Day 50: Tuttlingen to Schömberg, 28 miles
We left the eurovelo 6 today. I’m laying here in my sleeping bag and my phone clock reads 4:18 am. The riding day wasn’t particularly hard yesterday, hilly, but less overall climbing than the day before. We also didn’t have to climb from 1,000 to 3,000 feet in elevation, before coming to rest around 2k. It’s definitely colder here, last night I think I could see my breath as the temperature dropped into the low 50’s.
We broke off from the Eurovelo 6 so we just started making our way to a city on the way to Stuttgart, Balingen. We found bike paths that offered amazing and mostly car free riding on trails for all but 3 miles or so. Except for a section of highway connecting two small towns we felt very safe. The google cycling route said we’d ride 20 miles but by taking some safer paths we rode 27. That always happens, and we’ve learned to add miles to the google route as it’s not safe for a 6 year old to ride on some of their routes. Google estimates riders will ride closer to 10 miles an hour as well, but when we have hills we are closer to 7mph as an average riding speed.
We didn’t pack up and leave camp until 11am, and from there we “stocked up to survive in the Black Forrest!” At the supermarket. We didn’t truly get on the road until around noon. Our lunch stop around 2:30 would either be in a field, or the best thing we could find within 10 minutes of riding, we found a little pavilion with a large table, right on the path at the top of a climb. I may not have mentioned this lately, we love the Stewart’s, and could not have imagined they would be so great to travel with. They are good, generous people and make our trip so much better by being with us. It makes these stops that much better, and the group dynamic is amazing.
Very soon after lunch the kids talked Dan into stopping at another playground, which was a fun 20 minute break. I need to build one of these in my backyard. A big structure with a slide on top, and sandbox underneath. It would double as a sledding hill in the winter.
We arrived at our campsite and heard little lambs in the background, turns out there’s a herd of sheep 20 yards away.
(What follows is a gross story about throwing up)
After dinner I felt like I was getting sick, a Queesy feeling in my stomach. I managed to help with the dishes and shower with the two boys, but after that I asked Brittany to help finish things up so I could lay down in my bag. Before laying down I grabbed the little shopping bag we used as a portable diaper bag and and put it at the top of my sleeping bag. I awoke around 1 and knew it might be go-time. I slowly fumbled for my zipper, kneeled down and grabbed the bag. Brittany woke up and gave me some conciliatory encouragement, and hoped it wasn’t the dinner she had cooked that gave me food poisoning. I felt bad immediately after dinner, but now im thinking it was an apple I ate. This apple has survived with us for about a week. It was in a pannier for a few days, then in top of the trailer, and by the time I ate it in the afternoon I realized that the core was rotten. You eat a lot of food on trips like these, so I just ate my way around the rotten part and that was that. Pretty sure it was the culprit. I went back to sleep after a water break and a short walk outside the tent and noticed a clear sky that has since been replaced with rain clouds, there were so many stars! I woke again around 4 not feeling so hot, but good enough to blog so all is well.
We have a rest day tomorrow, which means we sleep in, do laundry and mostly hang out around camp. All is well in the world.
Dale Majors 