A few more words about Wales
Before I move on to the timely issues of the day (namely cross, cross and cross) I wanted to say a bit more about the trip to Wales.
1. The trip made me remember how much I love traveling. It's not like I'd forgotten but it's been quite awhile since I traveled somewhere other than the US or Canada. I can't remember exactly what year Dave and I went to Finale Ligure in Italy (also to mtn bike) but that was awhile back and that was our last real trip out of the country (last year's foray into Canada excepted). It was so long ago that the American dollar still had value. I started traveling after I gave up bike racing as I suddenly found I had both more time and more money. I like racing but I love traveling. My mind is already working overtime on what we should do next.
2. I realize that maybe I'm not as soft as I thought I was. I'll just admit now that as I've gotten older I've become just as likely to stay in a hotel as stay in my tent. However, we camped 11 nights out of 12 (all but our last night when we stayed in a hotel near Heathrow to make our 8am flight a little less painful). However, although I love the small size and how lightweight my 3/4 length backpacking Thermarest is I also wouldn't mind having something just a little more comfy so I guess I am getting a little older and fussier. I may need to research what options are available in sleeping pads although the ones we have are a nice size for traveling.
3. This trip will always be memorable for me because of the people we met. I really can't think of anywhere we've gone where people weren't friendly and helpful. I didn't even think Parisians were rude when we went there and the French in small towns were beyond nice to us. Don't get me started on how awesome the Italians we've met are, the Romanians and in New Zealand they are over the top friendly. However, probably because we camped so much and rode popular trails in a place where (almost intelligible) English is spoken we had lots of opportunities to chat with people.
3a. The "Manchester blokes" who I mentioned in my last post are worthy of mention again. Geof, Syd, Neil and Steve were super nice to us and hysterically funny at times. I don't know if they took much note of our sorry selves sitting on our rain jackets in front of our tent cooking up some pasta on Friday night. If they did we must have seemed pretty pathetic with our minimalistic car camping. Luckily for us they didn't mind when Dave struck up a conversation and slowly moved in on their roaring fire. And being gentleman they offered me one of their camp chairs. Not only that but they kept the fire blazing and provided us with no end of entertaining conversations. Then at the end of their weekend they left us with beer, tea, and some other food and from that point on we started everyone morning with tea and had a beer with supper.
3b. Those weren't the only people we talked to though. Angus rode a bunch of the ride at Nant Yr Arien with us and even slowed down a little so that I wasn't totally left in the dust. We had a nice chat with the owner of the Mtb Wales site on one ride. We borrowed a pump from some people at the campground outside Machynlleth and had a nice chat. At Coed Y Brenin a nice guy offered me the use of a floor pump after seeing me pumping up my tire with my mini pump. Some guys and gals we accosted Nant Yr Arien got out their maps and located us a campground (that was a funny one as after one of them asked where we were from and we explained that we were northwest of Chicago one of the girls who was clearly exhausted from her ride asked us how far a drive that was). I could go on and on with examples. The best part was that if talk turned to politics people would undoubtedly mention either that George W was dumb and/or the really common comment on how Hilary would be our next president.
4. I also have to comment on how not all airline employees are bad. I think the whole flying experience has been getting a bad rap lately. When we arrived at the Madison airport we had a serious amount of baggage. We knew our base camp duffel would be overweight but we didn't expect it to be 15 pounds overweight. The United counter person was super nice to us as we opened all of our bags and started rearranging. When we put it on the scale at 52 lbs she told us not to worry about it. She didn't even blink an eye at our bikes even though she probably could have charged us for the Madison to Chicago flight (although for some reason we've been very fortunate and have never been charged for our bikes flying out of Madison). At Heathrow when we flew home they never even mentioned anything about the weight of our bag even though I know it was overweight.
5. The Saris bones rack is the perfect bike rack if you travel. I bought one this year just for traveling. You can disassemble it, put it in your baggage, reassemble it when you get to your destination, put it on your rental car, and have easy bike transport. I'm so psyched to have one as it makes it easier to fly somewhere with your bike and then transport it in a rental car.
6. Mountain biking is so fabulous. The trails in Wales are indescribable really but they made me so glad to be a mountain biker. There were so many times that when you got done with a section of singletrack that you just couldn't stop smiling. I realize that we didn't take that many photos while we were riding as we were just having so much fun. You can tell how much hard work went into the building of the trails and how they put a lot of thought into constructing them in a way that made them sustainable even in the weather that Wales gets (which is known for getting a lot of rain although we lucked out with great weather). And speaking of weather, Amy wanted to know about the temps. Most of the time it was probably low 70s (so perfect). One day I had on arm warmers as once we finished the climbing we did some singletrack that was on top of a ridge and the wind was chilly. One day it drizzled a little and never got super warm but it was still just arm warmers and knee warmers weather and on the climbs those weren't totally necessary.
I suppose I should stop now as I could go on and on forever. I wish I could ride some of those trails again this weekend! I will definitely return to Wales one day and I'll be taking my mountain bike along with me so I can do some of these trails again and get to some of the ones we had to miss. It was so hard to leave and it just seems wrong to already be back home. I'm trying to not be totally depressed from my return from vacation but I've never been one of those people who "is so glad to be back home." I love the open road and the not knowing what might happen next. It suits me and when I retire I don't plan to stay at home.
