Keep That Dyson Covered

So I rode from Atlanta to Warner Robins today.  The ride was a little strange for a few reasons.

Oddity One
Before I left, I replaced the caps on both vacuum ports on my carburetors.  The news caps were all blue and awesome. They looked like this:

Whoops, I added a picture of my metal-winged adult toy instead

30 or 40 miles into the ride, I pulled off the highway to get gas.  I filled up my tank, poured the water out of my backpack (more on this later), and got back on the road.  On the way back to the highway, my bike stalled and kept backfiring in the carbs, which is weird and shouldn't happen.  Then, once I got back on the highway, I noticed that my bike was backfiring over and over again so loudly I could hear it with my helmet on and my head facing forwards going 85 mph.  It sounded like this:

This is also odd and worrying. So, I pulled back off the highway into a deserted Johnny Rockets parking lot (the Johnny Rockets was deserted, not the parking lot, which was also deserted [Ha! work through that one (Look ma, these parentheses and brackets are nested (Ha! Formal logic joke!)]).  After fiddling around a little, I discovered that the vacuum port on my rear cylinder looked like this:

There's pollen on everything. I hate all living things. 

No blue vacuum cap = vacuum leak = bad.  Luckily, no blue vacuum cap = easy to fix = I was back on my way in no time.  From there on out, my bike sounded like this:

 Oddity Two

My parents gave me some flowers to take Meri's mom and sister but my terrible brakes and the awesome weather left me determined to ride and not drive. So, I put these flowers:

They're the ones in the vase

 In my backpack:

This isn't actually my backpack, it's a dramatic re-enactment. It looks a lot like mine, though

Good idea, huh?  "Surely", you'll ask, "you drained the water out of the vase first?"  And I'll reply, "of course I did.  What am I, some kind of idiot?!"  And I'll be lying.  Because I am an idiot.  So when I stopped to get gas, I noticed that there was water all over my seat and rear fender, and jacket, and laptop.  Super sweet.

Good ride, though.