Awe What The?

This labor day weekend was supposed to be a chance to do some serious biking with my brother. Unfortunately anything that could have gone wrong did. So far the weekend rides have been ruined. Since the beginning of my biking career (a few months) I've never had a flat. Well, it finally happened this past Thursday. It was a typical flat. A thorn resembling a golf tee punctured my front tire. No biggie, it was bound to happen eventually. The tire was easily changed and I made it back home without a hitch. Then came the first ride with my brother (whose put more mileage on his bike this past year than I will in the next five) on Friday. Within the first ten minutes, my back tire goes out. We can't find any type of object on the tire, or find a hole on the tube. Not a problem. Tube changed, but we had to head back home. On the way back, my rear cog kept grinding on the smallest gear. Turns out my rear derailleur was bent. Ouch. But I took it to the bike shop and it was fixed within five minutes. Later on that day I found the hole in the tube. There was a puncture on the underside of the tube resembling a knife puncture. Then we headed out today and bam! Within five minutes my back goes out again. Same spot as the one last night, right above the fourth spoke. It looks like the wheel tape isn't covering the spoke holes in the wheel completely, so its probably puncturing the tube under pressure. We changed the tube again and headed back home. We decided to ride locally this time, but it didn't matter. The back went out again. To make matters worse, once we changed the tube, I noticed the front tire was flat as well. Same problem as the rear. Four days, four flats, and a bent derailleur. Things could be worse I suppose. I could have crashed and cracked the frame. But it was a real let down to say the least. My brother made quite a treck to come by this weekend. Hopefully I'll get everything squared away tomorrow and we'll have at least one good ride. Maybe the bike shop will make my day and just completely replace both my wheels with some really nice ones I can't afford!