Ericeira, Portugal
This losing things has got to stop. This morning I could not find my umbrella. Two critical items I have with me are my iPhone and my umbrella. I could not cycle in this heat without it. We both use them every day! So where is mine? And to lose it is serious because it's not easily replaced. Just any old umbrella won't do. It's a GoLite umbrella for the sun and rain. Lightweight. Reflective outer layer with black inner layer. Light to hold. Durable even if flipped inside out. And a loop to attach a carabiner to clip it to my flag pole. PERFECT! And now I've lost mine:(. The route off the peninsula sent us back near a place we had some struggles last night. Let's check there after calling the campground to see if I left it there. Nope...didn't do that. Oh there's a store. Better get a replacement something in case I don't find it, says April. Good idea. Heavy clunker but it will help. There's that spot where we tried to take a dirt road parallel to the highway...and didn't make it through and had to push our bikes out. I'm gonna walk down and see if perhaps...just perhaps...and YES! There she be! Waiting for me!!!
Last night's campsite was up in some pine trees a ways off the road. Still could see the street lights, though and hear the barking dogs. That's the sound of Portugal: barking dogs. Day and night. They are usually chained up. Get no exercise but barking. And they bark constantly. Every neighborhood has several. We hear them all day as we cycle by and all night wherever we camp. It's truly the sound of Portugal. No one seems to notice or care. No one ever tells the dogs to be quiet or takes them inside. And they bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark.... Are you annoyed yet? I am.
So today we continued down back roads, some paved, some not, but always through the cutest rural towns with people who break out in big grins as we cycle by and say "Bom dia!"
Today I decided we needed to eat a bit more Portuguese food. We eat often the food we bought at a grocery store but I want to sample what the locals eat. Soup is cheap so we get some cream fish soup. Quite tasty. We've learned not to eat all the different things they put on the table: bread, cheeses, pate, olives. It's not free. You will be charged for what you partake. The mini bar concept. Got costly the first time we ate out!
A while later after a very steep climb out of a river coastal valley we stopped at an overlook. I go for my phone. We've been using it for routes each day. No phone! Not in my fanny pack nor in my seat pocket. Not anywhere! Panic!!! Tears! Frustration! This losing stuff has got to stop. I'll be lost without my phone. Everything is on it! Where is it? I must have dropped it by the roadside. I'm sure I had it after the restaurant. It's only a couple of kilometers back. I don't want to ride it. Let me ask someone if they'll take me. You were at the same restaurant? Yes I remember you! Could you take me back? You'll call them? Ok. While he's on the phone I had an "aha" moment and pat my chest. I stuck it in my "breast pocket" to free up my hands quickly. It was in my sports bra under my shirt! If we all didn't have a good laugh over that! That man and his wife will tell that story over and over, for sure! Who else can lose an iPhone in her boobs????
Tonight we're sleeping in the sand near the mouth of a river. The campground in town was booked solid. A reggae festival this weekend. Sorry we'll miss it. We miss a lot by sleeping outside of towns. But at least we sleep!
That's the bamboo jungle outside my tent. Never slept in that before!
Livin' the life,
BagLady
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