Hopping the Pond

I had an alarm set for 4:30 am. I didn’t finish packing my stuff until about 1:00am. When the alarm finally sounded I pushed snooze several times. My flight left at 7:30am. Mom wanted to be on the road at 5:00 to make the hour-long trek down to Omaha Eppley Airfield from our home in Dunlap. We left at 5:20 and were racing to make it. My subconscious seemed to be slowing me down. When the first alarm rang I thought to myself, “It would be nice to just chill in one spot for a bit and not have to feel like I need to move.” That is a sentiment that has been growing on me for some time now. When you live in a van your home is always mobile it may be natural. I spent the winter not having a solid home. I wanted to slow down.

So I made the flight and slept poorly all the way. First I flew from Omaha to Denver where I chilled for an hour or two. Denver to Toronto was the next step with a couple more hours of layover to fritter away. Finally the transatlantic from Toronto was happening so I watched a movie and then tried to sleep. So in 36 hours I slept maybe 6. That was fine, I was hyped on being in France. I was planning on staying at a friend’s apartment in a Suburb of Paris, but the first thing to do was to collect my bike and build it in the airport. It turns out a fellow building a bike in the airport is not a common sight and I got tons of looks. No worries on looks, I’ve always been weird. The next step was getting into the city.

With no sleep and pretty much no French language skills I decided it might not be the greatest idea to ride from the airport so I found the train. The B line of the RER travelled right through Paris and stopped two blocks from Amandine’s apartment. When I finally arrived we chilled and drank coffee before walking around the neighborhood for a bit to see what was good. I spent six days in Paris altogether during which I did all the tourist stuff. Amandine and I went to the Louvre, rode the train around, drank coffee and smoked cigarettes at street cafés, and I went to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. You may wonder why I didn’t go to the top and its because of the line. I waited in line for ten minutes at the bottom so I could pay 5 euro to walk up. To take the elevator to the top was another 6 euro with no option for stairs. When I made it to the second story I saw the line to the top was 60 people deep. Life is simply too short to be spent waiting in lines.

The Louvre was nice but I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of trying to see all of that art. I’m not a huge art lover but I appreciate the collection of so much of humanities great creative works being in one place and available for viewing by the public. I was mildly disappointed that some of the information plaques were only in French but what can you expect in France? There were only a view pieces I really wanted to see. The main one was the Venus de Milo. My dad has been telling me for years that if I didn’t do my chores or if I get mouthy he would make me do so many pushups that I would be looking like Venus de Milo. The statue doesn’t have any arms. The other piece was the Mona Lisa. I just wanted to say I saw the Mona Lisa with my own eyes.

So when I had seen all the sights and adapted to the jet-lag I decided to head out of Paris. It’s a happening city but the chaos was not my style. The route to my friends in St. Andre en Terre Plaine was about 250 km. I figured I could do that in about two days riding 60-mile days or 125 km (rough conversion). I grossly overestimated my own abilities. I did it in three days at about 40 miles average per day. I hadn’t been able to train in the months previous to this trip due to some technical difficulties and by the time the three days were up I was a little worked. On the third day my Achilles tendon became irritated and I ignored. I really wanted to arrive at their house that day. I finally got to Sky and Dani’s at about 9:00pm. I was so glad to see them and I arrived to a warm house and a warm meal after two nights of sleeping in the cold and three days of eating cold meals. I was glad to be in a house finally and chilling with no feelings of obligation to see the city.

I’m beginning to realize these adventures I push myself to go on are losing their meaning. In the beginning I was all about making myself uncomfortable, getting out of my comfort zone. Lately I’ve been more inclined to chill out and read books and eat good food. I need to learn a balance. But now that I’m back on the road maybe I just need to adapt. Only time will tell I suppose.