August 15. Charite Sur Loire, France

August 15, 2016 Scott

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Today it was really hot. Not Spain hot, but hotter than I would like. I managed to bang out 90 km today anyway. Wow! That sounds like a lot. But it’s really less than 60 miles, which is a rather lame day. I like it in km instead.

Near the end of the day’s ride, I figured I’d better find a grocery store to pick up some supplies–otherwise, it was going to be ramen noodles for dinner. So, I asked Siri to find me a grocery store. She located one about a mile off of my path, but it had a name that I had seen before–a national brand.

Soon after I left the route, I started to climb. Really hard climb–get off your bike a struggle to get up the hill anyway climb. It must have been a 20% grade, at least. This was not a good sign!

Eventually, I made it to the grocery store. Even through it was a Walmart sized store, it was closed! On a Monday afternoon, for crying out loud.

When I lived in Germany, they had a compulsory rule that said all businesses had to be closed on Sundays. But, if you REALLY wanted to be open on Sunday, then you could, provided that you were willing to close on Monday instead.

This sounds weird, but remember that we used to have blue laws, meaning that you could buy bread on Sunday, but not a roll of scotch tape. And then there was the whole prohibition thing. I figured that was what was going on.

Well, it turns out that this is August 15th; sort of like our 4th of July! And, you know that expression “Viva la France!”? Well, it turns out that they don’t actually say that anymore–repeatedly to everyone they meet. (That was the only French words I could remember, so I tended to say it a lot.) I guess there was a revolution or something.

In the end, I decided to punt and wait until the campground to get food. I did that and found something like a super-walmart that was open today, and bought supplies for the next couple of days. I found a place to charge my phone and spent an hour talking to a couple from England, who were cycling. What fun! They offered me a lot of encouraging advice about the Danube, namely that it is fun and easy.

Here are some pictures from today’s ride: