Day one is done.
Rüdesheim The Hard Way
By the time my bike arrived in Mainz I had no interest in trying to swap out the pedals. I just wanted to get on the road and planned to do the swap when I reached my first nearby town, Wiesbaden; and then I didn’t. Thanks to the flatness of my first ~30 miles I was able to accomplish it wearing my Chucks! I may do the same today.
Because I didn’t want to wear down my iPhone battery (in case I needed to make an emergency call) and I had no idea if GPS would work without a data plan, I don’t know the actual distance that I rode yesterday.
The hardest parts of yesterday’s ride were figuring out where to ride when I encountered path closures due to Rhein flooding, and finding a bathroom along the way. Oh, and not finding an open biergarten in any of the small towns through which I rode. In-con-cievable!
On the one big(ish) offshoot that I rode, a few kilometers up an incline to a town called Kiedrich, the only German bar/restaurant I could locate is closed on Wednesdays. Danger!
My only stops along the way were for water, and a lunch of two rolls and a bottle of chocolate milk.
ITP Flickr Pic
“Man Cannot Live On Beer Alone”
A glass of wine in Rüdesheim was cheaper, at 1.8€, than Coke, beer, and water! I managed to force myself to drink two glasses of dry Riesling before eating dinner. 😉
I Am Experimenting With Chamois Butter Again
On my first day in Düsseldorf I stopped into a sporting goods store, inside which I found a small tube of chamois butter. The one I bought is different than the one I tried a few weeks ago (and may have caused my breakout). Yesterday I used some, rather sparingly, and today I will experiment more in order to minimize the amount of chafing pain I might acquire this week.
I Felt Brilliant!
The bicycle was delivered with one pannier into which I was able to put my bike shoes, camera, and water bottle (the bike has no water bottle cage?). Along with those items I also started off wearing a messenger bag. At my first water-buying stop (at which I also bought more sunscreen), I devised a plan to latch my messenger bag as a second pannier, using a carabiner as a safety latch; this hack worked brilliantly! In addition to getting the bag off my back (minimizing sweating) it also balanced the weight on the rear of the bicycle.
Of course my hack may only be valid while it’s not raining. Fortunately, that looks as if this won’t be a concern today.
ITP Flickr Pic 2
“I Got 69!”
As a person who hates heights I was surprised how excited I was to take a two-person sky bucket up the hill. Truth be told, the bucket didn’t get that far off the ground.
On the return trip I lucked into bucket #69.
A Night In
Feeling a little worn out after dinner I decided to give myself a night of rest so that I can hit the ground rolling again for tomorrow’s 38+ km journey. You may think sitting in a hotel room while on vacation is a waste, but the weather was awesome and I was able to open the two windows in this hotel room and get some cross-ventilation of cool air working.
Nearly On The Road Again
I am just now finishing another hearty German breakfast, one which will allow me to once again only need a light bit of food for lunch. In about thirty minutes I will depart for today’s leg. At only 38+ km today’s leg should take me around two hours, though I will try to find more offshoots, photo opportunities, and hopefully an open bar or two along the way to slow me down.
Have a great day friends.
Cheers,
Paulie [rüdesheim/dl]
So is this self guided? Are there other people you are riding with?
I tried a carburetor cleaning product called “Seafoam” and it came highly reccomended by my local shade-trees. Poured a bit in the gas and then some down the throat of the carb, which produced voluminous amounts of smoke. It didn’t heal it, but the other suggestion was to allow it to soak overnight, so we’ll see tonight.
I think some exercise is in order tonight. I’ve been a slug most of the week, although we did take Zelda on a walk last night to get some of her yaya’s out- didn’t work.
-FP
sounds interesting so far – keep the updates coming!
Last night I got over to get the CRV – radiator fixed so no overhating, but the check engine light only stayed off for 14 miles, not enough to get it to pass emmisions. So -talked to Harry again this morning – he’s looking into a new (to us) catalytic convertor. Its been bad for a few years, we can’t beat the system any longer, time to fix it (or, get rid of the car, or, Steve, can we use your address, do you need emmissions out there in the country?)
JoAnna gave me a ride, so on the way we went to REI & Macy’s, and ate at NEWK’s. I’ve heard from a few people its a great lunch place, and it was very tasty. I wish the perimeter mall one had beer/wine, but they didn’t.
We do NOT need emissions in Meriwether County!! How many miles on that rig?
We really like Newks. The lobster bisque is really tasty. My favorite.
This bike tour sounds super awesome! Especially since it’s self-guided! I definitely see Kevin and me doing that in the future. Naturally he also has the TdF on his “must do” list.
I love Newk’s. They’re fast, too. There’s one about 3 miles from campus.
My Civic is 13 years old and has 64,000 miles on it, just passed emissions last week. I’m going to drive that thing until I’m dead.
CRV is 18 years old and 225,000 miles.
Its perfect for the drive to the firehouse, and parking it in the ‘hood – so we really don’t want to give up & have to get a new beater car.
Tour is completely self-guided. My only “limitation” is that my luggage had to ready for pickup fro transportation to the next town by 9am.
I’ve not tried Newks in the Perimeter Mall area yet.