Crossing the border twice-

When I took off on this journey, I knew that at times I would have problems with my bike. When you put thousands of miles on a bike, carrying more weight than what you should stuff, it just breaks. So I packed extra parts, tubes, tires, cables, tools. Everything that I could easily carry and I thought I could easily repair. When I was about 15 miles from the Texas border I had my first flat. I tried to fix the tube but it was a big puncture, so instead I thougt I would just replace the tube. I replaced the tube and was able to get just across the border of Texas. That is when real problems hit. I had another puncture and it was a big one, this time I did not have a spare tube to replace it. It was my fault the first time for not fixing the spoke that was the instigator of the puncture. So this time I pulled out my puncture kit and proceeded to fit it and after about ten tries I could not get it fixed. The patch kit had been one that I bought in Afghanistan and the glue would not properly stick. So I was stranded and could not do anything in pretty much the middle of nowhere. Finally I remember that there was a tire repair shop a few miles back on the Oklahoma side of the border. I hitched a ride back to the shop where Dewayne was really helpful. Luckily the shop did not close at 5:30 like everything else around the area. So I then worked for a few more hours trying to fix the tubes with the repair supplies that they had in the shop but nothing would work on a bike tube. All the patches were too big and with all the glue and patches before that I had tried to attach, I had then ruined both tubes. Again Dewayne was my hero. He allowed my to camp out behind his shop and took me in the morning to the nearest Wal-Mart so I could buy another tube and tube patch kit.

Back on the road another day, but the next day having pushed my bike while flat for such a long distance I had ruined my tire and that is whole different story, but like the first one it all plays out great and I made it to Fort Worth in time to meet up with my friends. I guess it is all part of the learning process and I also got to cross the Texas border twice.