Continental Drift

Day 372
Geneva, Switzerland to Lavours, France
Time: 4:52:00
Distance: 78.5
Avg Speed: 16.2
Terrain: Rolling
Location: 45˚ 49’ 0.33” N, 5˚ 46’ 58.11” E

Continental Drift is defined as “a theory that explains the formation, alteration, and extremely slow movement of the continents across the Earth's crust. The continents are thought to have been formed from one large landmass that split, drifted apart, and in places collided again.”
Today we changed the definition to: a theory that explains the route formation, route alternation, and extremely slow pedaling of the Kehmeiers across Europe…
Our departure from Switzerland was slow. The days are shorter, the mornings colder, and we didn’t find any good bike route maps to find the best way into France. We did, however, find a good road map. I procrastinated until this morning to line out a descent route. Really, I was just hoping to find enough bicycle lanes to get us into France and onto the country roads. It worked – sort of. We zig zagged through Geneva while trying to avoid major thoroughfares. We stopped many times to consult the map. The rest of the time I relied on my internal compass.
By late morning we were on the outskirts of the city and quickly approaching the border. We had some Swiss Francs to burn and decided to spend the money with a café stop. We found a little cafeteria next to the supermarket and proceeded directly to the dessert and coffee zone. After paying for the slices of carrot cake torte and café au laits, Chris announced “we can go through the line two more times!”
After the second trip through Chris decided it might be better to spend the money on future sustenance and wandered off to the store. Meanwhile, I had a delightful conversation with a Swiss couple. The man struck up a conversation with me in French. When I asked him if he spoke English he said no and continued talking. He said “English?” I said “No, United States.” He stumbled backwards in amazement as he looked at our bicycles outside the window. I then explained to him where we had traveled from and he just shook his head. About that time his wife sidled up next to him. He repeated my story (in French of course), her eyes lit up, and she then continued the conversation. We actually chatted for quite some time. I learned that she knew of some other folks that had done some bicycle touring and that she once met another man who was taller than Chris. It’s amazing what you can figure out with some voice inflections, hand gestures and a few key words.
So now we are in France. The transition was pretty seamless as there were no border agents and the language is still the same. We’re still traveling through the lovely countryside and the Rhone River is still our guide. I’m sure there are other similarities, but there are also some big differences. France is over ten times the size of Switzerland and it is Western Europe’s largest country. It’s definitely not land locked and borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. France also boasts the highest peak in Europe -Mont Blanc at 4,807 m. The multi-cultured French number over 60 million. According to statistics, they are moving into the suburbs and rural areas and away from the Paris region.
We’ll be “drifting” south toward Perpignan and the border of Spain. We should get a good feel for this country’s passion and beauty.

Vive la France,
LK

C’est La Vie

Day 369
Villenueve to Nyon
Time: 4:43
Distance: 15.7 kph
Avg Speed: 74.30
Terrain: flat to rolling
Location: 46° 23' -1" N, 6° 15' 0" E

I didn’t blog last night. You can attribute it to being tired, cold and sore. We had a question posed on our blog about what was the cause of the tire blowing out. After mulling it over and discussing it with Leslie, I have come up with three contributing factors:
1. Tire pressure. I had aired up all of our tires that morning and instead of using a tire gauge, I went by feel. Looking back on it, I had probably over inflated it.
2. Old inner tube. The tube that was in there was the original one that I had started the trip with. It may have had some weak spots in it.
3. Brake Heat. We were more than half way down the descent and had some hard braking areas. I had just hit the brakes hard before entering the gallery and that may have been the deal.
I also hit a little pot hole, but I hit holes like that daily and nothing ever happens. I think it was just crazy bad luck with all the bad moons aligning. Oh well.
We woke up again to heavy dew and cold weather. I did plan ahead this morning though and put a pot of water out so I could just roll over and start to brew. After our coffee, cereal and rolls we finally rolled out of our sleeping bags and began packing up camp. We are moving slower and slower the colder it gets. I think it is time to head south. After finally getting on the road we got our first clear view of Lake Geneva or Lac Leman depending on which language you are speaking. We were able to ride the whole day along the lake and we still have a bit to go. It is the biggest alpine lake in Europe. The paths and roads were busy with Sunday walkers and drivers and all the docks were hopping with fishermen trying their luck.
We opted for a hotel tonight to get a break from the cold mornings. We ended up in the sizeable town of Nyon and quickly checked in Hotel Alpes. We got moved in and when we went to haul our bikes up to the room so we could store them on the balcony, we were told that bikes weren’t allowed in the hotel. We could store them around back, but there wasn’t anywhere inside to store them. We have been on the road now for over a year and this is the first place that refused to accommodate us and our bikes. The area where we were supposed to store them already had a bike that had been stripped of everything that didn’t have a lock on it. No thanks. We got checked out and got our money back. Leslie tried to explain to the front desk that our bikes are our way around and that we weren’t about to lock them up out back. We rolled down the road and found a place that had a courtyard we could secure them in. I guess we will spend our money here. Talking about money, I would like to write out $700,000,000,000.00. That is how the European news channels are reporting it. It has a little more impact when you write down all the zeros.
I guess I will stop ranting. But hey, C’est la vie.
CK

