So you know the day is going to be rough when the first person you meet you offend.
The boys head off and since it is threatening rain, they are trying to get some mileage behind them. Being as this is the last leg, a lot is assumed. Well the bags are packed a little bit helter skelter in the back of the van, I still haven't looked to find out what crashed when I went over a speed bump a little fast. Then, because it is cold I decide to pull over and put some hot cocoa in the water bottles. (We have two dedicated to this for the top of the really cold climbs.) When I ordered the cups of hot cocoa and held them over the bar sink and started pouring them into the water bottles, I thought the bartender/waiter was going to hemmorage. You'd a thought I'd yelled “wahoo, glad he's dead, when we reading the will?” during the eulogy at a funeral. So after muttering in Basque, and finally turning his back on me, I decided I'd done a fine job of representing my country and headed back on the road. If I hadn't been standing right there, I think he would have spit in my drinks.
Next, we headed up Col de Col de Ispequey. It was a beautiful climb that took you through a herd of goats. Apparently they thought Jason was a part of the herd and tried to keep him in their midst. For me, (I was later), they laid down in the road and refused to move.
At the bottom of this climb there was some hesitation on direction, so we'd drive and think, and look over the map, then repeat. Eventually we felt certain and headed off. About 10km later I came to a tunnel, it made me nervous enough for the boys that I waited. There was a sign, it was vague, we took a gamble, it was erroneous. We have now found another col. We named it Col de Crapit'sthewrongway. That is french for "shoot, my legs are jello and that totally wasn't the way we were supposed to go." This hill went straight up. So straight up Gargantua had to be in her lowest gear. (On the Tourmalet she was in 2nd and 3rd). The boys rode, and rode, and rode some more until someone decided that they might be wrong, it was debated and there was some voting and then they rode aaallllll the way back down that HUGE hill and took the other road which was easier and correct. After a longish ride we arrived in a small city just outside of San Sebastian
we arrived in a small outskirt area, where I typed in the address to our hotel and we set off in our customary way. I lead they follow. There has been 7 other days when this has worked perfectly fine, however today was get lost and confused day so I was unable to find the hotel, managed to direct the guys onto a freeway and otherwise completely freak out because the made it across the country and I didn't want 'em to get run over now!!!! so I pulled over an the side of the freeway, waited with hands on hips, pissed off, freaked out mother style, and told them to get in. They did so without hesitation. Then (becaused I was still stressed) I might have driven a little quickly around a corner and Gordy and Jason were apparently mouthing "Why are we in such a hurry?" and "Are we going to go upside down?" In the front seat Clark and Greg are talking to me in calm voices used only for the mentally unstable, and through it all I wanted to yell, "You two in the back, do want me to pull this car over and come back there???" and "You two in the front, do you want to drive this beast??" Needless to say we got here safely, no thanks to me. And the funniest part of the whole thing is how quiet everyone was in the van. I must have appeared like a woman on the edge.
To top off a wonderful day, there was a HUGE street party in San Sebastian. Generally I'm game for a festive evening, but this was a drunken mess. Gordy and i had to step pretty carefully because we were wearing flipflops and there was enough urine in the streets the smell was overpowering. We did stop in for chinese food, it was yummy. As I write this, the boys are breaking down bikes. Jason is sewing his suitcase (it split because he packs like a girl).
So yahoo we made it. 560 miles later. Tomorrow we head back.
Route: http://www.bikemap.net/route/382386
Millage: 78 miles
Elevation Climb: About 7000 ft
2 comments:
Loved this post. The description of Greg and Clark using their "try not to upset the unstable person at the wheel" voices was amazing. Glad that you had a fun trip. Thanks for taking the time to blog so we could experience it vicariously!
Good work guys! What an impressive amount of miles - straight up, while navigating all sorts of headstrong livestock and Jenny the Garmin directions gone wrong. Excited to see pictures and hear more stories! And personally, I love liver pastries...the french are so uncultured.
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