Freewheel Day 1 Frederick to Elgin - CycleTour

Wind was still strong - 20+ mph from South / South East. First miles were a thing a beauty... due north, mostly down hill with a tail wind! we then angled back to the east-south east so picked up the wind for a few miles... it was tough. we then evened out to the east for dozen or more miles so there was a bit of wind. Went north at Indiahoma. First water stop. filled bottles and on down the road to the north again - easy peddling... turned into the wildlife refugee and came to another stop. I just filled up, so I skooched on by. That was a mistake, there was not another water stop for over 20 miles and I started to run out. Refuge was great, some easy inclines. Weirdly there were all these millipedes crossing the road, probably one every few hundred feet for a mile or two. They were huge - like six inches long. I steered around them. At about mile 35 or 40 I started feeling a wobble in my back tire. back wheel had come out of true. I opened up the brake caliper to minimize rubbing and soldiered on. The refugee was just cross fenced and there were numerous cattle guards on the road (the FW crew put down plywood on one side - that was quite helpful). On several occasions there were buffalo in the field next to road with no fence between us. Closest one was probably 10 feet off the road - laying down. That was really cool! Finally made it the visitor center and I was out of gas... the pop tart breakfast had long since evaporated. Had a break and a couple of PB&J's and recovered a bit. checked tire - it was pretty bad out of true and was still rubbing on break pads some. I tightened a couple of spokes and it seemed to help. That help was short lived. On the downhills I could really feel the wobble. When I got to Medicine park, I stopped again. Wheel was rubbing side to side again. I sat and tightened all the spokes back up - several were loose now and pushed on. This was a long stretch with a cross wind with a couple of shorter stretches with a tailwind. Found out that I actually liked the cross wind better, as I was cooler. The tailwind was strong enough that you basically got no wind cooling at all when it was at your back. It was like sitting on a trainer - just cooking.... Got to the last rest stop a bit after I ran out of water - tire bad again. I re-tightened spokes again and made for the last 8 miles. There were a couple of little rollers on the way in, but not too bad. Made camp and waited for mechanic to come in off the road to true wheel and put some lock-tite on those spokes. Long story short, I ended up buying a new back wheel.

Not sure, I had the bike at the shop only a few days earlier for a final check off before the ride. The wheel made the day a bit harder than it had to be, but such is life....

Elgin was the worst camping site of the week. Few places to eat. I wish I had been more aware of the long stretches between water stations so I could have planned better.