Day Three and Four

Day three. More days, more kilometers, more locks. The race is on and the weather has taken a turn for the worse. The sun is off and on, but its windy and constantly spitting rain. It makes going though the locks much more challenging and hanging out on the upper deck of the boat not nearly as pleasant.

One thing about France is that the mid day break is very important. Things just close down. Shops, information stations, and most importantly for us the guys who operate the locks just stop working for about an hour and a half in the afternoon. We got “stuck” at a lock for an hour or so, but lucky for us, its the only “decorated” and fairly interesting lock on our trip. If we had to be stuck anywhere, I was glad it was there. The lock director is an artist who builds art out of metal, wood and other materials. The images in the gallery show quite a few of them.

Today we pulled into Homps, which is about the half way point. Some have been concerned that we have been moving too fast. We're a the half way point on Monday, and our trip goes until Saturday. This concern is obvious. The end of the line is the beach at the Mediterranean Sea, so the other argument is if we get there too early, no biggie. We'll just hang out on the beach. The other point of view is we should just go slower, taking time to go though these little towns we are passing through and do some exploration on bikes or foot. You know, see and buy shit. We've been in stores that have great wine selections, though I've made jokes that they have no Washington wines. We've been in fields and vineyards. We've been in some great restaurants. We've been looking for internet ( a series of tubes) access points and laundry facilities. No luck yet, which is why y'all haven't been able to read all this crap I've been documenting till well, you know when you're reading this.

Traveling though the south of France is still very interesting. Some things about riding on a boat though beautiful ancient canals are completely romantic. No doubt we've had had a wonderful time so far. In fact, as its happening we're often sitting around talking about how cool it is to be with people we love and do all this stuff. We roll down the canal in a big ass boat enjoying the views. Nobody is arguing, even with the semi-crappy weather, that we're not having a good time.

That being said, there are some things about this process we are all struggling with. It's not the fact that we've been averaging three bottles of wine and one bottle of Irish whiskey per day. It's not the several games of spades at night on the boat, or the zucchini jam I bought on the side of the canal. Nope. Its the fact that when we came into this port, and we knew we had certain chores to do. Not the standard chores of doing dishes or making your bed. These are port chores we could only do while plugged into the parking dock of the port. Some of the chores involve actually plugging into a real electrical outlet so your computer doesn't slug along for hours to process a web gallery. This chore worked well.

However, here's the kicker. One of the chores we were quite concerned about was to figure out how to empty the waste water. You know... the “water” from the three bathrooms on the boat. When you flush on the boat there is a little toggle on the pot for in flushing, and then adding water to the toilet. Eight pumps a piece (for each flush and fill cycle) will finish the process for you. Hooray right? Flushed toilet. Well, Carola went and talked to a mechanic on the doc to ask how we get rid of the waste water. She came back and told Juergen and Dylan that someone should have explained to them about the pumping system. They reacted with confusion and went into the boat to check the manual. Unfortunately what she didn't tell them was that she was kidding. In fact when we use the toilet and toggle and pump, the waste water goes directly upon flush into the canal. WHOA DUDE. Yeah, that was the reaction of all of us. We thought the thing worked similar to an RV in the United States. You know, the poop goes into a big tank somewhere, and then at some point you pump the poop out and it goes to the proper place. Finding this out as made us all a little weirded out about going to the bathroom at all. Especially as we see all the other boats on the canal. I mean they told us explicitly not to touch the water in the canal, but they didn't exactly tell us why. Now, unfortunately, we know all too well.

Here is a shot of a graphic a graphic on a can of beer somehow telling preggo women to not take shots. Being a huge fan of foreign signs I hope you enjoy it. I know I did.

In Homps we went to an incredible restaurant and ate like kings. I had a four course meal with duck again. This one was the best I had ever had. We actually went back later to the same place where I spilled a glass of a fantastic licorice drink called Pastis all over the table. We laughed about it and the waiter graciously brought me another one without too much humiliation. I was still VERY embarrassed. Then a few minutes later Hemingway was filling her water glass and dumped a ton of water all over the table. This after I knocked the centerpiece off the table too. I knew it was time for me to get out. The rest of the clan stayed and had a good time. I came back to the boat and wrote the gossip you just read.

We left Homps this morning and we're off to try to find laundry and internet. We walked around a castle and have been cruising up the canal. Very fun.

Now I'm sitting here in a coffee shop in a very small town along the canal. I asked the woman serving us wine and cheese where I could find internet to blast off the crap I wrote to y'all. She left and came back with her wi-fi key. Oh bless you! Feels great to put up the new stuff. Hope you're all doing well. I will keep letting you know about our adventures as I find electricity and access to the series of tubes.

I love this sign on the can. No shots for pregnant women. Mkay?

Until next time...

Carez