Well, my dog can get to sleep, but my hermit crab and I can't so here we go....

So I had a beer on the Dutch side of the border and it was a pathetic little shot-sized slurp that was too young to die which I offed in two sips.

So I had a beer on the German side (but the receipt was still in Dutch) that was pretty good and I headed on my way, cycling back to my Mom’s home town, hours away.

On the way to the border I’d tried to pass though cute town centers and expose myself to the native culture. Lots of windmills.

After seven hours on the road I just wanted to get back, so I picked a bigger, straighter set of road-side bike paths that took me pretty directly past Ochtrup, Burgsteinfurt, Steinfurt… and then I have no idea where I was.

Let’s say you see a sign for the town you want to go to. That’s good, because the map can’t fit a town’s worth of roads into a half inch worth of print. So you follow the sign and it gradually leads you to an on ramp for a major highway you have no business on. The maps were too small, the roads were too big and I wound up bushwhacking my way to Laer (pretty church, windmill), not to be confused with Leer, a few kilometers up the road (yep, another church).

Took a left in Laer and wound up in Altenberge (not to seem anti-religious, but another freakin’ church).

It’s incredible what a bratwurst and a beer (my performance enhancing drug of choice) will do for the spirit, as I was reminded in Altenberge, and newly refueled I started in on the closing stretch through Nienberge back to Roxel and Muenster.

All told I was on the move for 12 and a half hours. Figuring the kilometers and converting, I made almost 100 miles using only one gear (one didn’t work, the other was too much work).

And there’s been a local heat wave. Mathing 35 degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, I really can’t believe I did that in 95 degree heat on roads that must have been even hotter.

But I really didn’t feel all that bad the next morning. Waking up, I staggered a few steps, got my feet under me…

… and kept on going.