Brave New Wheel

Day 367
Visp to Saillon
Time: 4:36:00
Distance: 75 km
Avg Speed: 16.2 kph
Terrain: Flat to Slightly Downhill
Location: N 46 09’ 33.1”, E 7 10’ 00”


I can’t take credit for the title of today’s blog. It’s actually the name of a bicycle shop in Fort Collins. The shop is run by an awesome bicycle person, Dave Sundby.
I thought the title was fitting for Chris. Today was the first day back on the bike since his scary crash on Sunday. He felt pretty good overall. The road rash is looking better everday and the bruises are starting to fade away. Hopefully the memory of the incident will fade as well. His panniers are a little sad looking with all of the patches and repairs. One pannier is duck taped for the moment. We’ll look for new parts in Geneva.
We are now in the Valais region heading west. We’ll make our way to the very international city of Geneva in a few days. Tomorrow we should hit the shores of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). Fortunately, we are again following a bicycle route and it makes touring so easy. We now just follow the signs with the number 1. We purchased a book to help us follow the route. Actually, we just look at the maps since the text is written in German. Following a route has not stopped us from getting lost. As we pedaled into Saillon, we missed the sign for the campground and added a few extra kilometers to the ride.
The route was quite beautiful today. We found ourselves along the river for most of the ride. The glacial blue water of the Rhone River was complemented by the surrounding peaks of the Bernese (to the north) and the Pennine (to the south) Alps. The leaves are starting to change and fall on the ground. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Our German lessons have concluded as we are now traveling through the French part of Switzerland. We’ve gone from Svizzer to Suisse. I stayed up last evening reviewing the Western Europe language book. It came in handy today when we arrived at the campground. We’re now booked in for “la petite dejunier” – I hope that’s breakfast tomorrow morning.

Au revoir,
LK

So Long Zernez

Day: 366
Zernez to Visp
Time: Most of the day
Avg Speed: 80 kph


Even though our stay in Zernez was unplanned and under some less than ideal conditions, we were sad to get on our train this morning. We got up early and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel’s salon. The coffee we got for breakfast is probably some of the best coffee I have had anywhere. We always got the stink eye when we asked for another pot, but the little lady would whip out another one for us and smile when she brought it to our table. I guess we are just likeable.
We got on the train around 10 this morning and had a quick 10 minute ride to our first change. We made a change to a train that took us through a tunnel for 45 minutes before dropping us off. That was our escape route from the little valley we enjoyed so much. The next leg brought us into Zurich where we frantically searched the platform for the bicycle car, only to find it with a minute or two before departure. This last leg brought us into Visp and the Rhone River Valley. Here we should be able to get some kilometers in on some flat ground while the rest of my wounds heal up. I did miss a couple of equipment failures that didn’t materialize until the bikes were loaded. I now have a pannier that is duct taped up. I will need to do some more permanent repairs as soon as I can.
Not much else to report on from Switzerland. Just high mountains, nice people, good cheese and yummy pastries (and oh my are they yummy!!).
CK

Worst Case Scenario

Day: 363
Zernez
N 46° 42', E 10° 5' 60

Even though what happened was one of the worst things that could happen; the resulting generosity, and circumstance are some of the best things that could happen.

