At least we know we had a good time. We means Steve, Corrie and Sean this week.

That's right. We traded two roadies, Chris and Dave, for one Fat-Tire Ellis. Hey it was a fair trade: Sean had all the flats. Could Chris have another challenger?

As co-instructor for the bike maintenance class, Sean was confident he could handle this simple flat to the front tire. Steve promptly found a nasty thorn partially embedded in the rear tire. He refused to touch it or Sean's tire. He inspected his own tires and removed one or two thorns before they could do any harm. Steve helped Sean remove another thorn from the same tire. I checked my own tires confident I'd have no thorns. I didn't.

Sean lacked a patch kit but he had one spare tube. Claimed he usually carried two. He was just putting the tube in the front tire (He hadn't even set the bead) when a whoosing sound startled us. I thought it might have come from the back tire, but I didn't squeeze the tire to see. Sean figured it had to be another missed thorn.

Now we had to find a patch kit. Mine had glue and sandpaper but only glueless patches. Go figure. Steve saved the day with his but not without a couple of Stevish comments about being prepared. Then he promptly began making noises dunking the tube in the nearby stream. After much discussion of snakes, Steve decided Sean should dunk the tube.

All patched and ready to go, Sean righted his bike only to find the true source of the whooshing noise. The back tire.

I checked my tires again. Not so confidently.

Interesting scientific observation to be made here. That thorn worked its way into the tube while the tire wasn't even touching the road. Pull those thorns immediately!

Sean had tried to find some Pullman folk to do this fat tire ride, but Spring Break had them all off to find the last ragged edges of skiable snow. We did enjoy a wonderful spring day with only light breezes, warm sunshine most of the time, and good company. So we had a good time. We hope the skiers did too.

We also found out what happens to skiers who try to ski too late into the season.

The sign says Carcass Corner

For the road of it.