VELDEN

We managed to get to the town of Velden today (interestingly enough that's pronounced "Fel-den"- I figure that it was about 15 kilometers from Krumpendorf and so I guess that would be about 8 miles or so? But the path we took looped us around the lake shoreline in places so we figure we rode about 20 miles. Now that might not sound like that much to you major riders- but if you could only SEE what we are riding! If you are anywhere near our age, picture the bike that you had in about 1965, before the little banana bikes came out- and WAY before 10-speeds started- forget about mountain bikes- got the picture? Complete with the big wire basket on it and the hand brake that only stops the front so you have to be careful not to flip yourself over??? And then picture this bike weighing about 100 pounds and neither tire has enough air in it- so you're going slower than you'd ever go- we peddle and peddle and peddle and people pass us continually and I'll turn to Carol and say, "Yeah well I could go faster too if I had a helmet!" or "Yeah well I could go faster too if I had spandex shorts"- or "I've got a bike like that at home too buddy!" Plus our seats are just a little too low- and I even got Nicki to raise them the other day- but apparently just not QUITE enough. So we're riding along wishing that we had the hex-wrench to adjust the seat- and lamenting that we didn't when all of a sudden we hear SPRONNNNNG and something goes flying-

turns out the hex wrench set had been hanging on Carol's back seat, hanging down into the wheel- and at just that moment- one of the wrenchs had got caught in her spokes and gone FLYING! However- we rejoiced at having the rest of the wrenches cause no way would THAT be the one we needed- it was. So we spent the next half hour walking back and forth on this path while Germans and Austrians sped past us with helmets and spandex shorts- and there we are in our bulky fleeces and squinting eyes looking for this wrench to fix these 50 year old bikes-

In the end we gave up- but I got this nice shot of us :)