Let me back up and tell you about the worst part. Yesterday Leslie and I had been going along pretty good climbing some steep roads. We had one pass under our belt and had just finished another smaller point. We were descending into the valley of Zernez and were in the mix with some cars. The road was under construction in spots and traffic control had squeezed it down to one lane, so we would group in with cars, ride to the next section, wait for the oncoming to pass and then proceed. At the second stop area Leslie and I became separated by a few vehicles. I think I must have been in a wide spot ahead of her, and a couple squeezed in front of her. We entered a gallery (a tunnel with one side open to the valley) at a pretty good clip. I had just rounded a blind corner when BOOM!! My front tube exploded and blew my tire completely off the rim. That is possibly one of the nastiest things that can happen to a person on a bike. Front flats, especially blow outs like the one I had, don’t allow for any control of the bike. My rim, void of a tire now, hit the asphalt and squirted out to my left. That threw me down on my right side where I impacted with my right knee and right hand. From there the bike skidded on its right side wearing holes in panniers, wearing metal off the front rim, and somehow putting a dent in the top tube on the left side (I can’t figure that one out). I, meanwhile, bounced off of my right hand and knee and slid on my left hip and elbow before rolling to my back and sliding a bit more. When I stopped sliding I was quite a ways from the bike. The traffic we were riding in all came to an immediate stop and before I made it to the curb trying to get out of the way there were bystanders stopping traffic, helping me, getting my bike out of the way and talking with Leslie about what to do. Needless to say I was a little shaken up and after a couple of minutes in some pretty good pain. I figure I was doing 40-45 kmh (25-30 mph). An ex-pro cyclist named Jonathan Vaughters equates crashing on a bicycle to ‘stripping down to your underwear and jumping out of a car doing 50 mph’. That about sums it up. I was lucky because it was pretty cold on the descent so I had put on an extra fleece shirt, my rain gear, and some long finger gloves. My only injuries are strawberry burns on my left hip, left elbow, and right knee; as well as bruised right palm, torn up thumb, bruised left arm and bruised ego. My helmet survived intact and there were no scrapes on it so I am pretty sure that I didn’t hit my head, although Leslie would argue that one.
The town of Zernez is pretty small and when the helpful bystanders got us down they took us to the train station. There more people appeared and our bikes were taken to a nearby hotel and put in the garage and Leslie and I were taken to the doctor. Just to show you how small of a town it is; the guy who drove us down and took us to the doctor is the math teacher for the doctor’s children at the local school. The doctor gave me the skeletal once over, cleaned and dressed my wounds and gave me some pain medication. I asked her where the pharmacy was, and she smiled and said that she was the pharmacy and made us a little package of extra bandages. She said she would just mail us a bill and not to worry about getting it to her until we got home in November. She showed us out of her office/home and we walked a couple of blocks to the hotel where our bikes were. Our cup runeth over with the good luck we had with the relatively minor damage from the crash and all the help and guidance we received following it. We now are staying here for a couple of days, resting and recuperating. Even though the town doesn’t have a pharmacy they do have a bike shop ran by an Irishman. I took my wheel over to have it rebuilt with a new rim and it should be ready by Wednesday. The bike shop owner is a whole other story in itself. I now have to patch my rain gear and panniers, as well find some new gloves before heading off. I think we will be taking a train to the flatter parts of Switzerland (flatter being relative) where I can get back into the groove a bit. Meanwhile, Leslie gets to play nurse and help me with my dressings and we get to hang out on our deck taking in the breathtaking scenery.
Licking my wounds in one of the most beautiful valleys around.
CK

It Happened in the Gallery

Day 362
Mustair to Zernez
Time: 4:29:00
Distance: 47.3 km
Avg Speed: 10.5 kph
Terrain: Alpine
Location: N 46° 42', E 10° 5' 60

If you ride a bicycle long enough you will crash. If you are Chris Kehmeier you will crash at least once a year.

