Day 17 of France 2023 (61km)

August25

61km / 3 hours 3 minutes / 237m gain

Really beautiful route today; everything was a converted rail route. The last 10km was a rainstorm. I read for a while under a church awning until I could check-in. Easy ride today. I only have a few days left.

It is nice to be in an apartment so I can cook some Ben food.

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Day 16 of France 2023 (62km)

August24

62km / 3 hours 5 minutes / 526m gain

Today was mostly road, not too many cars. The last 7km were beautiful gravel bike path and I am looking forward to doing a lot more of that today.

One of the “hot” days. Today hit about 86F; the ride was fine, but I’m roasting in an apartment right now. I got some veggies, which was exciting as I’ve been missing greens. Cooked some zucchini and ate a bag of frozen broccoli and cauliflower.

I had to chase a bat out of my room last night. I had all the windows open and it flew right in after bugs and got stuck imI think. Finally got it out and drew some blinds.

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Day 15 of France 2023 (74km)

August23

74km / 3 hours 38 minutes / 392m gain

Good ride today, mostly road, with a little bit of river trail in the middle. Staying in a very weird and dead town, it seems. But managed to get some provisions for tomorrow.

I had a nice stop in Chartes, I hope to come back at some point and see the inside of the churches.

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Day 14 of France 2023 (69km)

August22

69km / 3 hours 29 minutes / 502m gain

This is day 1 of the route from Paris to Mont-Saint-Michel. It was a beautiful ride and a mix of trail, bike path, and road.

Some of the roads were pretty busy, but French drivers are so great with bikes that it always felt safe. And 90% of the time, I was on a dedicated bike lane, given this is a route they are developing.

I like being back near cities, I was able to stop at a bakery and get a sandwich, quiche, and two loaves of raisin nut bread (so good).

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I want to give my son the gift of will, space, and energy.

August21

I want to give Calico the will, space, and energy to figure out himself and his life. If he has these things, it is much easier to create a meaningful life.

Will

The inner drive to dig into himself and figure out his shit so he can go in the direction he wants.

I want to make sure he doesn’t lose his will to look around, make sure he is in a good place, and if not, figure out why and make changes.

I am not sure how I can help instill this trait. It is something I think about a lot.

At his current age, Lindsey and I try to help him slow down, listen to his emotions as an advisor, think things through with his head, and figure out what he wants to do and why he wants to try that.

Lately, much of that process is spent trying to understand social situations and kids at school. I especially want to ensure he knows he is not a bystander in his own life. That doesn’t mean he always needs to take action, but I want him to know he is allowed to react. That is something I wish I had learned sooner.

Space

Having the freedom to live, think, and figure stuff out.

Energy

The strength and vitality to sustain physical and mental activity.

Space & energy are a big reason why I want to live in Europe.

In Europe, I think my son has a much better chance to have the space and energy to enjoy life, explore life, and figure himself out. And he is around people who also have this chance because, unlike the U.S.A., Europe tries to create this environment for all its citizens.

Europe does a much better job of balancing life and work. They provide real vacation time and real health care and generally try to create a good environment for their citizens (food quality, environmental protections, ability to pursue higher learning, low crime, and general quality of life).

Is Europe perfect?

Fuck no, there are problems with any system.

But they are doing about 100x better than the U.S.A. in this regard. The U.S.A. has given up on trying to improve the lives of its citizens.

Is it possible to achieve a good life in the USA? Sure, but it is much harder given the entire system is working against you. The U.S.A. has created a Hunger Games society that breeds a sick winner-takes-all mindset where the only goal is power and money. I want to live somewhere where people want everyone’s kids to succeed and have good lives.

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Day 13 of France 2023 (33km)

August18

33km / 1 hour 50 minutes / 224m gain

Today was an easy day. And I finished my route from Bordeaux to Paris!

Paris is so huge! Lots of cars today. The bike lanes were pretty good.

The last 2 days, it was nice being in towns. I had Indian for lunch yesterday and Pakistani today.

