whoa dude...

pics here

I got up early this morning and tried this morning to get back to the cafe where I was going to get some pottery, a cup of tea and some reliable wi-fi. In my rush to get the new blog entries and gallery online yesterday, I forgot to open itunes and update my podcasts. It would have been nice to catch up on American news, such as the Sunday morning shows from last week. I have a feeling by the time I get to internet again it will all be old news. Anyway they were supposed to open at 8:30 am and I was there, waiting. They weren't open. They missed out and so did I.

We set out to put in some serious kilometers today. We've all noted that when we come into these little towns on the hunt for the same things we're always looking for, (local goods, groceries, internet,) people say they are all in the next little village just up the canal. You know, around the next corner and over the next hill. The sun will come out tomorrow. We can only hope.

We went though several “do it yourself” locks and got to the first little village where we thought there was going to be a big outdoor market. Come to fine out the market was some 20 kilometers away. Hmmm... There was a little stand with bread and we all went to town on some great baguettes, aoili, olives and wine. The wine we got the wine from this church looking winery where we tasted several selections from the barrel. These were 2007 tables wines you could get in big plastic jugs. (3, 5 and 10 liter containers for 1 euro a liter) Now considering that is crazy cheap it was tempting,but this wine was too young for my somewhat burgeoning pallet. No body at all, and even a little watery. We ended up trying more and actually getting a bottle of some 2001 in a 1.5 liter bottle. We didn't have any problem finishing it.

We decided we had mined this community for all its experience, and of course were told by people hanging out that the next that of course there were plenty of things to do in the next town. We were of course a bit skeptical but off we went. We ended up eating lunch at a very nice restaurant from the “great dishes” section of the menu. My meal came with salad and bread with exotic spreads. One of the crazy things on the plate though was a little dish of candied thyme. This was like thyme jelly or something, and it was great. I really wish I knew how to make it.

Ixtla and Johanna didn't join us for lunch cause they somehow made there wa into a house of one of the locals. We were told the house was beautiful and these people had a giant dog with a slobber problem. I saw the dog later and really, it did. Johanna a got a taste of the dog's lonesomeness. Her leg and the dog got along very well. We visited a large book store where they have everything from cheap paperbacks to very expensive first editions. There was some donald duck book they wanted 400 euros for, and when I mentioned that to the group, several of them thought I meant 400 year old donald duck. In the book store there was a really crazy book about Colorado, with pictures from the 1800's and current pics side by side. That was very interesting to thumb through.

We said goodbye to the little village after our bookstore adventure and were on a race to get though more locks before they closed. On the do it yourself locks, several of us would ride bikes ahead of the boat and fill the front of the lock, so by the time the boat got there, it would be ready. On the last lock for today we were racing to get though it, Carole and Gary had it filled and then right at six o'clock some French dude comes out and says its closed. We were right there and because we didn't make it to the lock by exactly 6, closed for you buddy. I think they do it toget folks stuck in their town to spend money or something. Hmmm... It worked I guess.

We're going to push ahead to make it out to the sea and tomorrow we have a huge and very challenging turn to make. These boats are fairly hard to pilot, I can tell you from experience. They react very slow and you you don't every really know where straight ahead is on the steering wheel. Dylan and Juergen are doing a great job driving. (Dylan is a freakin pro) I'll let you know how the big turn goes.

One funny thing is that the description in the book for the end town of Narbonne said to watch out for blue and white boats cause they are often piloted by inexperienced skippers. Uh yeah, that's us. It's funny to be sitting in one of the boats they are talking about, reading about how inexperienced boat drivers can be bad news. Yes they are, and here we are in our big ass white and blue boat. Back off buckaroos!

More as we get closer to the Mediterranean.

Carez