The tire was so tight that I was unable to get it off without using a screwdriver which I know is risky but out of >100 flats in over 30 years (mostly changed using a screwdriver) I have only had 1-2 problems in the past. This time I did put a hole once (out of ~10 changes) in a tube. 1-2 of the first flats may have been due to bad rim tape so I replaced that. I had a bike shop person (over the phone) list off multiple things that I should be doing/should have done and I said 'yes' to all of them (except avoiding screwdrivers). Most of the flats seemed to be unrelated to each other (holes in different places, different patches used, failure to complete inflation sometimes, 2 days riding sometimes, tube appeared to be too small, etc, etc). I finally gave up and bought another new tire and have not had excessive problems since.