Changing to RideWithGps.com!

I can't succeed in uploading photos to this site so I'm going to move my blog to RideWithGps.com where you can find me as JerryFromAlameda.  You'll have to create an account there, but it's free.

We put pur bikes together yesterday in Pornic.  We didn't know which way to go.  The hotel yold to go to the road and turn right.  But my GPS gadget ondicated to turn left, so that's what we did.  We soon decided that was wrong and asked a lady for directions.  Her instructions took us back past the hotel before we decided that we must have taken a wrong turn.  We turned around and passed the hotel again.  We made it a mile before a driver stopped us and urged us to take another route along the shoreline.  So we turned around and passed the hotel again to find the route the driver recommended.  A great road, just what the hotel told us to do from the start!

After a late start with putting the bikes together and wearing out the road in front of the hotel, we rode about 30 miles to Paimboeuf at the mouth of the Loire.  We found a very friendly B&B.  Good night.

At the airport.

Melinda and Roy drove the three boxed bikes to the airport.  Corinne picked up Fern and drove us to BART.  much confusion at the check-in over the bikes.  In the end, the check-in lady waived one of the three $200 fees as compensation for the confusion.

Ten hours on the plane ahead!

More Preparing to Go

The bike shop packing our bikes into boxes called to report that the derailleur and chain have to come off my bike to fit into the box.  I'll go over to the shop this morning to get a lesson on how to replace the derailleur after we arrive.  Taking the bikes on the airplane and on the train all seems harder than it ought to be!

The Workout

Michele is somewhat anxious about getting ready for our long bike trip.  Here she is, mid-workout: 

Our bikes are at the shop to be boxed up for the airplane.  I'm having trouble getting photos from my phone to this blog; frustration grows.

Calaveras Road

We rode from the West Dublin BART to Sunol and then followed Calaveras Road past the reservoir before descending to Milpitas and taking BART home.  One highlight: we saw an Allen's Hummingbird.  His throat flashed brilliant orange in the sun.  Low point: we climbed over a fence into the reservoir's watershed for our picnic lunch.  A helicopter circled overhead an shouted by loudspeaker to get off the watershed land!  Another highlight: after we climbed back over the fence, we spotted a pair of golden eagles performing acrobatics.  So some of us hopped back over the fence to watch the eagles.

Day after tomorrow, we're off to DC for a month to help the daughter with her new baby.  By the time we get back, it will be time to box up the bikes to ship to France.  Uh-oh!  Not ready!

I've been entering data for the Eurovelo 6 route into a GPS unit.  It's labor-intensive.  The printed map of the route and the electronic map look quite different, so it's confusing to try to transpose the route from the paper map to the GPS.  I'm hoping that the route is well marked.

I've been studying French in preparation for the trip.  I've been slipping on studying for the last few days.  Gotta catch up.

Pornic to Budapest

We're about seven weeks away from a new adventure.  May 1, we leave for France to ride from the Atlantic coast up the Loire valley.  We'll cross into Switzerland briefly.  We'll enter Germany to find the headwaters of the Danube and then follow the Danube east across Germany and into Austria.  We'll visit Vienna and then turn toward Budapest.  This should take about six or seven weeks.  We'll take the train to Amsterdam to see friends and then fly home from there.