Karma

Today marked the first day of riding in the rain. Considering that we've been riding for five weeks, that's remarkable. Also, it was a nice rain to ride in - not too heavy, no wind, no lightning and warm temps. However, this meant that my camera spent the day in a ziploc bag, so only one photo.

We rode through Amish country today. I was expecting to get some nice pictures of horse-drawn carts, but didn't see a single one. Amish have more sense than cyclists, and stay inside when it rains. However, I did see an Amish dude riding a foot powered scooter. I guess that's an acceptable form of transportation.

To make up for the lack of Amish photos, I'll tell an Amish joke, as related to me by Rick. I bet most of you have never heard an Amish joke. Here goes:

Olga, a proper Amish woman, takes her horse-drawn buggy into town. On the way out she gets stopped by a highway patrolman.

The patrolman says "Your rear reflector is loose. You should have your husband take a look at that when you get home".

"Why thank you, kind sir. I'll let my husband know when I get home" Olga responds.

"You also may want to have your husband take a look at the reins. One is wrapped around the horse's penis."

"Why thank you, kind sir. I'll let my husband know when I get home".

Olga returns home and tells her husband "A nice patrolman stopped me and pointed out that the rear reflector is loose. He suggested you take a look at it. He also thought you should look at the emergency brake".

Have I been on the road too long? Maybe.

Riding in a light rain means that all the dirt on the road flys up and sticks to you and the bike. The rain wasn't hard enough to wash any of that dirt off. Here's a shot of part of my bike where you can see where the crud accumulated.

Of course, I gave the bike a thorough cleaning, probably more thorough than I gave myself. Keeping the bicycle happy is key on this trip.

Here's a Google Earth shot of our progress on this trip so far. Geoff, one of my fellow tourers, put it together. Pretty cool, huh? Looks like we're almost home. Actually, after today we have less than 1000 miles remaining. Piece of cake.

Now to the title of today's post - karma. If you've been reading this blog regularly, you know that Roy and I have stopped at every espresso bar we passed. Today, wanting to keep going in the rain, we passed a Starbucks and didn't go in. Bad karma. Roy had two flats in the next few miles. Now we know better. As the population density increases in the East, this probably means we will suffer caffeine poisoning, but that's the plan.

I stayed with Roy after the first flat, and helped him fix it. After the second, we spotted a support van. I abandoned him and left him with the staff. I guess I'm a one flat only kind of friend.