Day 12 Karlsruhe, Germany - Beautiful Dry Ride Leaving France

Tony's View

We started out this morning with another plan to miss the rain. Just so you know, for me it has nothing to do with getting wet or cold. It is more about the bicycle getting dirty and having to clean it. The last 2.5 miles today was going to be on gravel, and if it is raining, that would get it plenty dirty. We started a little later after solving the "breakout room" to put the key back, around 8:45am to allow the streets to dry off. Weather.com said rain by 11:00. To go to the punch line, we made it, 57 miles by 1:45 before the rain showed up. It started raining after we got into our Airbnb, Yea. This saved time to not have to clean the bikes and bags.

We went by a crosswalk. and thought we would get you a picture. exciting huh? Well, they have these metal kids showing they are walking by with reflectors. We think it is a great idea to have them show up better. 

Another geeky traffic engineering thing. They put arrows in the center paint lines to let you know there is a curve ahead. Something we wouldn't be able to do in Ohio because they probably don't go by the book here and traffic engineers only go by the book.

We went through many villages today and they have the bike paths well delineated. Notice the bicycle lanes are in green. These were some very nice communities. 

We were traveling down the road and saw these old guys throwing bocce ball. We thought we would stop and get a picture of them playing. The old guys saw us and decided to pose and give us a peace sign. They were funny.

We knew this was our last day in France, so we had to stop one more time at a French bakery. We both got an eclair, and they were delicious. I had to get a picture of me eating mine to rub it into our daughter Marla, who loves French bakeries.

We came across this small chapel right on the bicycle path. We stopped and it was open. How beautiful. We lit a couple candles for Clay and our late nephew, Ryan. Both are in a better place but are dearly missed. We said some prayers and moved on.

When getting close to our destination for the night we went over a cool bridge over the Rhine. It was an Interstate type road, with a bicycle path on it. A railroad bridge ran parallel it too. We now officially left France. 

When we got to our final destination today, we realized my directions led us to the wrong location. We looked around for our Airbnb and couldn't find it. I looked at the address on the Airbnb site. The real site was 3 miles away. Oops, not that close really. Our Airbnb is a basement room in this sweet lady's house. She let us put the bicycle in her garage, so it is safe, dry and sound. She even helped us carry our stuff in. She said she will make us breakfast in the morning. What a great find.

Joan's Extras

Actually, the reason I took the picture riding through town because even though it was a pretty area, it was almost as bumpy as that gravel road a few days ago. It was driveway to sidewalk to driveway, etc. The chain that runs under my seat kept flipping off of its track.

So grateful that we missed the rain today. Rain has been in the forecast every day through almost September 4. The rain forecast seems to be easing up which makes it easier for us.

Lastly, we took this picture while on the bike trail of people training an attack dog. It is in honor of our son-in-law, Nick, who is patiently trying to train our dog, Luna, to listen no matter what is around her or what she sees. The dog in the picture would stop chasing/attacking when they commanded it. Good luck, Nick! 😏