Why carry a cell phone?
Wife and I drove to a not-so-local bike store to test ride a few tandems. When we parked our car I was about to leave my cell phone therein when my DW said, "You aren't going to take your cell phone on the test ride?". 30+ years of marriage enabled me to discern the clues embedded in her question and I reinserted the phone into my pocket.
30 minutes later we double-flatted the tandem. Turns out that a construction truck dropped some very sharp dark-colored gravel in the bike lane which was very hard to see under the lighting conditions. Good news: I was able to call the bike store owner and he came by with a new front wheel. Bad news: he was on his way before I realized that "we" had also flatted the rear tire as well.
How many of you out there have ever double-flatted? how many by running over one stinkin' rock? Good think I had the phone or I would have been hearing about the walk back in the rain for a year or two!
We wound up buying that particular tandem the use of which should prove to be an interesting turn in our relationship.