So I just drank about a half gallon of iced tea. I have "Magic Dance" from Labrynth cranked (mmmmmm....David Bowie!). I am in a sun dress. I have pronounced bike tan lines. I am wicked tired. This is all directly related to my biking adventure of the the day! Well, maybe not the Bowie, but the rest of it is!

Alright, so today started off normally. I woke up, finished "Cold Mountain" (great book!), ate some cereal and did my grocery shopping. By the time I took the groceries out of the Landy, it was pushing 70 beautiful degrees and I promptly threw the perishables into the fridge and got my kit on. In Germany, you never know when the weather is going to turn, so I had to take advantage of it, at the expense of leaving all the dry goods on the counter to put away later. After grabbing a couple of bottles and throwing in some quick electrolyte sports powder into one of them I was out of door. Some chain lube and air and the tires, and I was ready for my adventure.

It all started out normally. I headed down the usual "get me out of Graf. as quickly as possible" route towards Pressath. I rode past all of the beautiful rapeseed fields to get onto the plateau. It is quite a climb, but certainly worth it! The views were just perfect today.

Anyway, cue the Dropkick Murphys. Why, you may ask. Oh, for no reason, it is just what iTunes decided to play while I write. Okay, back to the adventure. So I crested the climb and headed off to Erbendorf. See two massive climbs that last for miles and top out with a stretch of 300 meters of %20.

It ripped my legs off. Luckily, I was able reattach them with little difficulty and I was back on my way. I descended into Erbendorf and decided to take a road that I had never noticed before. Well, let me explain. There is certainly a reason I had never noticed it before. It isn't much of a road. It started out fine. I saw it meander its way up into the hills. I should have been worried when I didn't see it emerge anywhere on the hill that it climbed. Oddly enough, my better judgment had left for the day, so I went up anyway.

The views up this "road" were spectacular. When the road turned from pavement to gravel, I kept going, thinking, "No worries, they must be making improvements to this portion. Not so much. From a gravel road it quickly progressed to hard pack double track.By this point I was thinking I should turn around, but being miles in, I was already invested. From double track it turned into some of the more burly single tracks I have seen in some time. And please, dear reader, keep in mind that I am on my road bike, on rims that do not even have a brake track to save weight. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. That is really all I have to day to explain my feelings on that right now.


Although I knew that I would be screwed beyond screwed if I were to flat (I only have one extra tubie on me, and so one flat would make for a long walk, but in what direction, who knows!). I had taken many turns by this point, so was a bit *cough, *cough, disoriented. Eventually, after close to an hour, I saw an opening in the trees and saw a house. "I'm saved," I said to myself. I was thinking that I would simply knock on the door and ask the inhabitants where in God's green earth I was. Well I passed by some lovely, yet somewhat overgrown apple orchards. As I reached the house, I saw that it certainly had not been inhabited since the war. Oh well. So I kept riding, making up songs to make me feel better that all had the following lyrics: "Oh dear, I am lost today! Don't worry I will find my way!"


After a few more miles of praying that my old tubies would not flat, I saw pavement ahead. Luckily I was spit out onto a road. After using the scientific method of eenie, meenie to decide which way to go, I turned right and found a town whose name was familiar. Long story short, I made it back home. Barely. I was so hungry when I got home that I didn't even look at Frank as I doused hot sauce on a a tortilla and stuffed it into my mouth whole. When I finally looked down at my poor blond cat, he was generously sprinkled with a fair share of Tabasco. Poor guy. I was still so hungry, I considered licking it off of him. That would have been a bit furry, so I decided that was not a great plan, so instead I ate a still frozen ego. Any riding can relate to this need for instant calories, so it isn't as odd as it sounds. Well, maybe it is.

A bath and more food put me into a much better mood. I am off to a fest now with a couple of friends. I think I deserve the liter beer I will soon be drinking after today's adventure!