It’s been almost two years since his last big crash. It involved a teeter-totter and some have you have probably seen the video. At the time it was a little bit scary and very funny. Unfortunately, today was not one bit funny. Fortunately, Chris is just fine. He has a bruised kneecap and some minor road rash.
And here’s the rest of the story…
After a very clear night we found frost on the grass this morning. The temperature read 34 degrees (farenheight) and we took our time getting out of our sleeping bags. After two mugs of warm liquids we were finally on the road around 10am. The route for the day would take us over two passes, one big and one not so big. The views all around us kept our minds off the slow speed we were traveling. I think Switzerland equals granny gear. The map we procured is detailed enough that it shows the percent grade of the passes in either direction. Today we started with a 10%, hoping to graduate to a 12% tomorrow. Our cadence was steady but slow and we made the pass right around 1pm. We decided to celebrate with hot dogs, french fries, and coffee. The views were spectacular and the hot food warmed us up.
For the descent we donned most of our warm clothes and glided down the other side of the Ofenpass. Ten kilometers flew by and we were soon pedaling up the second climb. At the summit we stopped to put on more layers again. We chatted about our plan for the day and then headed down. The next town was about seven kilometers away and a potential stopping point for the day. A few minutes down the road we had to navigate some construction zones with a small group of cars. Drivers are very courteous to cyclists here so everyone gave us a good amount of space.
As we passed through the last work zone Chris got ahead of me a bit. After the BOB Trailer incident I’ve always gone slower on descents. I rounded a corner to find a tunnel in front of me and thought “Chris probably won’t like this”. In the next second, I saw a group of cars stop suddenly and my first thought was that Chris went down. Sure enough, his bike was laying in the road. I didn’t see him at first, but as I continued I saw him run out to get his bike and drag it towards the shoulder. As I quickly got my bike out of the way, three people rushed up to us. I looked over at Chris trying to pull his bike and saw that the front wheel looked mangled. As people were asking him if we was ok, he was trying to explain to me that his front tire blew and it caused him to wreck. Luckily, some really nice people were there to help. The group in the second car behind Chris saw the entire scene unfold before them. They stopped and routed traffic around us while we figured out what to do. They then whisked our bikes into a van and shuttled us down to Zernez. They got us a room, took care of our bikes, and drove us to the doctor on call. We are so very thankful for their concern, kindness and generosity.
So, we’ll be in Zernez for a few nights. We’re pretty sure the bruises and swelling will be uncomfortable tomorrow – maybe even for a couple of days. We’ll take it slow from here and not worry about getting up that 12% grade tomorrow.
And the bike? The top tube has a dent and the front wheel is trashed. The dent is probably not an issue but I think we’ll be in the market for another new rim.

Thankful that Chris is ok,
LK

PS – we learned that it wasn’t a tunnel, it was a gallery. It was open on one side.

Day 361: Merano, Italy to Müstair, Switzerland

Time: 6:00
Distance: 75.9 km
Avg Speed: 12.6 kph
Terrain: uphill slightly
Location: N 46˚ 37’ 44.2”, E 10˚ 27’ 14.2”

We got up with the rest of the early birds this morning. Our campsite in Merano was filled mostly with German pensioners. We were on the same schedule as them for the past couple of days: get up early, eat dinner early, go to bed early. It was nice not to feel left out. The only drawback was the battle for the bathroom in the morning. We rolled out of town around 9:00 am and enjoyed more of that lovely bike path for the next 72 km. The bike path actually came and went today, but the powers that be always routed it on little paved, seldom used farm roads. The only traffic we really saw were farmers taking bins of apples to the packing shed. I am sure they could have done without the cyclists clogging up their operation. We stopped for lunch at a little parking lot area outside of a town for some peanut butter and kiwi sandwiches. I had bought some bread last night that I thought would travel well since it was short, dense and wrapped tight. When I opened it I realized that I had bought a pretty strong rye bread. We were hungry so we ate it anyway and it turned out to be really good. We saved a couple of buns for later and headed off into the green. The path was quite busy as it changed from bike lane, to farm lane, to dirt path and back to farm lane. We finally got to our turnoff and missed it. We ended up riding the path a couple of extra kilometers, but realized our mistake and had a nice tour through a little town to get back on track. When we joined back up to where we were supposed to be we saw that there was another path leading to the border of Italy and Switzerland. The path was a great dirt double-track that paralleled a river as it climbed towards the Swiss border. We had a couple of tough hills, a couple of tough cows and some really nice border guards. We got our passports stamped and rolled on the road on into town to our campground. We got situated right away and luckily the campground took Euro since the currency here is the Swiss Franc. We have now been fed and are about to dive into a bag of Toblerone chocolates. That is one nice thing about crossing borders is the duty free shopping.
Fat, full and happy
CK