08/29/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 21 : The Wet Sprocket.

Forecast is for 1/4 inch of rain, spread out through the day. Let’s see what happens! 🌧️

This is where we stayed for 3 nights. Below is a « before » photo - before it was converted to apartment.

We are doing our last full day in France today. Thank-you to Janet for obliging to this portion of the trip. She really wanted to do Spain only. I think she is happy, though, because we got to ride so many of the famous TDF and Vuelta rides. In fact, the Vuelta will be racing this very road in a week and a half! I love late summer, sitting on the couch watching the Vuelta with Janet - right about the time it starts to cool off at home and the garden is providing all our meals (well, not this year). I get shivers watching the racers do in 6 hours something that took us 3 days. 📅

Today I saw many single slugs in the road. Based on that observation alone, you might think that slugs are solitary creatures. Perhaps they are. But periodically, I’d see a squished slug, and guess what: 80% of the time, there was a whole slug hanging out next to the squished one. A scientist may come up with the hypothesis that the second slug was gleaning resources from the remains of the deceased. Maybe that’s true. Or, is it possible that the living slug was mourning a loss? Hey, maybe there is another explanation. You decide. 🐌

Since it’s our last day in France, I want to tell you a little bit I have learned. If you studied French, please forgive me for saying what you already know. But check this out: In French, one is 1, two is 2, and three is 3. No problem. But once you get to seventy, things get weird. For example: seventy five is « sixty fifteen » (60 15). And Seventy Nine is « sixty ten nine » (60 10 9). In other words, you not only need to learn French, but you also have to learn MATH too! I happened to notice that 80 is kind of interesting : « four twenty » (420). So, do French potheads talk about 80 or 420, I wonder? 🤔

Scenery interlude before I talk French one more time… 🌲

So, the first time I came to France was about 25 years ago. I felt like people were kind of mean in that they ignored me when I tried to speak French. I was in a bread store and said, « Je voudrais le pain, si vous plaît ». Worth noting, I was pointing at the bread that I was asking for. The man behind the counter raised his arms in angst like the No-Soup-For-You guy in Sienfeld… and walked away. This kind of thing happened a lot. So, how is it that a quarter of a century later, everyone was nice to us here? I have some theories: 1 - Maybe things have changed over the years. 2 - My theory: we intentionally approached people differently. In the US, it’s totally acceptable to walk up to someone in a store and start out with, « I would like one…. ». What we did this time (that was different from last time) is whenever we went into a store or cafe, we looked for the person working there and said one word: « Bonjour ». Then we would say « Ça va » which is like « how’s it going » in English. Then they would say some stuff - probably how it was going for them that day. We would smile and laugh because we didn’t understand - and then our pathetic attempts at speaking French would always go well after that. 3 - Or, maybe everyone was nice because Janet was here. Everyone loves Janet. 🇫🇷

Took a side trip to a gorge. We didn’t know anything about it, but I always fall prey to signs that promise some sort of geological feature. 🗺️

Ditch the bikes and begin the hike!

It was Amazing!! 🤩

Janet turned back just before the bridge came into view 😞. I was bummed. This is one that you have to do in real life to get that feeling in your stomach looking over the edge. 🌁

Fun video with the drone over a fall! 🤩

Shelter! It’s going to rain, so we found an abandoned house with the animal quarters down below. Hey, Jesus was born in a manger, so the way I see it, we are doing OK. ✅

Now THAT’s a cascade! Great lead in!

Janet W.