Got up really early – 6:00 to filtered sunlight and roosters crowing. Had a quick bite to eat, then decided to go for a ride and check out the road that the Giro’s going to be on. The folks here, of course, know all about it – they have notices up in 3 or 4 languages about the road closures on the 16th, so they have advised me exactly where to go. The ride was awesome – sun full and bright, mist still lifting in places – so beautiful.

Pian di Boccio – my campground

The ride wasn’t that hard – only had to push the bike a couple of times, because when I stop going up a hill to take a pic it’s really hard to get going again – at least without all my gear it wasn’t that difficult to push.

 

 

It’s not that far – only took me about 20-25 minutes to get there, but I stopped several times and don’t ride that fast anyway. Gorgeous orchards, vineyards and villas everywhere – I love it here!

Found the road that the race will be on – I’ll come back again to pick the perfect spot.

Headed back to the campground to get some hot tea and more food from their store. They’re so nice – they even power up my ipad almost every day, since it runs out so quickly. Downloading pics from the camera to the ipad is really quick and easy, but getting them onto the blog is another thing altogether.

Passed a cute shrine on the way back that I hadn’t noticed – not sure what it’s for…

Had a nice shower, then went for a walk to the ‘lake’. Passed some beaver statues – wasn’t sure was that was about, but as I progressed and saw a boar, some turkeys, deer, even a wolf and bear, I realized it’s part of a target-practice thing. Each little display is in it’s own area around the lake. I must admit that when I first saw the wolf I almost jumped, but the deer nestled on the lake’s edge wasn’t alarmed so I wasn’t either.

 

Lots of frogs on the shore – you can hear them croaking up a storm long before you get to the lake, but I couldn’t get close enough to get a pic – they heard me coming and splash-splash-splash into the water they went.

I realized that my larger, attached keyboard wasn’t working anymore, so got onto the ‘geek squad’ from Best Buy and online chatted with a fellow that helped solve the problem. I didn’t actually know that the keyboard has it’s own power input as I’d never run out before. Took it to the campgound’s office and Luisa kindly plugged it in and powered it back up for me. It’s so amazing to me that even from Italy I can contact someone 24 hrs a day to get help – it was around 3:00 am Kelowna time and I still got assistance when I needed it.

Took a short nap in the sun, right inside my tent. Woke up refreshed and face-timed Dom. Going to bed early.

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