RAIN!
I have only two pics from today, because all we did was scoot through the rain.

Observation: French drivers are like slightly more courteous American drivers (read: not nearly as efficient as German drivers, but not so awkwardly rule-following as Dutch drivers; also prone to stupid displays of aggression for no good reason).

Another observation: mustard seems to be the sign of spring and road trips for me. Today went through many many mustard fields. I love the smell of it. When I was a kid, mustard was a noxious week in our crop fields.

Yet another: Gebring electric under-clothing rocks.

We packed our gear up in the rain, we rode in the rain, it rained some more, sometimes it hailed. What a lovely lovely day. Actually, another observation: one of my strongest memories of my first motorcycle road trip ever, 20 years ago: a 12-hour race home from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula through thunder storm after thunder storm, stopping periodically to wring out my socks.

Matt points out that we were oddly pretty comfortable today, despite the weather. I attribute this to 20 years of gear finesse. My gloves have 3 rips in them, but all of them were there in smaller format before we started. Matt is still cold, because he didn’t bring all appropriate gear, not because he doesn’t have it.

Toll booths suck on bikes.

Here is a picture with gear, no rain, upon hotel arrival:

And on the walk to dinner. Unfortunately, the tex-mex place was closed. We had yummy crap grill, the only place open nearby.

Thanks for an easy pull-off location, Poitiers-Sud! Tomorrow, we think we’ll be in San Sebastian! Yummy food, here we come!