Eight Is Probably Enough (September 1)

It’s hard to believe that September is officially here. It’s also hard to believe that I’ve been on the road for 69 days. This was day 70 and, as days go, day 70 was a good one. Not for any one particular reason or moment but it was just one of those very satisfying days. Although, not without a few unexpected challenges along the way.

The plan for today was to get to Besançon. Or, somewhere NEAR Besançon. I didn’t begin the day with a specific campground in mind – or ANY campground for that matter. Besançon was about 130 km from today’s starting point which would make it the longest ride of the trip – that in itself is a bit hard to believe compared to previous tours. As a result, I figured I’d just hit the road and wait for a plan to develop as I got closer to Besançon.

There were more than a few routing issues today and in the end I reached my destination thanks to combined effort from Maps.Me, Google Maps, Garmin, and my gut. It wasn’t always pretty but it certainly made things interesting.

My preferred option was the Garmin mainly because it’s mounted on my handlebars which means I don’t have to stop very much to consult the map. That said, on more than one occasion I questioned the options presented by my (occasionally) trusted Garmin. There were also times where I completely ignored my (still occasionally) trusted Garmin. At one point, the Garmin desperately kept trying to send me along a route which would’ve added about 100 km to my ride. Seriously. 100 km. Fortunately, Maps.Me had a much more direct route which I kept following with the hope that the Garmin would eventually figure out the shorter route. It did.

The other challenge the Garmin presented on the day wasn’t the fault of Garmin but rather of yours truly. I hate to admit that. Anyway, I spent the day lacking a replacement set of AA batteries and I suspected at some point it was going to be an issue. It was. Sort of.

It wasn’t long after I finally got the Garmin to come up with a direct route to Besançon that the “Low Batteries” warning appeared. And I still had about 70 km to go. Given that I was following the canal, I opted not to veer off to a town to buy batteries. I mean, why solve the problem easily when you can make it a challenge? The challenge of how far could I get before the batteries completely died kept me entertained and focussed. I knew my two rechargeable AA batteries had minimal life in them so I always had that as a backup. Plus, I still had my phone. Although, the battery on my phone and my Anker battery backup were also running woefully low on power. The race continued.

With about 40 km to go, the Garmin quietly drifted off to sleep. It was time for Plan B. I swapped out the dead batteries for the already low rechargeable backups. It took all of about 2 minutes for the “Low Batteries” warning to reappear. Unlike the alkaline batteries I just replaced, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get 30 km out of my rechargeables. And yet I pedalled on.

My goal was to get to 120 km before the Garmin died for the day. Arbitrary? Yes. But it gave me something to keep my mind occupied. I made it to 114 km. Fortunately, by that point the remainder of my route was very straightforward. Follow the canal. And I did.

With some occasional guidance from Maps.Me, I continued to follow the canal until I reached a small town about 10 kilometres shy of Besançon. A search of Map.Me revealed a campground only 3 km further along the canal. It also revealed that the small town had a big grocery store. A “Super U” to be specific. And it had everything I needed.

Unfortunately, by that point of the day I had pedalled about 135 km and was more than a little hot and tired – and likely dehydrated. That’s the long way of saying I remembered to buy ice cream but forgot to buy batteries. More on that later. First, the “Super U” was the source of two mini-adventures.

Suffice it to say they do things a bit differently in France. Or, at this particular store anyway. At home, when one purchases produce like apples, oranges, pears, and/or nectarines (not so hypothetically speaking), one simply takes said items to the cashier who proceeds to type in the number from the sticker, weighs the items, and voilá, you’re good to go. That wasn’t the case here. Unfortunately, the cashier spoke about as much English as I speak French – although, the distain coming from eyes was clearly in a universal language. Okay, “distain” might be a bit strong. But she was clearly thinking, “What kind of idiot are you?” In fairness, I was thinking, “What kind of idiot am I?”

I don’t know if it was pity, or the fact that there was no one else in line after me but the cashier took my produce and marched off. Needless to say, I was a bit confused. At that point, the cashier in the next queue over (apparently, the queue I SHOULD’VE picked) said, “She’s coming back”.

Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, “my” cashier returned with my produce and a price sticker affixed to each bag. Ahhhh. Mystery solved. That said, it’s not like it was an entirely intuitive process. And I’m still not sure where those stickers came from. Then again, I accept full responsibility for my actions (or lack thereof). On the upside, both the English speaking cashier and “my” cashier nemesis both smiled and wished me well as I headed off.

As for the ice cream I purchased, well … from time to time I’ve purchased one of the Magnum ice cream bars that come in a variety of flavours and are sold pretty much everywhere here. They’re usually about €2 and they’re about 100 grams. Well, as is commonplace for large grocery stores, this particular store didn’t have individual bars for sale. But they did have multipacks. And cheap! The downside was that I really didn’t need four 100 gram bars (even if they were only €2.58). I also didn’t need eight MINI bars in a variety pack (also only €2.58). That said, based on last years experience, 400 grams of ice cream is well within the range of consumability (yes, I know … not a word). And so, moments later I found myself outside, standing next to my bike in 30 degree weather, eating not one, or two, or three … but EIGHT Mini Magnum ice cream bars. I’m not going to lie. They were delicious. And they made me feel better after my scolding by the cashier moments before. Okay, she didn’t scold. And I had pretty much moved on from that situation. But there was definitely a glare.

With my eight ice cream bars successfully consumed, I returned to the road for another 3 km to the Camping de la Plage campground. There was minimal English to be heard in the office but my limited French version of “one person, one tent, one night” was sufficient. And I was even able to leave my various electronic devices to charge in the office while I set up my tent and made dinner.

Dinner was pasta. Again. As the days of this journey come to a close, I’m trying to finish off the remaining provisions I have in stock. I think I have a couple of days of provisions left so that should work out well. Of course, I still don’t have batteries so I’ll have to stock up on those tomorrow. I’m less likely to forget them tomorrow since I’ll actually need them!

As I walked around the campground tonight I couldn’t help but feel that today was a great day. It wasn’t any one thing in particular but I was just in a great mood tonight. Okay, maybe it was the eight ice cream bars. No, I don’t have no regrets over that decision. Seriously, why would I?

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 138.75 km
Ride time: 6:33:44
Average speed: 21.14 km/h
Maximum speed: 49.58 km/h