A Hundred Dollar Destination

To Perpignan, France -- 46.1 miles, 12.0 mph, 1350 ft

I still can't get over how nice the Hostal Sanmar was. There was actually a buffet breakfast served in the lobby for four euros each. We'd been getting into the habit of just eating bread and jam in our hotel room for breakfast, which in this particular case would actually have been pretty nice since there was a table and chairs in our living room! I can't tell you how excited I was yesterday when I was able to sit at a table and work on the computer. What luxury!

Unfortunately, in the process of shuttling the bikes and bags outside into the narrow alley this morning, someone decided to snag my bike computer. That’s a bit of a drag, though not a huge deal since I've been using my phone to track the ride details -- distance, speed, etc.

It’s turning out that 10:30 seems to be about as early as we can get rolling in the mornings. Today's preparations included a thorough cleaning of the chains, pumping tires, and a stop at a nearby “farmacia” to get some anti-itch cream for Kylie’s mosquito bites.

Once rolling, Kylie and I were very excited to figure out that “Perpignan” (our destination for the evening) is a “hundred dollar word.”  That is, a word where if you add up the value of each letter based on its position in the alphabet (a is 1, b is 2…) you get to exactly 100. The nearby towns of Figueres and Jonqueres are 101 and 125 -- a great way to pass some time. 

I've also started to quiz Kylie a bit on spelling -- hopefully the fact that "orange" contains “ran,” “rang,” and “range,” will help.

So far this trip, we’ve been following the blue digitized line traced out by the Komoot biking app on my phone. This led me to the realization that, particularly for today, our bike route is an awful lot like a box of chocolates… you never know what you're going to get. One minute you're on a busy two lane highway, the next, a rocky, rutted dirt road.

To save time, we had lunch on a nice shady median. We could hear thunder in the distance as we packed up to leave, but managed to avoid rain.

Kylie's Mr. Monster has the best seat in the house

Despite a series of wrong turns, we made it to our camping spot (Camping Sainte Marie) by around 5:00. Finally, our first night in the trusty, old REI tent.

It soon became clear that European camping is not quite the same as American camping.  European camping seems to be more about the social aspects, emphasizing the common areas and activities. Our humble “Camping Sainte Marie” nevertheless had a pool, water play area with slides, a trampoline, bouncy houses, miniature golf course, playground, ping pong tables, petting zoo, restaurant…. The kids were thrilled. 

Even though there is almost no one here, Dex and Kylie met Yael and his sister Lelu at the trampoline. I'm not sure what the name for tag is in French, but fortunately the rules are pretty universal.