Everydamnbody Gets Lost... Except Nita

Tuesday was a hell of a day.  Not what I expected when I woke up at all.

Everyone is leaving today so Nita and I will have the house to ourselves for a day to get things ready for the influx of 13,000 people on Wednesday.  Rod, Nancee and Malcolm have been tremendous guests this week, it has been superb having them in the house with us.  The got up early, packed up the rental car and were off for their drive to Paris.  God Speed!

Having a rare spot of sunshine I decided to try another run in the countryside.  I drove to the little town on Ingersheim, found a parking spot and headed out to do a little hill training by running the gentle grade up to Niedermorschwir which we visited on our first big castle hunting day. 

At least that was the plan...

Heading out of Ingersheim, I followed a pleasant tree lined road until I was distracted by a pretty little running and bike trail following the river.  Thinking it a more fun route, I detoured onto it for a while.  Oops.  Turns out the river path veers off to the town of Turkheim, adding quite a lot of distance to my quaint little 2 mile run.  Once into Turkheim, I realized that to get to Niedermorschwir I had to head up a nasty set of switchback roads that went more or less straight up through the vineyards.  Hills so steep that tractors have winches they secure at the tops of them to assist their getting up and down the rows.

Part of the lovely scenery along the river road.  2 storks were nesting just on the left end of the house but I could not get them in pic.

 Ah well, might as well go for it.  Took me a while to get up the hill road, but after a ton of sweat, some tears and a contemplation of catching a bus(or tractor, or mule, or anything) back down I made it to the top.  Great, now I have to make it back down to Ingersheim and my car.  I could almost see the end of town I parked in, but I knew I had another 2 miles of hilly wine country to go.  It didn't help that the wine shops were all now open and offering me small glasses of white wine every 50 feet or so.  Wisely I declined.  France hates it when you throw up all over the place.

The road up from Turkheim

Halfway up!  That is Turkheim down below.

 Tearing off down the mountain at a speed rarely seen outside of glaciers, I pounded down the roads into Ingersheim and found my car at last, parked right out front of a pastry shop.  I swear I didn't know that when I parked there 2 hours earlier.  Really.

Nice easy grade back down.  This was the road I intended to run up.  Not that damn mountainside!

 Back at home I showered and helped Nita with some things about the house.  My folks and aunt and uncle dropped by for their last goodbyes and to drop off all the stuff they had left over from their house rental.  We will miss them.  It was odd having them in a separate house from us this time around.  Definitely not as much fun as all of us together. 

After they departed for one last look around town before their train to Strasbourg, Nita and I did more laundry(we don't have access to a dryer so it takes a little more time than usual) and waited for Skip and Karen to drop by for dinner.

We waited.  Waited more.  Still more waiting...

Then a cryptic txt message saying they were lost in the forest.  Then one later stating they thought they knew where they were.  What the hell?

Turns out they had ventured off to see the WWI battlefield memorial and existing trenches at Vieil Armand.  Somehow they got a tad turned around looking for the train back down from the summit and spend a confusing couple of hours lost on the mountain.

Wet, mud covered and exhausted, they made it to our place where we fed them leftover burgandy beef stew with good bread.  Seemed to do them good.

Moral of today's story.  Pay attention, signs mean things!

Personally, I had a fun time I will pay for later when my knees don't work in the morning!