‍The ride went well although there are many extremely steep hills that end at the bottom of a hill, erasing all momentum, so it was a rather slow first half. I stopped frequently for water due to the heat, although it was a slightly cooler day than we've had lately due to a bit less humidity. First stop was at a park on Church Street in Douglasville that had a brand new bathroom and a pedestrian bridge over the street that connected to a building, the records department for the city and EMS headquarters. Very strange to put in such an expensive bridge over a side street that didn't look like it had very much traffic(it was one street off the highway through town). Next stop was at a Racetrac where I bought a liter of Dr Pepper and some combos and chips. Filled up water at their water fountain. Then I rode a series of large old subdivisions off Lee road which is now 'upgraded' to 4 lane divided highway. Rode by Sweetwater Creek State Park so I took the opportunity to sit for a few minutes at a shaded picnic table by the lake. What I thought should be a short ride on two busy roads to get around the park on the north side turned into a whole ordeal that almost ruined the ride for me. I was on Blairs Bridge road and had just crossed the bridge over Sweetwater creek and heard a pop sound and felt the air in my rear tire go out so I quickly got off the road and pulled out my tire plug. Only I couldn't find any puncture at all. I was in the sun on the grass in front of some warehouse or other. I sat down and tried my best to find any sort of puncture but it just wasn't there. And it had to big because all the air left the tire very quickly. After about 5 minutes or so I finally noticed that I had a broken spoke, and that my crappy rim tape job let all the air out the loose spoke nipple. Great. I bent the spoke around the others and wedged it into an adjacent spoke cross to keep it in place. I searched in vain for a roll of tape that I thought I had put in my bag but couldn't find it. Ended up using a short section of gorilla tape that I had on my pump to hold the grommeted end closed to keep out dirt. I wrapped the tape as best I could around the nipple to hold it in place. By this point I took the wheel out of the frame and shook it up and down to distribute sealant to the area. At least I knew there was lots in there as I had just put on new tires. I set about putting my pump onto the valve and tried to get some air into the tire quickly. Now the pump had been having a bit of trouble screwing together, but I figured this was mostly a patience problem, being that often I don't have much while trying to use my frame pump. So I took my time despite the sounds of cars whizzing past on the busy road next to me and I-20 on the other side of the warehouse I was next to. Plus I was in direct sunlight in the middle of the day on a hot summer day. Nevertheless I relaxed and still had a lot of trouble getting the pump to thread in properly and ultimately figured out that the threads are stripped out and the pump is next to unusable. After a long series of very careful pumps holding it very steady with both hands I was able to get some air in the tire and sealant to finally seal the area around the loose nipple. I tried and tried to get more air in the tire but eventually decided that about 10lbs was about as good as it was going to get and still much better than walking. So I set off up the hill on this busy road and pedaled out of the saddle as quick as I reasonably could. Now thankfully there was a Racetrac that I had planned to go to anyway only about a half mile up the road. So I rolled right up to the air compressor in the parking lot and after a good bit of fumbling, finally figured out how to get it to put out air. This of course was also in the direct sunlight as well. but at least I didn't have to wait to use it I suppose. Long story short, I had to manually up the pressure to get it to pump the tire up as it was by default set to sense pressure in a car tire so people won't over fill with air, but it apparently had trouble with my tire. I set the thing to the max of 80 and finally it began to actually put air in the tire. Even with this it still took awhile. I would put a bit in, bounce and shake the tire to make sure sealant was all the way around and repeat. Eventually I got at least 30lbs in there and I was satisfied. Good timing too because a car rolled up just as I had decided I was done. I went inside and got some more fluids and left in fairly good spirits and feeling like I had just dodged a bullet because I really thought for a second there I was going to have to call my wife for a ride, something I haven't done in many years. The remainder of the ride went by without issue and the tire held air perfectly till home. 👏 53.75 new miles Completed 50% of Douglas County -- From Wandrer