June Seventh...

Today was a test.  It was only a test.  Had this been a real day I might have just jumped in front of a bus and called it "good".

We decided to try and ride from our hotel to Omaha Beach and see the American cemetery and memorial there. It was 75% cloudy and it seemed that we were riding into the wind for a good portion of the ride.

Then came the flat tire.  A pinch flat, to be exact.  This put a big hole in the tube and tore a tiny hole in the tire casing. I replaced the old tube with a new one and wrapped a dollar bill around the inside of the tire casing where the hole was -- this trick really helps keep the tube from forcing its way back through the hole in the tire and then blowing up.

We continued on and reached Omaha Beach only to find that we were welcome at the cemetery but our bike wasn't.  Valerie went inside to look around while I was trying to sit on a long marble block that, for all practical purposes, looked like a good place to sit and wait for Valerie to come back out. But "there are rules... you understand" said the guard there, and I had to go stand out in the parking lot with the bike.  Yes, in case you were wondering, there IS a bike parking area... way out at the far end of the car lot where no one would ever notice someone stealing it!  So we took turns watching the bike while the other quickly went in and took a look.

Leaving Omaha Beach we retraced our route eastward finding that the wind had changed direction during the afternoon, so we could enjoy fighting a heading on our return trip too.  And then the tire went flat again.

After trying to pump it up again the stem came out when I removed the pump head, forever lost in the grass.  Great... one good tube with no way of keeping the air in and one tube with a hole that would take the largest patch on the kit plus a lot of luck.  We patched the tube and underinflated  the tire hoping that the reduced pressure wouldn't cause the patch to leak.  And here we are, back at the hotel safe and sound with 65 and a half miles of cycling under our belts.

The hotel offers free Wi-Fi in their lobby, which hasn't worked since we got here. I finally had to buy an hour's worth of Wi-Fi that could be accessed from the room, and the rest is history!