31.5 miles and my 1st flat tire!

This weekend we set out to ride 30+ miles (this time, both of us in bike shorts) . We found yet another trail along the river that I had no idea existed. This stretch of flat road and bike trails is very popular among bicyclists and we now understand why.
It's a great ride.

With beautiful blue skies, we could even see Mt St Helens in the distance....along with a herd of cows. You can't see the cows very well in this picture but there is actually a herd of cows under the tree getting some shade. We would have loved to sit under that tree with them because it was h-o-t.
We stopped off at a park near the river that once again I never knew existed in the 15 years of living here. I guess that's what kids' summer sports do to a family; we know the baseball and soccer parks in town, but not the water parks. Not only was it pretty, but they had a very cold water fountain to refill our water bottles.

Then.... we were about 5 miles from home, it was really hot, the rest of the trip was basically uphill and I got my 1st flat tire!
I ran over a small rock, which hasn't been a problem in the past, but I guess I hit it just right because it pinched the tube and I got a pinched tube flat tire. I never heard of this type of flat tire when I was growing up, but I learned about it in a flat tire repair class I took last year. I knew it was a pinched tube flat tire because there are 2 holes next to each other in the tube and look like a snake bite....and there's your flat tire lesson for the day.

Thankfully (and I don't say that lightly), I was not riding alone. I haven't fixed a flat since I was 12 and this flat was on my back tire, so that meant messing with the chain. Watching someone at a class fix a flat and actually doing it myself are completely different things, so I was happy to watch R and help him by holding the steering wheel to balance the bike while he worked.
Did I say I was thankful R was there? I think all the adolescent days of working in a bike shop came back to him....until we got to the CO2 tube.
There is a little tube called a CO2 tube that holds enough air in it to fill up 1 tire. I carry a brand new tube, two CO2 cartridges and this little gadget that holds the CO2 canisters in a little pack under my seat for flats just like this. One big problem....we've never actually used this little gadget so it took a couple minutes to figure out how to use it.
Pretty cool invention if you ask me.
Take the old tube out, put the new tube in, attach this little gadget to the nozzle-thingy-ma-bob and shoot the CO2 air into the tube...wella, it was fixed and off we rode uphill for the end of our 31.5 mile ride.

Thanks R!!!!

I just really hope I don't get a flat while I'm riding alone because his hands got really dirty.