Tag 7 (Landshut, DE; rest day! Saturday, April 17, 1999; distance = 10 km;
odometer = 882.2) -- Not long after I got in my sleeping bag, the rain
stopped. Hmm. But when I woke up, it was going again. I decided that with
this excellent safe place, and a big town, today would be a good day to
take a break. The rain sealed that decision. It was in the high 30s when I
put on my freezing, damp clothes. Oooooh, fun! Then I packed up my stuff
and put it in a lockable compartment -- how nice. Then I rode to town. My
hands were about to freeze off, since my hand baggies were drying in the RV
and my gloves were damp. Almost right away (after a couple of kms
actually), I found a hardware store. It was about the size of my changing
room in my old office. There, I bought some warm work gloves and some
rubber gloves. The Swiss can laugh at my now 4 pairs of hand protection,
but yesterday was some brutal shit. Perhaps the nastiest 5 hours I've
ridden. Dry hands versus wet hands is the difference between a bad day and
stubs at the ends of your arms. Next, I bought new socks since all this
biking in damp socks is shredding them. I also realized it was cheaper and
easier to buy new socks than to dry existing ones. Those make good
ever-damp rags to clean the rims (a horrible job after this week, that I
did in the afternoon). I then bought an umbrella. That will be nice for
these 10-minute stoplights where I stand there like a dork getting snowed
on. Then I bought some H2Oproof spray. I'm going to spray the hell out of
my jacket if I get half a chance (it must be dry 1st -- fat chance!). Then
I was looking around a good bike store with some cool stuff (lots of
Ortlieb!). They had an excellent rain cape that is vinyl with sealed seams
and good functionality (we'll see). It is vastly superior to our old ones
and it was less money (~$35). What a souvenir! Then I bought some more
string. I looked for a compass, too, since I often come to unmarked
crossroads (or confusing town roads), and I wouldn't know north from a hole
in the ozone. That's because the sky is always grey and raining. My rain
cape is grey -- that's cool. I went into a bakery and she just put
something yummy-looking in the oven. I asked for whatever it was. It was a
little pizza, which was quite good and it came with a can of Coke for less
than you'd pay for a can of Coke in Switzerland. I had two and saved a
Coke. This town had a couple of department stores which I correctly guessed
would have bathrooms. Cool, that can be a nasty problem on these outings.
Then I went back to the bike shop. This time I brought my bike -- I had
parked it, since the cobbled streets were such a drag to ride on. Really,
that ties for worst surface to ride on with railroad ties and desert
Wellebleche. So, back at the bike shop, the woman seemed pretty convinced
that I could get a basket on my bike since I have no good place for food.
She showed me reasonably-priced ones, and by the time I just had to have
one, we realized I was going to need the expensive front rack. Grr. Oh
well. The rack is decent, if too expensive -- only thing so far that has
been too much. Then I put the rack on the bike. I'm hoping some front
weight will help cure the massive stability problems I've been having. I
can barely ride with one hand off the bars before it starts shaking badly.
So with my new basket in hand (or, on the bike), I set out for my last
shopping opportunity before Todetag -- dead day. This store wasn't that
great, and I wasn't that inspired to buy for a day and «. Hope I've got
enough! I returned back to the trailer (since Todetag starts on Saturday
afternoon and lasts until Monday at lunch). I played with my stuff --
watched the rowing club set off in shells -- this campground is next to
their boathouse. I'll add again that these people are not too friendly. I
did talk to one guy here who had a hub dynamo and some other nice things on
his bike that showed he cared -- sure enough, his odometer had 10,000 km on
it. He was pretty nice, but only after I started asking him about his bike.
He seemed impressed with my German, too. Often, I can tell that people are
just dying to break out into English when we're talking. Maybe they think
that would be rude or they're actually intimidated by my excellent German,
ha. I also tried to clean my bike -- what a horrendous mess! Now I'm
writing this kind of early. The sun started poking out a while ago (16:00),
and now it's just partly cloudy. It's still cold as can be at 50 degrees F.
That's in the RV, but I've got the door open to cut down on humidity. I
might pop the top hatch tonight, since I think my breathing kept stuff from
drying at all last night -- and I'm not going to stop doing that. Damn --
it is cold to sit basically outside and write. Now my plan is to plan.
Looking at my camp guide this morning, I realized that there is almost no
other campground in Germany farther away from any other than this. It will
be at least a medium ride tomorrow.
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
