A Typical Biking Day

"What was a typical day for you on the trip?"

By far, this is the most common question.... right before "What did you eat?" and "Where did you stay?" Answering those succinctly is as easy as making thanksgiving dinner in under an hour! Despite the differences, there were similarities, and I'm pretty sure that it is this that people were referring to ...the 2-D picture... of the basics.

How'd you sleep last night?
Stretched across a dried up creek!

8:00 am: After an intense mental battle to get out of a toasty sleeping bag and pull on wet, 50 degree socks onto dry, warm toes, those now shivering toes, who know they won't be warm for another four hours, slink into wet, 50 degree shoes in order to tear down our camp site before breakfast.

8:40 am: Water boils on our camp burner. Breakfast time! Oatmeal, coffee, and fruit fill our bowls. Finish packing, and hop on packed bikes -1.5 hours after that awful, wet-footted wake-up.

11:30am: Bike for two hours, before the first 5-minute break at the top of a long uphill climb.
DOWNHILL!!!!  55km/hr! WEEE!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  The morning dampness is  very present in the mountains!

In a village, see a fruit stand. Stop! Freshly picked apricots, apples, cucumber, or melon soon became bungee-corded onto someone's paniers.

2pm: Find a quiet spot, away from people, and it's lunch time. Leftovers from supper, a baguette from the boulangerie in the last village, plus whatever we bought earlier makes up lunch. Ahhh! Stretch out for a much needed nap until 3pm

It's gotta fit in or on there somehow!

4:00 pm: Peddle, peddle, peddle. Hmmm. Need food for tonight before 6pm, when shops closed. "What are we hungry for??!!"  Success! There's a Carrefour (French supermarket). Soon "steak" (aka ground hamburger), an onion, a 1k box of rice, garlic,  butter, another baguette, and 2 bars of chocolate are spread around and bungee'd onto our bikes.

7 pm: Nathaniel: "Alright. We'll be going through a forest in the next hour. We're only at 90 km (of our 100km/day goal) but lets get water in the next town, and start looking for a good camping spot."

Side note: A "good camping spot" is not a camp-ground, but actually found each night along the road and met the following specifications. 

1) Be completely invisible from anyone. EVERYONE. 

2) Have big trees close together to hang hammocks.

3) Have a flat area for Natalie to sleep on the ground.

4) Be completely hidden from ALL angles. :) No unwanted visitors!

8:00-8:30 pm: Site found, after 45 minutes of looking. While Natalie and Nathaniel set up sleeping arrangements, I begin cooking. Tonight's menu...Italian hamburger sautee over rice...2.5 cups of it, or half the box. We're talking an 8" pot, filled to an 1.5" of the top with rice!!! And we downed most of that thing!

10:00-11:00 pm We'd be cozy, warm, and dry in our sleeping bags in hammocks, under tarps, knowing  that the little bit of leftovers, safe in a ziplock for tomorrow's lunch and the clean dishes are safe from the many roaming slugs.

Think of all the things that could have, and did happen within that basic outline. Rain; cold, drizzly rain. Wind.  Stores about to close before we got food. People taking us into their garages or houses. All the traffic that wizzed past us. Finding places to camp. Getting lost or confused with bad maps. Finding fresh drinking water. God met each of our needs. He protected us, provided food and shelter when needed. He gave us positive attitudes as the rain seeped into our shoes and down our necks. He provided support from within, from each other, from friends, and from complete strangers. He PROVIDES. He provides what we NEED, and in inconceivable ways.