Our last day of riding. Location: near Siracusa
Mike usually wakes up before me and his morning routine takes about 15 minutes. I was awake when he went into the bathroom, so I just stayed in bed, hoping to fall back asleep but knowing I probably wouldn't.
I think I look a little like Bob Chin in this picture. Mike loves taking pictures of me sleeping and since I nap a lot, there are a lot of opportunities.
I went to the garage where the bikes were kept to retrieve my Garmin (more about that later) and here's the system for charging the ebikes.
Today's ride was a long one.
We did some climbing and got some nice views.
We crossed a few bridges spanning some gorges. There was no water below.
Parallel to this new bridge was an old stone bridge.
We did some climbing and were rewarded by some nice vistas.
And an action shot.
It was staged.
The sign commemorates a victory over some foreign invaders.
Our first stop was a visit to a honey farm. Here's the owner.
We were given bee hats.
We took a short walk to the field where the hives were.
They prepared a honey tasting that would have been enough for lunch, but we still had a lunch stop ahead.
The lunch stop was in a small village where it was "on your own". Most folks got a slice of pizza or a gelato since we had already eaten a little while ago.
The last leg was an 8 mile climb with 1200' of elevation. I opted for an ebike. That enabled me to get in front of Mike to take some pictures.
Behind him in this picture was a cute young couple from Chicago. He rode a hybrid and was really strong. She started off with a hybrid and switched to an ebike on day 2.
At this point it was pretty hot so time to unzip.
While we were done, it was time for the guides to get the equipment ready for the next tour.
I thought this was curious and kinda cute, like they were holding hands.
This is why.
They clean and lube each bike.
I'll never complain about cleaning my bike again.
Ready for the next tour.
Here are the stats for the day:
morning ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/11680484432
afternoon ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/11680608177
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The evening activity was a cooking class. They showed us how to make dough for pasta, and roll it out with an electric pasta machine.
This one was evidence for Jane!
We started off by mixing an egg into the flour and kneading it into a ball.
We put it through the machine, rolled it, and cut it.
At last count, everyone still had all their fingers and toes.
We didn't eat our own pasta.
***
Update: this is more for my benefit than anything else.
Before dinner, Lea made a run to yesterday's lunch stop to retrieve my Garmin.
Here's what happened. It took separate conversations with Mike, Eduardo, and Lea to piece together what happened.When I pulled in to the lunch stop yesterday, I was so exhausted that I don't remember everything that I did. I parked my bike and stumbled into the room where everyone was sitting. I slugged a bunch of water and some fruit juice, and when the group went out to do the truffle search, I decided to skip it. I went out to my bike, took off all unessential clothing and lay down on a stone bench. I remember seeing my socks and shoes on the ground, my gloves, watch, and Garmin in my do-rag on a bench. I'm not sure why I removed the Garmin except I knew I wasn't going to use the road bike again that day. When Eduardo saw it later, he said to Mike that he was going to move it to get it out of the sun. Apparently, Lea moved it again to a ledge and there it sat until I looked for it the next morning. There was no place to put it on the ebike I was riding for the rest of the day which is why I didn't notice it was missing the day before. I didn't need it for today's ride since I have been running Strava (to record the ride) and Ride with GPS (for audio instructions) on my phone, so I didn't need my Garmin although it was nice to see the route map. It shows up better on the Garmin than on a phone.
Side note: it took two days before our Garmins started working. No idea why.
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