5 July
Well…what a day what a day. Many thoughts along the way….some not so positivie…wondering what the hell did I do to myself...am I really prepared for this???
But the path is beautiful as well as all the small town scenery…
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interestingly enough though…nothing is open today. Didn’t really make a difference until I was 40 miles into the ride and really needed some water and food. A small bar was open in Clerval thankfully and I downed two biers and a ham and cheese sandwich. Kept me going for some time, but then as I approached Montbeliard, I could have used some more, but again, nothing was open...
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| Decisions, decisions... |
I wanted to make Belfort today and did, but it was hell getting here…I’m a paper map kind of guy…though the GPS is fun and great and all that, I just can’t see enough on the screen to decide whether I want to follow the GPS way…shouldn’t have…but made my own shortcuts and arrived about 1930?
Completely dehydrated and no food…hmmmm…but I’m not hungry, just overly thirsty. Since the campground is a way out of the centre Ville, I loaded up on 4.5 litres of water and opted for Fanta Limon opposed to Coke.
Walked across the street to the campground and sat for almost an hour. My legs are fried…left without sunscreen like an idiot L Oh. Well, one of those things. Hopefully some things open tomorrow and I can get some…cannot continue to fry.
Speaking of leaving….didn ‘t get out of the apt. today until 1100…very disappointed. Difficult to get through town…drivers are crazy with a capital K! But I made it to the Eurovelo 6 and was on my way north.
The route is pretty well marked, except as you approach the edges of each town…GPS was very helpful at this point. While I’m enjoying the ride greatly, I’m also thinking it’s kind of crazy how many extra miles I’m probably adding by riding the river valley…but it’s much, MUCH safer than the highways!
Another thought…didn’t really need the big DSLR camera, though I have taken a few pics with it…mostly been shooting with the Canon point and shoot.
Back to the campground! As a finished up my 1.5 litre of water on a park bench inside the campground, I decided it was time to make a fool of myself and as if they had any campsites for the night. I asked in French and the kind gentleman responded in French, and then German, and then English…we settled on English, but I still tried to talk to him a bit in French. He asked how I knew about the campground and I told him internet, and that Jen had picked up a brochure on the trail. He was pleased to know that each are working for him. He asked what I was doing on the trail and I told him mon faim es un profeseur en la lycie in Etas Unis. He just smiled…but he got it.
The Garmin is back up to 47%...can’t wait till it’s closer to 100% and I can go to sleep. I think I may find better sleep out here on the extremely hard ground instead of at Mdme. Irby’s apt. We’ll see…part of it may just be that I’m wasted…longest part of my day was Montbeliard to Belfort.
I’m jumping all over, but what the hell! It’s a blog of random thoughts, probably going to get more random as my days pass on the bicycle.
After getting my campsite at the front desk, I went into the little camp store where soccer was on the TV and the place smelled like dead ‘live bait’…not good. But I need food even though I wasn’t feeling very hungry. So what did I get? 2 yogurts and a snickers. After burning over 4,000 calories today, that is not going to work, but it’s all I can see myself eating at this point…things may change after getting the tent up and showering. I’m just glad the store is open til 2200.
Tent up, showered up, decided I wanted more food. Salami and a baguette…the girl running the counter gave the baguette to me half off since she said it was from this morning and probably not very good. After grabbing my huge dinner (beats grass any day!) I went to wash my cycling clothes from the day…SALTY!!! Not that I tasted them, but you could see it; clothes now drying in the trees at my campsite.
Dinner is done! Not too bad…broke the bread outside the tent door so I wouldn’t get everything so ‘crummy’. Glad I had my Eat ‘N Tool…they didn’t have spoons at the camp store…
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| My campsite under the 'Fort of Belfort' |
Ate all 100g of the Salami and ¾ of the baguette. Who knows, maybe I’ll make my own dried out pain au chocolat in the morning with the left over baguette and my snickers. Garmin at 50%
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I’m going to sign off for now and hope that I wake up before the computer goes to sleep so that I can get the Garmin all charged up.
Goodnight for now. I’ll explain grass eating later…from 4 July dinner at the apt. with 2 girls from Jen’s classes at the CLA…funny!
See the data my Garmin collected:
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