This route was beautiful and wild. It was great to get so much time on gravel, grass, and dirt. I didn’t realize quite how much it would avoid towns, and next time I need to play how I am going to find food. It all worked out, even if I was eating canned fish sometimes.

I like pilgrimage routes as there is so much history along the way. And then go through towns that have been there for thousands of years. It was nice to have so much wilderness on this trip, but I want to do something more historical next time. Maybe a route tracing the reverse of the Cathar crusade, the D-Day invasion, following the Band of Brothers inland, or maybe Napolean’s march to Moscow.

When I start biking again on Monday, I start the Paris to Mont-Saint-Michel cycle route. I think I only have around 7 days left. Then a big break out by the coast before I take the train back to Bordeaux to pick up my family.

I think there will be a lot of small towns along this route.

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Day 12 of France 2023 (56km)

August18

56km / 3 hours 11 minutes / 293m gain

A very easy ride today. I am near the bottom of Paris. The first 30km was a beautiful bike path, I decided to keep following that and go a bit off route. The last 26km were all suburbs and busy roads. Not as fun, but glad to be here.

I was in such need of a warm meal, I had amazing Indian food for lunch :). I

Tomorrow I have a super easy ride, and then 2 days rest in an Airbnb.

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Day 11 of France 2023 (53km)

August17

53km / 3 hours 35 minutes / 346m gain

Today was magical.

It was also hard, the trail was incredibly rough, and I only made about 15km in the first hour. I was biking through deep grass, which requires twice as much power for half as much distance. Then I hit deep sand. Lots of fun :)

The national park in the middle was AMAZING!

Huge rocks and boulders jutting out of the ground; it was a magical place. I had to bike hike some of it as it wasn’t ridable. Fantastic day.

I think I accidentally killed a little snake yesterday. I was on a single-track trail and saw him at the last minute. It was a little baby black snake. I instinctively shouted, “Oh shit, sorry, bud,” as I rolled over his head. Which I felt was a weird thing to say.

I tried to avoid him, but when my brain realized I couldn’t, I decided to roll over his head. It was insane how fast my mind told me it was better to roll over his head than the tail so he doesn’t whip around and bite you. There is a small chance he was already dead. I didn’t stop. He might have had friends. I apologized to the forest, and I slept easy, knowing that I probably helped the snake population from an evolutionary standpoint, as you can’t freeze as a snake on a well-ridden trail. It does bug me that I am improving their tactics from an evolutionary standpoint though. How many millions of years until they are dropping from every tree onto bikers?

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I’m an Uncle!!! Meet Viktor :)

August16

Viktor Merlin Smiljanic was born on August 14th in Shanghai, China :)!!! I can’t wait to meet him and see Nick and Isidora! Great name :)

Nick and Isidora are doing great and made it home today from the hospital.

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Day 10 of France 2023 (74km)

August16

74km / 4 hours 5 minutes / 282m gain

Today was a beautiful ride. First along the river/canal and then through a national park.

I only saw one or two cars the entire day. I found out today was a holiday, so that is a big reason it was so quiet and everything was closed. Something about Mary’s ascension? Where is she going? Weird name for a holiday IMO.

With everything closed, dinner was a bag of weird toast crackers, cheddar cheese, carrots, sausage, and nuts.

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Day 9 of France 2023 (54km)

August13

54km / 2 hours 48 minutes / 112m gain

Today was muddy!

I had a nice breakfast and read for a while, hoping the rain would stop. I missed most of the heavy rain but had a few hours of light rain. The mud and puddles were fun. It was probably the 2nd muddiest route I’ve ever done. The mud was so deep you are just spinning out and trying not to make the tires weigh 10 kilos. As you can imagine, the bike and I were entirely covered in mud.

I am very happy to be in Orleans and taking 2 full rest days before moving out. I need to catch up on work emails/tickets and finish a spec for Marton. I wish I didn’t have to, as I’d like just to rest and chill. But hopefully, I get some time to explore as well. It was nice not to do emails/tickets for the entire week.

