The weak tire took me to Dighton the next day, where I stopped. I continued to ask the little stores along the way where I might find a 700 mm tire, but consistently got the expected answer: “no idea.”

i had a hot dog and juice in leoti – the only thing recorded in my journal about the day’s ride.

Dighton was hot. It was 95 when I set up camp in the city park. I took off my shirt and kept the tent door open, but it was still hard to sleep. Even at 11 PM, the sign across the street read 84 degrees. For hours, the sky overhead flashed, but I heard no thunder.

Then, right at midnight, the sky opened up. It was welcome relief, even though I had to run outside in only my shorts to put the rain fly on. Lightning blazed brilliantly overhead, and the sound was as if the sky itself were cracking. I counted almost no delay between lightning and thunder, so knew the storm must have been directly overhead.