June 10, 2024
Where’s Mummy?
We had opted to clean the house ourselves rather than pay an excessive cleaning fee and, even though everyone had chipped in before they left, there was still a lot to get done before our 10am departure. Somehow we made it in time, and, despite at some point Dea mentioning that she had a bit of an upset tummy, we were excited to get going again.
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The day started with a steep climb up a gravel road back to the paved road system, at the top of which we saw a house with two chairs outside that had a sign saying people were welcome to take a rest. We had only cycled 100 metres but it had been up a steep hill and we hadn’t had time to eat much before we left, so we felt we were due a rest. I made us some egg sandwiches and we sat and ate them, but Dea looked uncomfortable and said she was getting pains in her stomach. Naturally with her being pregnant we were a bit concerned about that and questioned whether it was a good idea to keep cycling. We knew there was a hotel nearby and I suggested it as an option, but Dea wanted to continue for a bit and see if it went away, as it was probably nothing to worry about.
We carried on cycling on a quiet road for a couple of kilometres until we came to a junction with a slightly bigger road. Dea stopped and said she was still getting cramping pains in her stomach. Nothing too painful but with her being pregnant we both decided it was better if she didn’t keep cycling today. Luckily we were not far from Haderslev where Dea’s sister Sara lives with her recently-retired partner Flemming. He had always been happy to help us in the past so Dea called him and asked if he had time to come and pick her up. He said he would be with us in 20 minutes. We hoped that after a day or two of rest in Haderslev Dea would be feeling fine again and we could still continue the tour.
Flemming soon showed up and took Dea off with him in his Mercedes Benz (as Kevin was quick to notice).
Suddenly I was all alone with Kevin, but it wasn’t really very far to cycle to Haderslev, so I got to it as quick as I could. We had been planning a meandering route on small roads but now I took a more direct approach, which still actually involved some surprisingly nice roads. Then I got to the 170 which was a direct road towards Haderslev with a bike path next to it. Perfect car spotting territory for the little one, except for one thing:
Kevin had fallen asleep soon after we’d parted from Dea, which was earlier than he was supposed to take a nap. I had the trailer with me but I knew he would probably wake up if I moved him and the seat tips back in a way that he can actually sleep quite well in it, so I just left him to it and got on with my task. A few kilometres before Haderslev I knew he was awake not because he started crying but because a little voice behind me started saying “Audi, Volkswagen, Tesla.”
Also a few kilometres before Haderslev I got a message from Dea saying that she had called a doctor and they had wanted to examine her so she was now driving with Flemming 50km in the opposite direction to Fredericia. I stopped and called her and we discussed the situation. She was leaving her bike and her stuff in Haderslev so I should keep going. Flemming was going to drive her to the doctors then drive 50km back to Haderslev to get his son from school, then drive the 100km round trip back to Fredericia to collect Dea again. Luckily Flemming loves driving.
So when Kevin and I arrived in Haderslev we had to let ourselves in. Luckily there were lots of toy cars for him to play with which limited the number of times he asked me “where’s mummy” a little bit. Flemming came home with his son after a while and we waited for news from Dea. Of course I was anxious to hear what the doctor would say. Dea called and revealed that the baby was okay, they had found the heartbeat and it seemed all was well. It was probably just some stomach issues, perhaps caused by the fact that Dea had started taking extra iron pills on this trip because we couldn’t travel with the liquid iron supplement she usually took. It was great news that it was nothing serious, but the doctor recommended taking it easy and not continuing with the cycle trip. In any case we had both been a bit spooked and asked ourselves what we would have done had this happened far from home over on the west coast. Going home now felt like the right choice.
So the question now was how to get Dea’s bike and stuff back home. The ever helpful Flemming stepped in again and drove once more back to Fredericia, while I stayed and looked after the boys. The number of times they hurt themselves while Flemming was away was perhaps indicative of me not doing a great job of looking after, but we had some cracking games of football.
I spoke with Dea that evening and she was naturally disappointed. Her stomach wasn’t feeling too bad now and she felt sad that our trip had ended for what was probably no reason. But her health and the health of our baby was all that was important and I was so happy she was cautious and sensible. I certainly had no regrets about anything. But we didn’t want the rest of our holidays to be spent at home either, so we promised each other we would find cycling “micro adventures” to do over the next week and a half instead, close to home. This story isn’t over yet.
Today's ride: 16 km (10 miles)
Total: 72 km (45 miles)
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