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.