrels as far as running out into the path just before you get there). I rode past some cowboys on horses with cute dogs. I spent some time admiring flowers and a gazillion amazing birds. But then I got lost and spent the next 10 miles riding in circles in a pile of frustration and knee pain.

Here's the thing. Directions (which I had) might mean Right when they say Left. Just keep that in mind.

So after a 10 mile addition to my ride in east Los Angeles, I finally found the San Gabrielle "River" bike path which I would get to stay on until I hit the beach again. I was elated for about three minutes until I realized that the next 20 miles would include biking into strong headwinds coming off the water . . . seriously, I have never worked so hard for such a small reward in my entire life. I'm going to say that I was angry. Very angry. I will also say that I saw a wonderful hummingbird sitting on a fence. That was nice. Also, lots of beautiful peaks into people's back yards which are full of gardens, horses, goats, a few pigs and some of the amazing and beautiful piles of rusting things that I have ever seen.

Past the housing is all industrial wasteland. Equally beautiful in it's own way. I was shooting all these pictures from my hip (where I tied my camera to my belt) so I hope you're enjoying my bike's POV.

Anyway, after three of the most miserable hours of my life riding into the wind, I made it back to the beach. As much as I wanted to do 100 miles, I gave up and decided to get a churro. Mmmm.

And that's that. Biking was fun for a while, and then really, really uncomfortable and miserable. But once it was over I felt great and I had a churro. I also wandered the beach front taking pictures and enjoying an extra hour in the sunshine.