July 17-18  July 19  July 20  July 21  July 22-23  July 23  July 24 

                We’re about to crash in our tiny room. The walls are all slanted, some exposed wiring and plumbing and a bed that sits about 12” off the floor. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the bathroom is down the hall on the right, just past the shower that is down the hall on the left.

                I’m studying the map to plot our course tomorrow to Les Deux Alpes to meet more Americans there. Tomorrow is a rest day for the Tour, but just more adventure for us!

 22 July

                (Jerry)Not such a memorable day. Basically we drove all day. Maybe a time to reflect a little about the places we’ve stayed. Some rooms have a phone but none have had a television, not that we could understand it. The hotels in these small towns are pretty crude and basic. Some look more like spruced up jail cells. The showers are different also, if you happen to have one in your room. It’s not really a shower, but just a long version of the sprayer you find in your kitchen sink. There may or may not be a shower curtain and the towels, usually about 18” square, are a version of semi-absorbent sand paper. The room we’re in tonight had it’s own bathroom and television. Of course tomorrow night we don’t have a room at all so there’s no telling where we’ll end up.

                As I was saying, today was a rest day for the Tour but a travel day for us. We drove two pages. Angie, the navigator, doesn’t keep up with miles or kilometers, just how many pages on our Atlas map we drive in a day. You really need a good map to chase the Tour like this. It’s the only way to plot out your route to get to the place you want to be. We drove to the top of Les Deux Alpes, the finish for stage 15. There is supposed to be a big gathering of Americans there tomorrow, but it’s so big I’m not sure how they’ll ever find each other. After looking at the last climb we decided to ditch finding the group and park near the bottom and hike up a few kilometers. We like to find a steep grade section because the riders slow there and get a chance to see all the craziness around them. More of a chance to get our LAF sign on tv so the folks back home can see it also. We left Les Deux Alpes and drove to Alpe D’Huez, about 30 kilometers away, and one of the most famous climbs on the Tour. Last year Lance won it and it was the famous ‘Look’ to Jan Ulrich. There are 21 switchbacks as you make your way up the mountain. It is amazing and beautiful at the top. We also now think the smaller towns at the bottom of the mountains are more fun to stay in than the top of the climbs. This is a huge ski resort and not very cute, as Angie would say. We had pizza for dinner on Alpe D’Huez and Angie petted more dogs. Everybody takes their dog with them wherever they go. We ate lunch at McDonald’s yesterday and there were people sitting inside the restaurant with their dogs. So many things you would never see in the states, some better, some worse, some just different.

 23 July

                (Jerry)What a day! Woke up to a fabulous site on Alpe D’Huez. We grabbed some kind of raisin bread sweet roll and headed down the mountain. We stopped at the last switchback on the mountain, # 21, so I could take a picture of the sign with Lance’s name on it. If you win the stage on Alpe D’Huez, they put your name on the signs at the switchbacks. As I was about to shoot the picture I heard a horrible scream from behind me. I looked around just in time to see a girl, totally out of control, flying right at me on a bike, headed straight at the 180 degree turn that she was not going to make. She missed the rocks and our car to her right and me and the sign to her left, hit the curb then the guard rail and flew head first into the trees and brush, followed by her bike. I thought she was dead. I got to her and carefully lifted her bike off. To my complete surprise, she stood up. Shaking from shock, scratched and bleeding, but she was okay. Angie got some towels and cleaned her up and I took her bike apart and loaded it in the car. We drove her to the bottom of the mountain where she was meeting friends. We still couldn’t believe she was okay. She was from Ireland, but living in London and spoke very good English which helped us make sure that she was not seriously hurt. We dropped her off with her friends, so we knew she would have help if she needed anything.