Not many pictures today with the light rain.

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Day 8 of France 2023 (58km)

August12

58km / 2 hours 47 minutes / 403m gain

Today was a nice ride, mostly on back roads and smooth gravel. Thus my butt is happy as it didn’t get hit as hard as the last few days. The ride was beautiful, and the land has switched from flattish farmland with spots of forest to mostly forest and rolling hills. I like seeing this switch as I cover ground.

Last night I only had 2 cans of sardines to eat as the grocery store in the small town was closed on Thursdays. I’ve been in mostly small towns so finding food has been a little harder than normal.

I woke up early this morning, and I was the first one at the small local grocery store at 8 am (slightly before their bakery delivery). I had one warm croissant and two warm pans de rasien. I also bought some bread, tuna, and goat cheese. Later I stopped to get sausage and cheese to stock up.

For lunch, I had an amazing meal. White wine from this region, followed by goat cheese on toast, followed by an amazing steak and frites with sauce, and for desert 3 kinds of cheese. I also had a Cognac for desert, I’ve never had one before, and it is strong! I biked near Cognac, France, a few days ago and have been wanting to try a local one. I’ll stick with Port but it is quite good.

Tomorrow I bike to Orleans and stay there for 2 days of rest. I am looking forward to it!

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Day 7 of France 2023 (~58km)

August11

~58km / ~3 hours 20 minutes / ~400m gain

My Garmin tracker didn’t start this morning. That annoys me. I rode at least 10km before I figured that out…

My butt hurt today :). Doing a 90km and 80km ride this week to get to hotels was a lot of time in the saddle. It wouldn’t be so bad, but I am doing a ton of gravel and wild routes, which means a lot of bumps (so more hits to my royal buttocks). A few days of rest, and I should be as good as new.

Today had a lot of weird routing; at one point, I had gone several kilometers down a trail, only for it to slowly fade into nothing as the howls of a pack of hunting dogs came closer and closer. I already had to walk my bike for the last 100 meters or so, so I quickly walked it back and then rode out to find an alternative route.

Another time the so-called route told me to turn on an alley that was a 10-foot pile of dirt :). Adventure!

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Day 6 of France 2023 (55km)

August10

55km / 3 hours 13 minutes / 400m gain

Today was gorgeous. Most of my ride was in a national forest or along a converted rail track (gravel). I am a bit tired from some long rides this week but otherwise good. I ate so many blackberries today. I should call this the Blackberry tour for how many bushes are along my route.

I saw my first fox today. My goal is to see one in every country I visit/tour. I’ve seen one in France (he/she even played hide and seek with me) and Portugal.

I also read one of the best thrillers called “I Am Pilgrim“. Fantastic and in the running for one of the best 3 books I read this year.

I am staying at this amazing B&B in nature. I am running low on food, and going to be a small dinner. I’ll need to find some food tomorrow. Dinner was the last hunk of crusty bread withy butter and camembert cheese. Plus, some carrots, nuts, and cranberries.

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Day 5 of France 2023 (82km)

August9

82km / 4 hours 35 minutes / 564m gain

Today was a long day. My butt was hurting by the end. I had to go extra far today as I couldn’t find a hotel in the middle.

Some map routing issues today. First, the route ended in a random cornfield :). I had to walk through that to get to a road. I kept expecting velociraptors to pop up in the tall corn.

Then on another one, I was going down a dirt road and where it showed a road, there was none, as it was very overgrown. I had to carry my bike through a forest, breaking things to make room. Eventually, I got out :). My legs got pretty torn up, and hopefully no poison ivy.

On one of the dirt roads, there was a herd of Bison. Behind them was a huge nuclear plant. It felt very surreal. Note the bison makes the coolest noise, like this deep hum/growl in their chest. If I had heard that in the woods, I would freak out, but now that I know, I will never get surprised by a bison in the woods.

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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