. . . a bike trailer so we could take a ride to the park. I got a good workout and Joy had a great time on the swings.I would also like to thank the park maintenance crew for helping us get home. While Joy and I were playing at the playground I noticed one of the trailer tires was flat as a pancake. As we prepared to leave and I grimly contemplated an uphill ride home on a flat tire, I saw one of the maintenance guys smiling and waving at Joy. Struck by sudden inspiration, I asked if he had a pump to fill a flat tire. He said sure, there was one back by the shed.
With a great sense of relief, I rolled bike and trailer toward the shed and one of the crew started filling our tire--ffft, ffft, fffPOP!!!VEEeeee...... The pump was designed to fill much larger tires, and its high pressure had blown a big hole in our tube. The man gazed forlornly at the tire, then walked over and started working an inner tube off a nearby wheelbarrow. Another worker glanced at him and said, "Hey! You stealing one of my tires?" "The one on the other side's already flat anyway," the first man replied, and kept fiddling with the tire.
After he finally got it off the wheel barrow and onto our trailer, he pumped it up as much as he dared, then I thanked him and rode away with one tire as hard as a rock, and the other as soft as a bagel. Still, I'll take a bagel over a pancake tire any day.
By the time we got home, the new inner tube (which was a little too large for the wheel) was not only flat but half-way off the wheel. Thank heavens we made it home. Now that we've put our lives in danger for the sake of the environment, I think we'll DRIVE to the bike shop to see about fixing our tire.
7 comments:
This cracks me up! What luck, though! I bet Joy loved every minute of the adventure! How fun to have a bike trailer! I have been thinking about getting one, but then I remember our impossibly steep incline.
Yeah - your neighborhood makes Mt. Everest look like a pitcher's mound.
oh my goodness, what an ordeal. i guess you'll be buying your own pump to stash in the trailer!
Ironically, we already own a pump. I think I'll make a habit of bringing it along in the future.
I'd return it and get another one with thicker tires. Lol. We are looking around for one with everything and a good price. We havn't found one yet.
I have been dying to get a bike and a trailer! Is your trailer one that transitions into a stroller?? How fun! I'm jealous!
The trailer does indeed double as a stroller--there's a little bar you can attach to the top. Haven't tried that feature yet, though.
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