September 9, 2018 Garmin Training Day in Baron

Last night I suffered from jet lag and could not get to sleep.  I tossed and turned until about 3:30 Am when I finally got up and had a glass of warm milk. It helped a lot and I did get some sleep.  It would have been nice to sleep in however everyone was up early and being quiet was not on the list so I wound up getting up early as well.

Today we had set aside to do some practicing with our Garmin’s to make sure that everything was in order.   I was pretty confident that my machine was working as it was purchased in Europe and had the factory installed maps and I had used it on last year’s LEJOG tour.   Ken had just purchased his the week before flying out so he was in the learning mode.  However Ken has used Garmins before so knew what was going on.  Juerg was using a trekking model but as he has ridden extensively with it so he was good.  Earnie was in the “I have never used this sort of thing before and I don’t see what is wrong with paper maps” mode, so he was having a lot of problems with his machine.  I put together a little 20 kms route for a test ride and down loaded them to the Garmins.  I wound up e-mailing the route to Earnie so he could put it on his Garmin using his laptop.  After a lot of work he got it loaded. 

Juerg, Ken and I set off as Earnie was not ready and didn’t want to hold us up.  It was a beautiful day and being out on the road was just great.  We rode up to the abandon castle at Montepilloy we had seen yesterday and Agnes, Betsy and Sally drove up in the van.  We were all set do a castle tour but the tour only ran at 11:00 am and 3:00 Pm.  So as it was 11:30 Am we had quite a while to wait for the afternoon tour.  The riders rode off and Agnes and the van riders went touring.  The route had a couple of short but steep climbs and a couple of really nice down hills.  When we got back to the house we decided to do a second little ride off to this other tiny village of Rozieres I had seen a sign for.  Even in this tiny village there was a neatly trimmed park with a war memorial commemorating their soldiers.   By time we got back Earnie was in from his ride.  Somehow he had gotten off track and had used a paper map to get home. I hope things work out for Earnie as it is going to be a long tour if it does not.   With the little side trip we covered 30 kms and had 250 meters of climb. 

The afternoon was a little nap but I don’t want to have another sleepless night so I kept is short.

Tonight is one of my favorites – barbequed pork chops. 

Laissez les bon temps rouler.

Terry