1. The trip made me remember how much I love traveling. It's not like I'd forgotten but it's been quite awhile since I traveled somewhere other than the US or Canada. I can't remember exactly what year Dave and I went to Finale Ligure in Italy (also to mtn bike) but that was awhile back and that was our last real trip out of the country (last year's foray into Canada excepted). It was so long ago that the American dollar still had value. I started traveling after I gave up bike racing as I suddenly found I had both more time and more money. I like racing but I love traveling. My mind is already working overtime on what we should do next.
2. I realize that maybe I'm not as soft as I thought I was. I'll just admit now that as I've gotten older I've become just as likely to stay in a hotel as stay in my tent. However, we camped 11 nights out of 12 (all but our last night when we stayed in a hotel near Heathrow to make our 8am flight a little less painful). However, although I love the small size and how lightweight my 3/4 length backpacking Thermarest is I also wouldn't mind having something just a little more comfy so I guess I am getting a little older and fussier. I may need to research what options are available in sleeping pads although the ones we have are a nice size for traveling.
3. This trip will always be memorable for me because of the people we met. I really can't think of anywhere we've gone where people weren't friendly and helpful. I didn't even think Parisians were rude when we went there and the French in small towns were beyond nice to us. Don't get me started on how awesome the Italians we've met are, the Romanians and in New Zealand they are over the top friendly. However, probably because we camped so much and rode popular trails in a place where (almost intelligible) English is spoken we had lots of opportunities to chat with people.
3a. The "Manchester blokes" who I mentioned in my last post are worthy of mention again. Geof, Syd, Neil and Steve were super nice to us and hysterically funny at times. I don't know if they took much note of our sorry selves sitting on our rain jackets in front of our tent cooking up some pasta on Friday night. If they did we must have seemed pretty pathetic with our minimalistic car camping. Luckily for us they didn't mind when Dave struck up a conversation and slowly moved in on their roaring fire. And being gentleman they offered me one of their camp chairs. Not only that but they kept the fire blazing and provided us with no end of entertaining conversations. Then at the end of their weekend they left us with beer, tea, and some other food and from that point on we started everyone morning with tea and had a beer with supper.
3b. Those weren't the only people we talked to though. Angus rode a bunch of the ride at Nant Yr Arien with us and even slowed down a little so that I wasn't totally left in the dust. We had a nice chat with the owner of the Mtb Wales site on one ride. We borrowed a pump from some people at the campground outside Machynlleth and had a nice chat. At Coed Y Brenin a nice guy offered me the use of a floor pump after seeing me pumping up my tire with my mini pump. Some guys and gals we accosted Nant Yr Arien got out their maps and located us a campground (that was a funny one as after one of them asked where we were from and we explained that we were northwest of Chicago one of the girls who was clearly exhausted from her ride asked us how far a drive that was). I could go on and on with examples. The best part was that if talk turned to politics people would undoubtedly mention either that George W was dumb and/or the really common comment on how Hilary would be our next president.
4. I also have to comment on how not all airline employees are bad. I think the whole flying experience has been getting a bad rap lately. When we arrived at the Madison airport we had a serious amount of baggage. We knew our base camp duffel would be overweight but we didn't expect it to be 15 pounds overweight. The United counter person was super nice to us as we opened all of our bags and started rearranging. When we put it on the scale at 52 lbs she told us not to worry about it. She didn't even blink an eye at our bikes even though she probably could have charged us for the Madison to Chicago flight (although for some reason we've been very fortunate and have never been charged for our bikes flying out of Madison). At Heathrow when we flew home they never even mentioned anything about the weight of our bag even though I know it was overweight.
5. The Saris bones rack is the perfect bike rack if you travel. I bought one this year just for traveling. You can disassemble it, put it in your baggage, reassemble it when you get to your destination, put it on your rental car, and have easy bike transport. I'm so psyched to have one as it makes it easier to fly somewhere with your bike and then transport it in a rental car.
6. Mountain biking is so fabulous. The trails in Wales are indescribable really but they made me so glad to be a mountain biker. There were so many times that when you got done with a section of singletrack that you just couldn't stop smiling. I realize that we didn't take that many photos while we were riding as we were just having so much fun. You can tell how much hard work went into the building of the trails and how they put a lot of thought into constructing them in a way that made them sustainable even in the weather that Wales gets (which is known for getting a lot of rain although we lucked out with great weather). And speaking of weather, Amy wanted to know about the temps. Most of the time it was probably low 70s (so perfect). One day I had on arm warmers as once we finished the climbing we did some singletrack that was on top of a ridge and the wind was chilly. One day it drizzled a little and never got super warm but it was still just arm warmers and knee warmers weather and on the climbs those weren't totally necessary.
I suppose I should stop now as I could go on and on forever. I wish I could ride some of those trails again this weekend! I will definitely return to Wales one day and I'll be taking my mountain bike along with me so I can do some of these trails again and get to some of the ones we had to miss. It was so hard to leave and it just seems wrong to already be back home. I'm trying to not be totally depressed from my return from vacation but I've never been one of those people who "is so glad to be back home." I love the open road and the not knowing what might happen next. It suits me and when I retire I don't plan to stay at home.
posted by MadCross at 3:06 PM
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