Sweet Leather Christmas Cards from Saddleback

Check out the sweet leather products from Saddleback Leather! 

Alright - here are links to my two albums on facebook - let me know if you have trouble viewing them!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150282597867066.333005.555082065&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150282454167066.332990.555082065&type=1

want to see our route?

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/49266712/

back home! First time posting from a real keyboard, instead of my phone - man, this is nice. We got our bus around 1:30pm yesterday in Roses, and were dropped off at Mâcon Nord autoroute exit around 12:30am. Finished off the last 10km to the Château in the dark, and now just have a ton of un-packing and catching up to do. Will try to get some photos from our real cameras posted here soon, instead of just all the phone-cam photos you've had to make-do with so far.

Made it to Spain! 1,050kms, and we are on the bus on our way home now. Just got back onto French cell phone coverage again.

Camping on the rocks. Worlds rockiest campground.

Km 965 - Collioure, France

Km 938 day 16. Almost to Spain! Enjoying the beach.

Sunset over the Mediterranean sea last night.

Carcassonne!

Day 13, km 821 - Narbonne. Eating lunch, then we are taking the train to Carcassonne for a day off enjoying the old fortified town. We will pick up our journey again back here on Monday morning.

Rainy day in the tent watching lost, drinking hot chocolate, and getting crumbs from our meal all over the Dreisbachs sleeping bags.

Rainbow over the Mediterranean

Day 11, km 657 - La Grande Motte - made it to the coast!

Paul and Bekah at Pont du gard, largest Roman aqueduct bridge on the world, build in the first century A.D.

Video from first day in Ardèche

Pit stop at Decathlon, to get an extra sleeping mat for the Dreisbachs, more fuel for our stove, and a dew other miscellaneous items.

Photo from our bike through the Ardèche gorge

Debbie, strapping our sleeping mats onto her bike

A photo from yesterday

Day 8 - km 519, Avignon - all packed up and ready to go this morning! Made it to Avignon today around noon, and we will be staying here two nights so that we have time to visit the city, and get a little rest.

Grotte de la Madeleine - along the Ardèche - took a break to enjoy the natural AC in this cave

Ardèche gorge

Day 7, km 420. Quite the climb out of this valley this morning. We are following the Ardèche river gorge all day, it's beautiful!

Poulet Gaston Gerard à la camping by chef Debbie and her sous chef Paul

Day 6: km 405 - Pont de l'Arc

We are doing pretty good, although the ride today was HOT! luckily,
camping by the river again - I'm off to take a dip!

Day 5: km 340 - Pont-sur-Labeaume. Thanks to an AWESOME 30km downhill at the end of the day, we managed 77km today. Don't ask how we got up to 1,400 meters to begin with. Mike Taylor, you might have really died on the hills we took the past three day

Day 5: km 275 - in the Ardèche!

Bread vending machine = awesome

Tomorrow, the Ardèche! Mapping out our route through the mountains.

Day 4 - km 262: Fay-sur-Lignon. We did a shorter day today, to catch our breath after the long day yesterday. Stiff headwind most of the day, but still did 39km this morning before stopping for lunch and an afternoon of relaxation.

Day 3 - quite a climb to get up here, but the view from the top is pretty awesome.

Another view from inside the old château. This is the Loire river.

Day 2 - km 145: setting up camp at a camp ground tonight, so we get showers! Made it up a killer hill today, and ready for more tomorrow!

Day 1: km 78 - found our camping spot for the night.

Day 1: km 22 - pit stop at decathlon to pick up a few last-minute supplies.

Packing up

Well, we leave tomorrow morning. Our living room is a mess, we've got tons of stuff to pack up, our route is sorta figured out (at least we've got the first 5 days figured out, we'll wing it from there). Should be fun! I think I have this blog linking to facebook now, so these posts should show up there too. Next post should be from the road somewhere!

Practice trip to Cluny and Back

A couple of pics from our practice trip to Cluny - about 50km. I'll post a link to the route sometime, for those who are curious about it. We survived, just need to get in shape if we're going to make it 1000km down to Spain :)

a cool dovecote near Cluny

Paul guarding the bikes while we shop for a picnic lunch

picnic spot at the top of our big climb for the day

This farmhouse had a great view, and a pool. We're thinking of moving the Château to this location next year.