2009-06-13 50 10

Plans

Manu and Reinhard probably will be there at the official meetup time, coming by bike from a village near Schleusingen (Thuringia).

Manu, Thepiguy and Reinhard

Reinhard started cycling from Schleusingerneundorf to Suhl on this very sunny Saturday (Reinhard forgot to use sunscreen and had quite a good sunburn in the evening.) few minutes after 10:30 where he waited at the train station for Thepiguy, who arrived there coming from Würzburg nearly on time at 11:30. Together they rode on the way Reinhard came before back till Schleusingen where Manu came to directly from Schleusingerneundorf. The group of three then continued on probably the quickest way up and down the hills, crossed the border between Thuringia and Bavaria and at some point had to leave the road and continued on forest paths for the last some hundred meters. After that they had to push and carry their bikes for about 60 m to finally reach the hashpoint in the middle of the forest. It was around 14:30, when they agreed it would be too stupid to wait one and a half hours just to be there at the official meetup time, so they just headed back to the road after taking some photos. While Thepiguy continued alone in southwest direction, Manu (80 km / 960 m total ascent) and Reinhard (110 km / 1310 m) went back to Schleusingerneundorf on a slightly different way.

---Reinhard

thepiguy's "Adventure" home

After saying goodbye to Reinhard and Manu, thepiguy continued on towards home. He made it all the way to Bad Konigshofen and 3 km further before his tire went flat again. He had it about half way inflated when he ever-so-cleverly snaped the presta valve in half leaving him stranded on the side of the highway with no spare tube.

After consulting with srs0 via phone, it was determined that the last bus to the nearest train station had already left. So thepiguy walked the 3 km back to Bad Konigshofen (which is pretty far when you're wearing bike shoes!) and spent the night in a hotel. He caught the first bus in the morning and made it home only 25 hours after he left!

Next time, thepiguy is staying with Reinhard. :p