Time for an offline blog entry! It's 9am on the morning of the 18th of June. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Southern France somewhere, and we have to make it to Barcelona tonight, so we have about 3-4 hours of driving to do today, but probably (although who knows with this crowd!) no biking.
My last entry was quite awhile ago. Let's see... Was it the first hotel we stayed at in France? The one in St. Jean de Luz?
Day/Night 1: British Airways (June 9)
Day 2: Phantom of the Opera
Night 2: Sofitel at Gatwick airport in London
Day 2: Arriving in Bordeaux, getting the bikes, driving to St. Jean de Luz, avoiding striking truckers, and biking 38 miles to St. Jean Pierre de Pied or something like that
Night 3: St. Pied or whatever
Day 4: Jay and Tiff bike to Oloron (50 miles!), while the rest of us drive there to find a hotel and a bike shop
Night4: Oloron
Day 5: First climb (Col du Marie Blanc)
Night 5: Can't remember where we stayed (need a map!!)
Day 6: 7 hour hike straight uphill; trail went through a tunnel filled with water that was thankfully closed; ate at a bowling alley
Night 6: same as last night
Day 7: Second climb (col du Tourmalet); wet and cold at the top, but a great little restaurant with some awesome french onion soup
Night 7: stayed at a little hotel on the way to the next spot and had amazing food from a little magician (Father's Day)
Day 8: Off day from the bikes, we decide to head south into Spain in hopes of better weather, but it's actually worse through the tunnel; we go for a one hour walk along a road in a beautiful canyon; I say "Donde estamos?" to some dude working at a gas station
Night 8: Stay at a 3-star hotel back in France with wireless internet and talk to Jeffra with Tiff, Jayme, and Nelson on the webcam
Day 9: Third climb (Col de Mente plus another one before it); Tiff and Jay say it's the toughest one, but I thought the toughest was the first one; my legs feel like lead after doing it!
Night 9: some nice hotel along the way to Barcelona
Day 10: end of this blog post, but not getting you all the way up to date. More later!!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Still in Oloron
Tiff is currently sleeping (which she darn well should, since she biked over 50 miles yesterday and almost 40 the day before that!), but I haven't been able to, so I got up a bit early to write a blog post. I just uploaded some pictures from London. The Phantom of the Opera was great, even though we were all really tired since most of us didn't sleep very well on the flight over the Atlantic. After the show was over, we hiked about two miles or so (with all of our luggage, since we didn't have time to get to our hotel before the play started), until we got to the train that took us to the hotel at the Gatwick airport. We got to bed around midnight or something, then had to wake up at 6:30am to catch our 7:55am flight to Bordeaux, France.
In Bordeaux, we spent a couple hours trying to find the DHL place and unpack our bikes, then we drove for another couple hours to St. Jean de Luz, where we started our crazy bike race. It was a 38 mile trek that was mostly flat, but my bike and Tiffany's both were not in good shape, since it had been a long time since we cleaned them and they got jostled around a bit from shipping. So we arrived in St. Jean Pierre de Piet, or something like that, after about 2:30 of travel time. We met up with Mary, Jayme, and Nelson at the hotel, where the people were very nice and let us keep our bikes in the basement. We made it just in time for our dinner at 8pm (although fairly exhausted).
After the quite nice dinner (I had duck and probably the best roasted potatoes I've ever had), Tiff, Jayme, Nelson, and I went for a walk in the town, up to a creepy fort where there were ghosts, goblins, and other such things. It was also pouring rain, so we got soaked. But definitely worth it. Then we headed back to the hotel around midnight, and woke up at 11am the next morning. Neither Tiff nor I were quite ready to wake up, but that's the way it goes! We spent a few hours eating breakfast, looking at the maps, and trying to fix my bike, but ultimately I decided I shouldn't ride it the way it was. So I got in the car with Nelson, and Jayme and Mary got in the other car and we drove to Oloron. Tiff and Jay got on their bikes and also took off in that direction. Fortunately, once we got to Oloron (a 50 mile trip), we found a bike shop and a hotel to stay at fairly quickly. Also, the bike shop mechanic was an incredibly nice guy who did a really good job fixing up my bike. Sadly, the main hotel person was a jerk who didn't like us very much, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I think we've got another fairly long ride today, but hopefully not too long, because my legs aren't that strong and Tiff's knee is acting up. Also, there's an enormous smell of chocolate pervading this town that we should really try to find, but don't know if we'll have time.
That's pretty much everything so far. I'll check back in later, hopefully. (See the pictures!)
