I began the day with what I was hoping would be goat head protection after I fixed my flat tire. I had three flats yesterday. Toward that I cut up a plastic water bottle in he hopes that it would work as a tire liner.

My day on the road  started out with a trip to the nearby Reno Bike Project for a patch kit, I had used up all of my patches yesterday. While I was there a homeless guy who was explaining to a friend how to make meth with rat poison (seriously). went on to show me how strong his seat post mounted bike rack was. Telling him I needed  one for the Advanta, he offered to sell me his for ten dollars after we couldn’t find one in the RBP bike scrap. I told him I had to get going, so I took a pass.

Instead, I walked all of 50 feet up the street to a thrift store that fully astounded. There I  “scored” a two dollar toaster at what is one of the hugest thrift stores I have ever seen. It even had the tupperware bowl you see here for 50 cents. The rice cooker and spoon that you see below came up with me from Davis.

And just as I got out to my bike, there parked by the curb was the Reno Brew Bike pictured below. It had stopped to pick up customers at the already  jumping  Under the Rose Brewing Company in between the Bike Project and the thrift store. Similar to the Busycle that we ran from 2006 to 2009, the 12 people it carried (the Busycle carried 14) all looked toward the center of the bus which was a giant beer bar. For those of you who recall, Busycle riders faced the sidewalk and sit in large executive office chairs. Duke, the owner/proprietor gave me his card and wants to talk about how he can fit into what we are doing.

 

Here is a video of the Busycle 

 

 

 

On my way back to my room to drop off my purchases, I came across the 926-room Harrahs electric car charging station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also decided to take a photo of the nearby National Bowling Stadium that I keep passing.

 

 

 

 

Then it was off to explore more of the Crooked Mile that goat heads had prevented me from seeing in its entirety. Well they almost won out once more as I got another flat near the Hub Coffee Roasters again.And then I remembered that Troy at RBP had told me that auto parts stores sold Slime, a liquid that you can squirt into your tubes to stop flats.  A customer sitting outside at the Hub told me I could find such a vendor on Keystone, about a mile away.

Well $12 later, they were out of cheaper small bottles, it worked for about two miles, then a goat head got in. Slime is supposed to stop such leakage. But it didn’t and I had to use the patch kit I had purchased at RBP earlier…

In the above, can U find the goat head(s) pictured at the right? The little needles fall off and hide in the asphalt,

On my way out of town along the river, several blocks of it were closed off for a festival. By one bridge,music rang out from a stage. By another, there were booths set up selling arts and crafts and the like. All was festive And the security let me ride through to the other side,

 

The river that the Crooked Mile paralleled was tree-shaded and beautiful for about two or three miles  as you can see in the gallery below.

On my way back, it had ended in neighborhood streets, I saw a sign that said that Riverside Dr, aka the Crooked Mile, was a bicycle boulevard!

 

 

 

Even the speed bumps were set up to slow down motorists but not bicyclists riding at the right edge of the road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then as I got back into town, a friendly store appeared where I could take a Kombucha break, 

And yet there again, I learned from talking with locals that one can buy Kombucha at pretty much all the coffee shops. They have it on tap!! Whoaa…

While I was in of Great Basin, I took a few pictures of the inside since yesterday all you saw was the inside.

It was late in the afternoon, by the time I made it to Tim Healion’s Laughing Planet Cafe. As to be expected, he was not there. But I did take a dew shots of his bike-centric restaurant that everyone I asked seemed to know about. There were tastefully framed bike posters everywhere. Even an excellent quality racing  bike was mounted on one of the walls.

He even had a very good quality floor pump with a gauge sitting by the front door. I used it to pump my goat head plagued tire to 80 lbs.

On the River walk on the way home, I stopped and shot a picture of Clive’s bike by the man-made water fall you see here. I know Clive pictured at the end, who has given  a lot of his life force to the cause of recumbent bicycling and to this bike in particular, will love to see his machine remembered in such a way.

THX 4 U Clive. Your bike is making Reno such a joy to behold!!