Our drive back home from Poitiers was uneventful.  2 stops along the autoroute for lunch and a coffee break, and we were home around 1600 on Saturday afternoon.

After unpacking the car, we made a shopping list and made a strike on our local supermarket, so we're set for the week.  Some serious cocooning is planned.  It's always nice to get home.

There's not much new to summarize about this trip, but I'll try.  Here are the plusses:

• No mechanical issues or flat tires
• We completed every day's planned riding
• We stayed in 2 castles, an old water mill, and some nice hotels.  Pretty fun!
• The castle in Saint-Loup-Lamaire was incredible.  Highly recommended!
• It's just great being out on the bike with my best friend day after day
• We climbed a short hill on the last day that hit 14 percent.  Not bad for a fully loaded tandem!

And the minuses:

• The Hotel Graslin in Nantes is criminally overpriced
• We've decided that 60km days work better for us than 70km days
• The route from Nantes to Poitiers lacked interest and was pretty hilly

We also realized that we've been carrying some extra weight that we really don't need.   A charger and some bowls.  And our foldable water heater kettle thingy - every hotel room we stayed in provided a way to heat water.   So there will be some refining of our packing checklist to reflect these discoveries.

I can't say enough about Schnooks.  The bike is amazing in terms of power transfer and stability.  David Lafferty is a genius at bike design and we can highly recommend his Chinook tandems.   We joke that he's hidden a motor somewhere in Schnooks.  It really feels like we're not working hard enough - at least when the slope is under 8 percent!

Heart

3

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

And of course I can't say enough about my amazing partner, co-pilot, navigator, and trip photographer.  Robin didn't grow up as a sporty kid, so these trips are a challenge for her physically and mentally.  She always comes through with flying colors.  One tough cookie!  I'm so lucky that she's willing to join me on these tours.

With luck and good health, we'll be back out on a new adventure next spring.  This winter, we'll be touring off the bike.  There are so many cool places to explore - we never seem to run out of trip ideas.

Once again, if we can do these trips, you can too!  We encourage everyone to try bike touring - it's a great way to see the world, no matter where you live.

Thanks again for reading!

Heart

5

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply