Thursday, August 20, 2009
Casiss, France
Remember the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam"? Robin Williams says "Today's weather is hot and moist. That is good in a woman, but bad in a jungle!" Well, it has been hot as hell here. The climate is dry, but we are sweating are butts off. We had some really good climbs yesterday as we approached Cassis, France. Since we have some days to burn and this is such a cool town, we decided to hit the beach today. The town reminds me of the club that George Constanza (Seinfeld) went to that only let in beautiful people. This is a very popular resort, maybe because it is so close to Marseilles.
Jordan and I are really getting tired of each other... In a good way! We are both looking forward to having Barb, Connor, and Donna Madlener join us. Despite getting on each other's nevers, I have definitive proof that we are bonding. She just popped three big zits that were on my neck. I don't know how a father and daughter could get any closer!
Tomorrow we are going to hop on the train to Aix-en-Provence. I kind of wanted to bike there, but Jordan asked me what I am trying to prove? That I am not getting old? Once again, she is right.
Jordan and I are really getting tired of each other... In a good way! We are both looking forward to having Barb, Connor, and Donna Madlener join us. Despite getting on each other's nevers, I have definitive proof that we are bonding. She just popped three big zits that were on my neck. I don't know how a father and daughter could get any closer!
Tomorrow we are going to hop on the train to Aix-en-Provence. I kind of wanted to bike there, but Jordan asked me what I am trying to prove? That I am not getting old? Once again, she is right.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Le Lavandou, French Riviera
August 17. 2009
Sitting in m tent sweating my ass off about 100 clicks east of Marseilles. The weather has been unbearably hot the last few days. We have decided to make another course correction. We are going to take a train from Marseilles to Nantes and finish the biking portion of the trip by biking up the Loire Valley to Orleans. From there we will take a train to Munich to meeeet Barb, Connor, and Donna. I am not sure if it will be much cooler, but the biking will be easier. We are dealing with a lot of hills on the Med coast.
My cousin Jim just emailed me to let me know that his dad, Uncle Dick, has been diagnosed with B-cell Lymphoma. Uncle Dick has been one of the biggest fans of this blog. I hear from him every couple days. This news has hit me pretty hard. Uncle Dick is one of those "larger than life" figures who seem almost indestructible. One of my strongest memories of Uncle Dick is cutting firewood at boy scout campouts. He would lift a 3 foot blade chain saw straight upover his head with his left hand and pull the cord with his right hand. That sucker would roar to life with Uncle Dick holding it with one hand.
He has accomplished an incredible amount in his 80 years and now he has decided it is time to KICK CANCER'S ASS! I want all of you blog readers to send some prayers' positive brain waves, whatever towards Uncle Dick. It is said that Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer, but no one knows for sure since Chuck has never cried. Well, if he ran into Uncle Dick, he would be making lemonade in his pants and crying bucket loads!
I don't want to paint a one-sided picture of Uncle Dick. As imposing a figure as he is, he is also the biggest Teddy Bear in the world. Since my dad's death in 1986, he has been a surrogate father fror me. He also has made a special connection with Jordan. She calls him "the nicest older man in the world." She never knew her grandfathers, so he gets elected to that role as well.
August 18th, 2009
Got biking early today to try to avoid the heat. Have 21 clicks in by 11AM and doing fine.
It's still hot as hell here, but I am going to try and get some shut-eye...
Sitting in m tent sweating my ass off about 100 clicks east of Marseilles. The weather has been unbearably hot the last few days. We have decided to make another course correction. We are going to take a train from Marseilles to Nantes and finish the biking portion of the trip by biking up the Loire Valley to Orleans. From there we will take a train to Munich to meeeet Barb, Connor, and Donna. I am not sure if it will be much cooler, but the biking will be easier. We are dealing with a lot of hills on the Med coast.
My cousin Jim just emailed me to let me know that his dad, Uncle Dick, has been diagnosed with B-cell Lymphoma. Uncle Dick has been one of the biggest fans of this blog. I hear from him every couple days. This news has hit me pretty hard. Uncle Dick is one of those "larger than life" figures who seem almost indestructible. One of my strongest memories of Uncle Dick is cutting firewood at boy scout campouts. He would lift a 3 foot blade chain saw straight upover his head with his left hand and pull the cord with his right hand. That sucker would roar to life with Uncle Dick holding it with one hand.
