Yesterdays stressful ride led to a good nights sleep from 9PM to 6 AM, then laying about waiting for the sky to clear and the temps to rise into the riding zone. Packed up and out to a sunny morning, and continuing on towards Barcelonnette, yesterdays goal. I find that the GPS is not working, and this can probably be attributed to the rain, which seems to damage the GPS mount, as it has happened before. I am forced to mount the iPhone and use a navigation application that I loaded as a backup. It works, but the voice guidance is not right, so I will have to work on that soon. As for the Garmin GPS, it will probably require a repair service, and I'm not sure how to do that from Europe, so maybe a new unit is in order but not really in the budget.
I am now approaching the Southern Alps region, and the roads are getting more exciting. Stopped for a breather in a small town and talked for 15 minutes with a French man who rides a Harley, very nice conversation, and he tipped me to a likely storm today in the afternoon. (he was right, but it was later).
On to Castellane for an ATM cash reload (500 Euros), and then St Andre to the Col de Allos (2400 meters) over increasingly tight mountain roads, getting Alpine here. Finally into Barcelonnette, park the bike and direct to lunch, la menu of lasagna, salad, desert, a beer for 17 Euros and a great crowd of bikers and bicyclists. Feeling very Euro here.
Located a nice luxury hotel for 78 Euros (Azteca) near the center of town, with good parking for the bike and a great room with private bath.
Needed to get an AC plug adapter so I can charge the laptop and toys, and got a lead at the Office de Tourism, to an electronics store, where a customer told me about a hardware store (Bricolage) in next town, so off I go using the iPhone GPS to find the town, and voila! I have power again. Now, not to lose the adapter again (I bought two, one is grounded for the MacBook charger)
Able to Skype video call home and had a nice conversation with Kathy and Mom, who seem to be doing well.
I do not have a plan for tomorrow, calling for some rain later in day.
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