The previous night, I (James) had picked up a flat tire on my front wheel. I knew the front wheel would be more of a pain to fix and we only had a few miles left at the time, so I had just kept going with the flat tire. This morning, I would have to fix it. At first, I tried pouring the Slime into the inner tube (which clogs up holes by sticking to them) while the tire was still attached to the stroller. However, the valve of the inner tube was jammed shut and this was not an option. Unfortunately, I realized that the front wheel required a wrench to be removed, which I did not have. I regretted my decision in the hotel room of Amarillo, where I put slime into the two back tires and said I would “just hope that the front tire didn’t go flat.” Sam tried calling the police to help us, and they recommended that we instead ask the towing company for help. However, Sam happened to have some pliers, which were able to loosen up the screws and get the front tire off. I replaced the inner tube with a new one and figured I would be able to make it the last four days without any Slime in the tire. This delayed our start significantly, and we headed out around 11:40am. About 7 miles in, I saw a nice spot for a rest under a bridge that I couldn’t resist. I laid out my sleeping pad and whipped out my sleeping bag while Sam kept going. After a nice long rest, I was back on my feet. I kept walking until a reached a nice rest stop off the road. I got a burrito from a food truck, and the guys running the truck even let me grab a free drink. I then got back on the road with some nice night walking on the interstate to look forward to! I had one frightening moment when I stopped to pee and my stroller began to roll away, but disaster was averted. Eventually, I reached the spot where Sam was already tucked away in his tent. I wanted to see if I could find a spot farther away from the road for myself, so I kept going for another half an hour until I spotted a good one. This turned out to be for the best, as Sam warned me that I would have to watch out for the vomit that he had unleashed near his tent.
10/12/22
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