Yesterday we were thwarted in hitting our intended destination so we tried again today. We made the trip and ended up with 62.5 mile to boot. But we had an inauspicious start. We started 8:10AM and managed to go all the way to Waltham Common, a distance of, um, about 1 mile when we had our first flat on the tandem. Of course it was a rear tire which must be patched without removing the wheel. However we found the leak, patched it, and continued on our way.
We made it out almost to I495, turned north into Harvard, Bolton, a bit of Boxborough, crossed under 495, ran south back to rt117, then back east.
Our return took us by Verrill Farm where we stopped for some lunch. Of course my sweetie just had to buy and take pics of veggies.
Our return also took us on the Minuteman Bikeway which as been known to harbor monsters this summer.
When we returned home I checked out the rear tire more carefully. I think the flat was the bike's way of telling us it should be retired. That's the second rear tire we've run through since I built up the bike.
Back in January 2013 another bf member, dddd IIRC though it may have been Golden Boy - I need to go through my old email - , had sent me a set of tires. I had just replaced the rear so I didn't need them right away. Today I mounted them and all is well. Also the FD I replaced yesterday worked like a charm. We be rollin'...
Addendum: One interesting thing about riding into parts unknown and seemingly isolated is the folks there may really be isolated. For example, we were Daisy, Daisy'ed by one woman out walking on some quiet country road. Ah, never seen a modern road tandem? Okay, so it's a C&V road tandem.
On our return's lunch stop we were approached by some guy in a bike jersey asking where we'd been. He told us he was part of a tandem team too and they'd noticed us there on our way out. Coincidentally we both stopped at Verrill Farm on our return at the same time. Had a nice conversation about the various roads around there.
It was a glorious day.