He has accomplished an incredible amount in his 80 years and now he has decided it is time to KICK CANCER'S ASS! I want all of you blog readers to send some prayers' positive brain waves, whatever towards Uncle Dick. It is said that Chuck Norris' tears can cure cancer, but no one knows for sure since Chuck has never cried. Well, if he ran into Uncle Dick, he would be making lemonade in his pants and crying bucket loads!
I don't want to paint a one-sided picture of Uncle Dick. As imposing a figure as he is, he is also the biggest Teddy Bear in the world. Since my dad's death in 1986, he has been a surrogate father fror me. He also has made a special connection with Jordan. She calls him "the nicest older man in the world." She never knew her grandfathers, so he gets elected to that role as well.
August 18th, 2009
Got biking early today to try to avoid the heat. Have 21 clicks in by 11AM and doing fine.
It's still hot as hell here, but I am going to try and get some shut-eye...
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Cannes to Frejus
August 16, 2009 Cannes to Frejus
Since our room in Cannes had AC, we took advantage and stayed their until about 10:30. After packing up, we stepped out into the heat. The one saving grace is that it is getting less humid. The landscape, except for the Med. Sea, almost looks like Arizona. It is all scrubby firs, cedar, and very little grass. The rocks have taken on a very reddish hue. Ever since Monaco, we have seen cruise ships in most of the cities along the Cote d'Azur. Since we got started so late, we lowered our mileage sites and headed for Saint-Raphael. After aboujt two or three hours of fairly hard biking, we stopped at a cute road-side restaurant. Their specialty was salads and omelettes. Jordan had the former and I had the latter. We were even able to get ice (glace) with our water! I don't know if I have mentioned before how hard it has been to get ice in Europe. I have yet to see it in the grocery stores. When we buy wine at the store, we always have to scrounge to get ice. One time I got it dry ice that the grocery store was using to keep their fish cold.
Just after lunch, I heard the familiar PING of a broken spoke..l. another one on my cassette side of my rear wheel. We kept on riding to Saint-Raphael where I was hoping to find an open bike store. Upon arriving, we discovered that August 15th was some big holiday in France and none of the stores would be open, other than restaurants and bars. We checked with the local tourist office to see if their were any rooms available and there were not. This is the height of holiday season and a Saturday. She was able to give me a list of local campgrounds and it looked like there was a nice one outside of Frejus, about 9 clicks away. By this time we were broiling and Jordan had a pounding headache.
Frejus is located a little inland from the beach. Spotting a good-looking fruit stand, we pulled over for some refreshments. There is something about biking that makes me crave fruit. Jordan feels the same way. We bought nectarines, a pear, a cantolope, and some huge grapes. We ate the grapes immediately, since they would be hard to pack. Each one exploded in our mouths.
We took off from the fruit stand and were only about half a click from the campsite. The road had no bike path at that point, but just ahead was a three foot high stone wall that separated the road from a biking/walking path. Jordan was 20 yards behind me so I thought she would see it without me mentioning anything. I turned slightly to the right upon approaching the dividing wall to get on the bike path. About two or three seconds later I heard a huge crash. I whipped around to see that Jordan had run right into the dividing wall and got thrown to the ground. I got off my bike and ran back to help her. She seemed like she was in shock. I grabbed her arm and led her off the road and onto the bike path, then I grabbed her bike. Instead of comforting her, I started screaming at her... "What the hell are you doing? You are going to kill yourself!" I then brought up all the clumsy moves she has been making of late, and she snapped! She called me every name in the book, and I deserved it. I am not sure why I reacted like I did. I was so scared when I heard the crash. I should have hugged her instead of screaming at her.
The lesson I am learning is that I can not push her as hard as I have been. It seems that the afternoons after a hard morning of riding, are really tough on her. She lost her concentration for just a second and it was almost disasterous. As Sergeant Barnes said in "Platoon"... "If you don't keep your sh!t wired tight, I goddamn guarantee you a trip out of the bush... IN A BODY BAG!" As my brother Jeff has shown me, everything you need to know about life is in the movie "Platoon".
We arrived at the campground without further mishap and set up the tent. We decided to go our separate ways for an hour or two to cool down. I swam, showered, then got a half liter of horrible white wine at the campground restaurant. Jordan came by and we had a nice dinner. The food ended up being much better than the wine. We have decided to spend another day here since the pool is nice and the bike shops are closed. I don't want to risk breaking another spoke. We may ride the short distance back to Saint Raphael to get on the Internet and buy food at a grocery store. I could also use another book, since I just finished "Quite Ugly One Morning". Excellent book! Very Carl Hiassen-like.
