Today An Exploding Tube Took Me To Walmart & Slippery Mud With Indian Ghosts

This morning I tried to fix the tire that I discovered flat yesterday when I went to go bike riding with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

All went well with the tube repair, initially. I found a previous patch failed. I replaced it. Tested the new patch under pressure. It passed the test.

I stuck the tube back on the wheel, inside the tire and then began pumping fresh air into the freshly fixed flat.

Suddenly the tube started making a disturbing noise, like the rumbling of a mountain about to erupt or a big elephant with severe flatulence.

And then BOOM. The tube exploded. Dogs started barking, car alarms started alarming. I was knocked backwards.

I may be slightly exaggerating.

So, with a serious need for a new tube I headed east to Walmart, got tubed and then continued on to the aforementioned Village Creek Natural Historical Area to have a longer walk than yesterday's.

I made it to the second dam bridge today. It is totally blocked by a tree. And a thick mud cover was very slippery. That is the mud cover, above, in the foreground. Across the dam bridge we leave the Natural Historical Area with the park zone then becoming known as the Bob Findlay Linear Park.

I warned a lady with two big dogs about the mud danger that lay ahead of her. Behind her came two skateboarders, rolling at high speed. I tried to shout a warning, but they did not hear me. I suspect that when they skated the curving semi-steep slope that leads to the dam bridge that it did not go well for them when they hit the slippery mud.

Anyway, I have a new tube I hope to successfully install without exploding this afternoon.