Well today was a doozy! Got separated, lost, a flat tire, you name it, we dealt with it today. All on the day we knew we were going to ride 60 miles. 😩
The day started off just fine. Breakfast at the apartment. A beautiful day and a impressive church to start.
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It quickly went downhill from here. Just down the hill from here Ty had u-turned in the street. Well I’m not as quick, let’s blame it on the trail-a-bike. So by the time I had turned around he had completely disappeared. L didn’t see where he went either. We rode down a side street for a block but came right back to where we had lost him. I tried turning my phone on but it wouldn’t work. I found a bakery that had WiFi so I tried FT’ing him, my mom, my father in law. Anyone who could maybe call Ty for me. Nothing worked.
We sat there for half an hour and i kept thinking, you get separated and you return to where you last we’re together. Why isn’t he returning?!?
Meanwhile Ty thought I had gone on ahead. He traveled over the border into France even! 🤦🏻♀️ He was wondering why I wouldn’t just turn on my phone. If only it had been that simple!
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He obviously wasn’t too concerned since he was taking photos. 🙄
After sitting there for 30 minutes L and I realized Ty wasn’t coming back so we rode back to the church and then decided to go to the nearby police station to use their phone. Thank goodness it was no big deal and we got ahold of Ty. They came back from France for us and we were glad no one was hurt. But with a 60+ mile day ahead of us, we hadn’t needed this hour delay.
We hit the trail together and headed over the border to France. With a quick break to see some muskrats and swans.
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The weather was beautiful but the headwind was a bit brutal. The majority of my day looked like this.
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Tucked in behind the chariot just trying to draft off of Ty. I took 11 photos like this today! Hope you don’t mind the view 😆
We were in and out of towns. The bike path varied between winding villages roads, dirt trails, and abandon mud trails in the woods.
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Finally found a village with a cafe for lunch around 1:30.
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I need a hashtag – things L climbs!
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So tired by this point! We had attempted to get on a train at the next village that was an hour away from lunch. But they trains would have taken longer to get to our final destination than just riding. The decision was made to just suck it up and ride. By this point I gave each kid access to a phone. Chariot kiddo got to play games while trail-a-bike kid got the audiobook of their choice. They were such good troopers today!
Then our way was blocked by this dang gate. So we ended up in the woods, on an unmarked dirt path. There’s no way we could have found our way if Ty didn’t have maps.me on his phone.
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This photo cracks me up. We were getting loopy by this point.
We finally make it out of the woods, up a hill to the trail and R mentions that funny noise again. Ugh I’m pulling a 7 year old on a flat tire!
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Thank goodness Ty’s Superman when it comes to changing tires. We were back on the trail again with an hour or so to go. Just sucking it up and pedaling at this point.
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We kept saying, at least it’s not raining.
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With Europa Park in sight we were so extremely thankful to roll into our apartment building at 5:45pm. After starting at 8:00am we were wiped out, exhausted! Strava wasn’t working but we estimated 67 miles of riding today. 🤪
But tomorrow is our day off and we’re going to the largest amusement park in Europe, Europa Park! So tomorrow will include all the walking instead of riding. I know my buns will be happy for the break.