I have talked with Jordan about altering our itinerary a bit, not like we haven't altered it already! I suggested to her that once we get to Aixe-on-Provence, we take a train up to somewhere in the Loire Valley. My sister, Jane, said it was her favorite part of her trip biking through Europe. It may be a little cooler up that way, and we will be closer to Munchen (Munich) when we finish riding. She agrees as long as there are no mountains!
Since our room in Cannes had AC, we took advantage and stayed their until about 10:30. After packing up, we stepped out into the heat. The one saving grace is that it is getting less humid. The landscape, except for the Med. Sea, almost looks like Arizona. It is all scrubby firs, cedar, and very little grass. The rocks have taken on a very reddish hue. Ever since Monaco, we have seen cruise ships in most of the cities along the Cote d'Azur. Since we got started so late, we lowered our mileage sites and headed for Saint-Raphael. After aboujt two or three hours of fairly hard biking, we stopped at a cute road-side restaurant. Their specialty was salads and omelettes. Jordan had the former and I had the latter. We were even able to get ice (glace) with our water! I don't know if I have mentioned before how hard it has been to get ice in Europe. I have yet to see it in the grocery stores. When we buy wine at the store, we always have to scrounge to get ice. One time I got it dry ice that the grocery store was using to keep their fish cold.
Just after lunch, I heard the familiar PING of a broken spoke..l. another one on my cassette side of my rear wheel. We kept on riding to Saint-Raphael where I was hoping to find an open bike store. Upon arriving, we discovered that August 15th was some big holiday in France and none of the stores would be open, other than restaurants and bars. We checked with the local tourist office to see if their were any rooms available and there were not. This is the height of holiday season and a Saturday. She was able to give me a list of local campgrounds and it looked like there was a nice one outside of Frejus, about 9 clicks away. By this time we were broiling and Jordan had a pounding headache.
Frejus is located a little inland from the beach. Spotting a good-looking fruit stand, we pulled over for some refreshments. There is something about biking that makes me crave fruit. Jordan feels the same way. We bought nectarines, a pear, a cantolope, and some huge grapes. We ate the grapes immediately, since they would be hard to pack. Each one exploded in our mouths.
We took off from the fruit stand and were only about half a click from the campsite. The road had no bike path at that point, but just ahead was a three foot high stone wall that separated the road from a biking/walking path. Jordan was 20 yards behind me so I thought she would see it without me mentioning anything. I turned slightly to the right upon approaching the dividing wall to get on the bike path. About two or three seconds later I heard a huge crash. I whipped around to see that Jordan had run right into the dividing wall and got thrown to the ground. I got off my bike and ran back to help her. She seemed like she was in shock. I grabbed her arm and led her off the road and onto the bike path, then I grabbed her bike. Instead of comforting her, I started screaming at her... "What the hell are you doing? You are going to kill yourself!" I then brought up all the clumsy moves she has been making of late, and she snapped! She called me every name in the book, and I deserved it. I am not sure why I reacted like I did. I was so scared when I heard the crash. I should have hugged her instead of screaming at her.
The lesson I am learning is that I can not push her as hard as I have been. It seems that the afternoons after a hard morning of riding, are really tough on her. She lost her concentration for just a second and it was almost disasterous. As Sergeant Barnes said in "Platoon"... "If you don't keep your sh!t wired tight, I goddamn guarantee you a trip out of the bush... IN A BODY BAG!" As my brother Jeff has shown me, everything you need to know about life is in the movie "Platoon".
We arrived at the campground without further mishap and set up the tent. We decided to go our separate ways for an hour or two to cool down. I swam, showered, then got a half liter of horrible white wine at the campground restaurant. Jordan came by and we had a nice dinner. The food ended up being much better than the wine. We have decided to spend another day here since the pool is nice and the bike shops are closed. I don't want to risk breaking another spoke. We may ride the short distance back to Saint Raphael to get on the Internet and buy food at a grocery store. I could also use another book, since I just finished "Quite Ugly One Morning". Excellent book! Very Carl Hiassen-like.
I have talked with Jordan about altering our itinerary a bit, not like we haven't altered it already! I suggested to her that once we get to Aixe-on-Provence, we take a train up to somewhere in the Loire Valley. My sister, Jane, said it was her favorite part of her trip biking through Europe. It may be a little cooler up that way, and we will be closer to Munchen (Munich) when we finish riding. She agrees as long as there are no mountains!
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