10 flat miles, a flat, tacos and solidarity

It's been a month since my surgery. I hadn't been on a bike in a month. Sidelined by being filleted and gutted not only by a double mastectomy but the misery of having a chemo port installed in the one place on my body (collarbones!) where I have no extra skin or fat to cram medical devices under my skin. I hate this port. I hope I get used to this thing soon. Chemo treatments and the side effects aren't much fun either.

We drove the bikes down to the flats along the river to test my ability to ride. It would be an easy, slow ride.
I was astonished to see that my front tire was completely flat before the ride. I'd just had a new set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires installed the day before my surgery. I knew I'd need some air in the tires after a month of no use, but the front was totally flat. Odd.
My arms had little use in the past month, I wasn't allowed to raise them above my shoulder for a long time and they're still very stiff. I felt the atrophied arm muscles whining at me when I got back in the saddle. I thought I might be sore the next morning.

SEVENTY degrees in December?!

Ready to roll!

We checked out the new Penn Ave cycletrack extension

We bumped into Dan-Y tandem-ing with Catherine around the city IN SHORTS.

After a 10 mile loop around the flat parts of  the city, we decided it was time for tacos and drove towards to the South Hills to Las Palmas again for delicious Mexican street food.

On the way we stopped to check out the Seldom Seen Greenway.

It would make a nice connector to the South Hills

 Two local businesses including Las Palmas were recently vandalized with racist graffiti and the community came out to support the owners.

The lines were long

The door where the graffiti was left was replaced with a mural painted by students

pollo with guac, green salsa and hot sauce. NOM.

We're still trying to figure out the ingredient of the 'super hot' sauce they use, we asked the staff if we could buy some of it to take home (but it's made fresh and not sold to go) and I'm almost certain he told me it was made from Ancho peppers. Good stuff. Today's batch was hotter than a few weeks ago.

 When we took the bikes off the back of the car, my front tire was flat again. WHA? How can a hard-to-get-a-flat tire go flat after 12 miles of use?!?
Marko suspects a small piece of sand or grit made it's way underneath the tire during the Schwalbe change and rubbed a hole in the tube. He changed and patched the tube in the comfort of a living room for me. Best place for a a tire change for sure.

I woke up the next day without the sore arms I thought I might suffer from. YES.