Day 18 -pete - on our way home

We are on the road by and stop at the Cajun kitchen café for the best breakfast of he trip. I had eggs over gumbo.

At the airport we disassemble and box our bikes. A short wait and we board.

Day 17 - Goleta, CA - Tom

We arrive around noon. The day starts out with a rear flat. I pump it up and make it to Starbucks in Lompoc. A short ride to breakfast finds thed tire flat again. Oh well, there was a nice piece of lawn And the weather was great - I'm ready to go by 8AM - two flats repaired. We follow HWY 1 to a 1200 ft pass were Pete sets out to prove that strawberry blintz's are not power food...but I'm so tired of eating smart. Well I got close at one point to passing Pete but we got a headwind the last couple of miles aNd it was all over for me.
We make it down the other side and as we roll along I feel a rock hit my tire in a bad way - flat no.3....the HWY 1 has turned into freeway 101. Three tries patching the tire and I've got something that seems to work. At least it gets me 20 more miles down the road to Goleta and lunch. We find a bike shop, I purchase a inner tube, change out my rear tire which was brand new a month ago with my foldup and we're ready to head out to the airport to check for bike boxes, then hopefully rfelax at the beach.
Bike boxes found we make it finally to the beach, play in the surf and are ready to head out. My front tire is flat - I try to repair but hole is in a bad place near stem. Sure enough,within a mile I'm flat again. We add enough air to get to bike shop, purchase a another inner tube and 8 repair. That's 8 times to replace inner tubes in one day. Pete informs me I've broken his record of 6. I'm not all that happy to make that number; but it was a good ride overall - who am I to complain, I'm a man that has literally had the ride of a lifetime. Thank you all that made this possible. Back to work.

DAY 17 PETE - Santa Barbara

We leave Lompoc facing a 15 mile climb over the coast range. Its the last climb so we work extra hard and race each other to the top. We must have put on some muscle as we average 12.4 mph on the climb. A steep downhill and we are back on the coast. The day is crystal clear and the channel islands are visible on the horizon. After one coastal roller I notice Tom is no longer behind me so I stop to wait. After 10 minutes I figure he's had a flat. After 15 I call and get out my book. Another call and a text message and still no Tom. No aid car sirens so I continue to read on the side of the freeway. Turns out he had to change tubes 3 times. He' already changed tubes twice in Lompoc that morning so he was up to 5 flats before noon. We hit Goleta and he buys a new tube and we roll to the airport.

At the airport, Horizon has no bike boxes so we go to United but the would not sell us theirs. We go back to Horizon and their manager goes to talk to United and to secures the boxes for us. The Horizon manager says in 10 years we're the first ones to request bike boxes - Amazing.

It is still early so we head for the beach and though windy we do go in for a swim. At the Beach tom notices his front tire is soft. He a patches the tube. The patch was close to the stem and slow leaks. We head back to the bike shop for another tube and Tom swaps out his 7th flat. That eclipses my previous record of 6 in one day. He's not really happy about the record however. We head for dinner at the Holister brew pub.The burgers are really good and so was the double stout. The duck fat fried fries are extra special. Tom's smile returns during dinner. After dinner he even treats himself to a hot fudge sundae and an apple pie at the next door Mc Donalds.

Corliss has arranged accommodations for the night at the parents of a friend from work. Thank you Chuck and Pat for your hospitality.

Day 17/ 57 miles/1265 total