The Golden Egg

To Schotten, Germany -- 42.8 miles, 12.1 mph, 1225 ft

This morning was tire and chain lube day again, so we got off to another slow start. To compound matters, Dex was in a sour mood, which bled over to the rest of the team.

I'm sure it’d be smarter to try to take care of some of the maintenance chores the night before, but somehow the thought gets lost amidst showers, unpacking, homework and dinner.  Then I decided to stop at a bike shop on the way out of the city since my worn, right bike cleat has been clicking and driving me crazy for more than a week, which only slowed us down even more.

We eventually stopped in the small town of Okarben around 2:00 to pick up groceries. We were lured across the street to a little bakery. Just as we headed back outside, it started to rain, so we made a u-turn and huddled around a small table inside, shooing away the flies.

The sights were not quite as compelling today as the past few. This was exacerbated by the hazy, gray skies. However, we viewed a dozen storks and were assisted by an awesome tail wind.  When we start cruising along at 18 mph and we can hear the tires singing on the road, we know something’s up.

Over the past week or so, it's been fun to watch the wheat being harvested -- big harvesters cutting, threshing, then shooting out the kernels into a big wagon. There were yelps of excitement when we saw the first of these mechanical marvels lay a giant, golden “hay” egg. The freshly cut fields are a beautiful backdrop.

One nice thing about traveling with Dex and Kylie is they can usually find something to entertain themselves -- it’s when they can't that it’s trouble. Outside the bike shop this morning they found a metal ramp (presumably to help bikers up the few stairs). They made a game of sliding down the ramp on their feet. At lunch they found scraps of paper and raced them down the rocky fountain outside the lunch stop bakery. Then, during a three minute rest stop, they started playing with a small mound of wheat in the bike path. Dex put a handful on the rear rack and there was no end of excitement as the grains bounced off for the next couple miles. To finish off their play time they spent hours this evening on the little zip line outside our campground .

The extra exercise helped with their appetites, so they both ordered a second of what they considered one of the best cheeseburgers ever. I, on the other hand, had Oma's kartoffelpuffer mit apfelmus (potato pancakes with apple sauce) and a tasty fried pork chop. Meg had curry bratwurst and offered none to me.  Dinner was at the convenient food stand just outside the campground.

This evening we met two other cycle tourists, a Danish couple, Nicholas and Ane Birgit, heading south. We only occasionally see another cyclist since we are mostly forging our own route with the help of Miss Cranky. They warned of the hills and rough roads ahead, figuring we’d be fine if we'd conquered the Alps (I think I'd have said "survived"). In any event, I say... bring it on.