Tag 8 (Bodenworh; Sunday 99.04.18; distance = 123 km; time = 6:26; odometer
= 1005.2) -- Of course, it was pitter pattering when I woke up this
morning. Also, that box must be a total humidity trap -- even with the
hatch popped, my shirt and towel were still wet after 2 nights. I slept
with my shorts to make that less of a painful experience -- putting them on
warm is a much better deal. So after reluctantly loading up, I rolled out.
The skies were dark and it was about 40 degrees F, but the rain had
stopped. Pretty quickly, I realized something wonderful about "Todestag"
(dead day = Sunday) -- there's NO traffic. I feel like I could have ridden
on the autobahn blindfolded. Well, it did pick up as the day wore on. I
rode around a big nuke plant and crossed the river heading north. I wanted
a picture of the autobahn I crossed with the McDonald's and nuke plant all
in the photo, but it started raining, and I couldn't set the camera up.
Common problem ... next came a nasty bit of bad navigating. I was trying to
stay off the busy, colored-on-my-map roads and since my map isn't really
that good, all I can do is aim for towns. Well, this was one of those deals
with the word and the dot lining up better with the wrong dot. After 40 km
on my meter, I came to a sign = "Landshut 27 km" -- where I'd just come
from AND I was on a colored road ... grr. Well, the traffic wasn't bad at
all today. I knew it would make the navigating easy, so I gave it a try.
Except for the occasional sprinkle of rain to remind me not to take off my
full rain gear, the trip was not bad on this road. When I got to Regensburg
(which literally means "rain fort"), it was sunny. I went by deserted BMW
and Siemens plants and then whoa!! The town lived up to its name -- the sky
turned very dark and huge chunks of slush started plopping out of the sky.
Jeez. I knew that wouldn't last long, but I couldn't find a bus stop or
other shelter in the 5 minutes it lasted. Grr. So I was on my way north
again, hoping for a food op. This is a touchy topic on Todestag. Oh, cool!
There's an Imbiss (fast food shack -- very common, but mostly closed on
Sundays despite signs that say "open"). This one was really open. Cool. On
the menu was a new set of stuff I wasn't familiar with. They seemed to be
having a special on "Donar Kebap." It was 4 marks -- what the hell? So the
kid working the stand made it for me and it was awesome! It also turned out
that he was a nice guy -- actually friendly. Why? Same reason the food was
so good -- he was a Turk. I ordered a second one and we chatted quite a bit
in German (me) and English (him). Seems he thinks these Germans are a bunch
of stiffs, too. By the way, this meal was a sandwich on some kind of pita
with some kind of sliced meat (I'm guessing sheep). It had chili powder,
garlic, and sour cream and shredded lettuce. It reminded me very much of a
soft taco supreme from Taco Bell (but good!). Then, this kind (named Irkan)
wanted to make me one to go (3rd!) on the house -- cool. So that was nice.
Not too far out of town, I realized that I needed to eat it, so I stopped
at a bus stop and was totally stuffed for about $4.50 on dead day. Not bad
-- thanks Irkan! Then came a really nice ride along the "Regen" River -- oh
boy! That's an ominous name! There was an excellent bike trail for most of
the way (~20 km), but I now really hate bike trails -- I guess I hate
righteous pin heads who honk and point to the bike path. Oooh, if I had a
shot gun ... all day long the sky way doing a goofy thing like some kid was
playing with the brightness/contrast controls. It was nice and sunny and
belting hail when I rolled into camp. Grr. It's also still cold. I saw a
bank thermometer today at 9 degrees C. It's probably about 12 now. I tried
to set up the bivy sheltered from the wind. Somehow, it comes between 2 RVs
and hits me very annoyingly. Grr. And it is pretty windy. I had mostly
cross winds today, but I had probably 30-40 km of pretty serious head
winds. Nothing too unbearable -- mostly just cold! Now, I think I'll try to
take off my clothes (brrr) and check out the showers. They better be hot. I
did finally get my towel dry while I set up the bivy. Whew. This place is
so weird. It's on a quaint, little lake and there's about 100 little travel
trailers (caravans), but as with the other RV parks, no one's here! Weird,
really.
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
