Day 22- My first poop in the woods OR David’s day of being a shit

The morning started out a little rough. David woke up with something in his eye and/or it just being sore and irritated in general. Eventually we packed up all of our crap and left our campsite in the woods. It was definitely time to leave the woods when I discovered a tick just dropped out of nowhere onto my arm. When we had all of out stuff out on the trail we took off the main road to get to our campsite we ate and packed up the trailer. We checked for ticks and of course we found three more on me. David found one on my sock and another one that I cant remember where it was. I also found one on my stomach. Gross. It was time to leave, but I needed to poop. David gave me helpful tips, like leaning against a nice tree, and the deed was done! Too bad David didn’t take his own advice and poop that morning because he was definitely a shit the rest of the day, probably because he didn’t have a nice poop in the woods!

Today couldn’t have been any fucking hotter for biking, probably the hottest day yet! David had an extremely difficult time with the trailer and biking in general. We tried to choose roads that didn’t have marked hills on the map but there were a lot of hills on the roads we were on anyway. With all of that came a lot of cursing and attitude from David. At the end of the day it was just frustrating to deal with the hills, and it was taking forever to get anywhere. I was trying really hard to be supportive and helpful all day but at some point I just had to answer David’s attitude and tantrums with my own attitude because it was getting ridiculous. Throwing bags answering my questions with sass was getting old and annoying. We had wanted to go about 80 miles to Arras France that day but we had to just find a hotel in one of the cities on the way there because we were both tired. Thank god we found hotels earlier that day in some of the cities along the way. We stopped in Baupume France and got a room at the Hotel le Gourmet. The room was actually really nice and there was a shower and toilet in the room for only 38€. We really needed a break, especially from David’s attitude, and a shower. After we got the room we found a grocery store which was closing, and David was the last person they let in. I had to stay outside because we forgot to bring a lock for the bikes, and my only request was some cold juice. David redeemed himself by apologizing several times for being such a shit the entire day and buying lots of treats for us to eat. I got my juice and we also had ice cream, champagne, red cabbage salad, and a couple other yummy things.

At the end of the day we ended at going 60 miles.

A Change of Perspective:
Its true. I was bitching the whole day. I was very uncomfortable, tired, sore, and the hills kept coming. The crest of each hill, instead of showing a descent, almost always leveled out into another climb. There were ascents that lasted throughout the lengths of town; several were over a mile long of solid ascent. My legs, for the first time this trip, were burning nearly all day which was my largest cause of aggravation. They had not even been that exhausted after the ride to Paris from Ameins which was over 100 miles, and today they wouldn’t take us even to Arras. But to say that I was a shit pretty much sums it up. I was not trying to be annoying but its hard to travel with someone, be in such a terrible mood, and not have it affect them. I did apologize many times, but was unable to transform back to a civil human again until we arrived in Baupume. The icecream, two juices, cheap champagne - .99€ only! - and some good beer. I think Alyssa forgave me and pretty quickly too, but if she tells you differently in private, let me know so I can buy more ice cream or something.