In Bordeaux, we spent a couple hours trying to find the DHL place and unpack our bikes, then we drove for another couple hours to St. Jean de Luz, where we started our crazy bike race. It was a 38 mile trek that was mostly flat, but my bike and Tiffany's both were not in good shape, since it had been a long time since we cleaned them and they got jostled around a bit from shipping. So we arrived in St. Jean Pierre de Piet, or something like that, after about 2:30 of travel time. We met up with Mary, Jayme, and Nelson at the hotel, where the people were very nice and let us keep our bikes in the basement. We made it just in time for our dinner at 8pm (although fairly exhausted).
After the quite nice dinner (I had duck and probably the best roasted potatoes I've ever had), Tiff, Jayme, Nelson, and I went for a walk in the town, up to a creepy fort where there were ghosts, goblins, and other such things. It was also pouring rain, so we got soaked. But definitely worth it. Then we headed back to the hotel around midnight, and woke up at 11am the next morning. Neither Tiff nor I were quite ready to wake up, but that's the way it goes! We spent a few hours eating breakfast, looking at the maps, and trying to fix my bike, but ultimately I decided I shouldn't ride it the way it was. So I got in the car with Nelson, and Jayme and Mary got in the other car and we drove to Oloron. Tiff and Jay got on their bikes and also took off in that direction. Fortunately, once we got to Oloron (a 50 mile trip), we found a bike shop and a hotel to stay at fairly quickly. Also, the bike shop mechanic was an incredibly nice guy who did a really good job fixing up my bike. Sadly, the main hotel person was a jerk who didn't like us very much, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I think we've got another fairly long ride today, but hopefully not too long, because my legs aren't that strong and Tiff's knee is acting up. Also, there's an enormous smell of chocolate pervading this town that we should really try to find, but don't know if we'll have time.
That's pretty much everything so far. I'll check back in later, hopefully. (See the pictures!)
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Checking in from Oloron-Ste-Marie
Here we are in our hotel where I just got internet access for my laptop. We also just got Mary's phone working. I biked for one day, Tiff and Jay for two days. It's been full, although there hasn't exactly been much of a break yet.
Adios for now.
Adios for now.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Almost en route
I'm hanging out in the Denver airport with Tiff and her parents. I'm eating a pretty good sandwich I made at Mary's house right now. It had turkey meat, tomato basil bread, provolone cheese, and cherry tomatoes cut in half. That last bit about the tomatoes is actually kind of important, because one of them had a will to be free, and went flying from my lap, deflected off my right pant lag, and landed face up on the ground. The seeds and juice decided they were happy on my pants, though, and declined they continuing trip down to ground level. I tried to pick the seeds off, but the juice wasn't going anywhere. Thankfully, Mary had her Tide To Go (TM) and we got rid of most of the juice. Hopefully Her Majesty's Theatre will accept my slightly red pants.
Speaking of the theatre, we'll be leaving from DIA at 8:15pm and arriving the next day at 12:15pm London time. Then we have a bit less than seven hours to get to Her Majesty's Theatre to watch a showing of Phantom of the Opera. It should be a good show, but the people behind me may have a hard time seeing around my backpacking backpack, since there won't be time for us to get to the hotel and then get back to the theatre. Should be interesting!!
Once we arrive at the hotel after the show, we have to wake up early for a 7:45am (or 8:45am, too early whichever it is, according to Mary who's currently sitting across from me in the airport) flight to Bordeaux, France. Then we pick up the bikes and go for 38 miles uphill all the way. In the rain, most likely. Should be very interesting!!!!
Ta ta for now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the posting throughout the trip.
Speaking of the theatre, we'll be leaving from DIA at 8:15pm and arriving the next day at 12:15pm London time. Then we have a bit less than seven hours to get to Her Majesty's Theatre to watch a showing of Phantom of the Opera. It should be a good show, but the people behind me may have a hard time seeing around my backpacking backpack, since there won't be time for us to get to the hotel and then get back to the theatre. Should be interesting!!
Once we arrive at the hotel after the show, we have to wake up early for a 7:45am (or 8:45am, too early whichever it is, according to Mary who's currently sitting across from me in the airport) flight to Bordeaux, France. Then we pick up the bikes and go for 38 miles uphill all the way. In the rain, most likely. Should be very interesting!!!!
Ta ta for now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the posting throughout the trip.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Problem with the Desert
The problem with Tucson in the warm season (in Tucson, it is either warm or it isn't warm; there's no spring, summer, fall, or winter) isn't the heat, or the dryness. It's the god damn mosquitoes. I just got at least three bites around my ankles in the past 15 minutes or so. And I just killed one of the little pricks. Ohhhh I hate mosquitoes. Salt Lake City better not have very many mosquitoes.
It was very difficult to tone down the language in this post.
It was very difficult to tone down the language in this post.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Goodbye Mr. Cardinal
We found the male cardinal on our porch this afternoon. He probably hit a window. It's incredibly sad. Tiffany says she had just seen him feeding the female cardinal the other day. We buried him next to the tree that the cardinal feeder hangs on. It was really really sad. I'm so sorry.
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