I slept next to the road last night at the bottom of a hill. The road was next to a tunnel that I would have stayed dry in if it had been raining. I drifted in and out of sleep all night long because my body was fully rested. I only rode about 25 miles that day. I am not keeping track of how many miles I am doing because my computer keeps resetting itself. I want to document as much as I can, so I will check the odometer at the beginning and end of each day.

I had a big dinner at a portable roadside cafe last night, and when I left the woman gave me three small loafs of bread.

I did pretty well financially with food today, but I spent 25 bucks sending back my Thermarest sleeping pad, a book, change, tape, sandals, and film. I could totally feel the weight difference when I left. I will only get food at supermarkets from now on.

People in France kiss each other a lot. Yesterday I saw women greet each other by kissing on the cheeks; then I saw a man and his son kiss on the lips. Just now I saw a woman come in and kiss every man in the place on both cheeks twice. That's cool.

I bought some pastries hoping the woman would let me use her toilet but she said it was private. Then in this bar-restaurant place I bought a beer and the man said he didn't’t have a toilet. I haven’t washed my face in two days. Tonight I will use the water in my bottles and my washcloth to wash my face at my camp sight.

There are a lot of homely looking people in this country, maybe there is in-breading, which wouldn't surprise me. They seem like they are in their own little world. They aren’t interested in me at all, and sometimes even seem annoyed. Some women make these ugly faces at me when I have trouble speaking French. They open their eyes wide and lift up their upper lip and sort of stick their tongues out. A man came in here a few minutes ago and shook everybodies hand including mine; and a man did that when he was leaving a bar in Holland. I feel a stuffy energy here and when I make eye contact with people they give me a blank stare instead of smile like they do in America, England and Holland. When I look at them they seem like they are run-down tired, bored and frustrated. They have a weird hair and clothing style here that I can’t pin on any decade; maybe the seventies most closely. I heard Paris is unique, will find out tomorrow. I have a feeling I won’t see a complete version of France unless I go to Paris. I wonder if this guy will kick me out if I don’t buy another beer like they did at the first cafe I went to in France.

The longer I am here the more I like Holland. Dutch or whatever their language is called rhymes and some of the phrases are the same as English except they roll out in a more rhythm in a funny laughable way. Disco, upbeat, poetic music is all they play. They are loud and interrupt each other a lot. They have cool canals throughout the country, and have bike paths everywhere. The Dutch are very friendly. There seem to be a lot of ethnic groups there.

There are a lot of ethnic groups in France also, which is surprising. I don’t like the language as much now that I am here. I can’t understand any of it and they speak fast and it is totally different than English. The cars give me room and yield here though. Overall the people are nice here just like anywhere else except for the fact that I can feel them critically judging me much more than the other countries I've been to, even before they know I am American. Maybe they can tell I'm American just by looking at me though.

The price of things is roughly the same here. When I rolled in here I was alertly awake, but this beer is putting me to sleep and I don’t want to get a coffee because they will probably charge me like three dollars for it.

Another peculiar thing about France is when you get a beer and coffee, they don’t come and pick the bottle up for hours. I can feel people looking at me more here than anywhere else. I have a feeling French people don’t travel much, but that could be me. I am barely staying awake right now. I wonder if I could get a coffee or call it a day. I love sleeping and usually don’t sleep while I am lying in bed reading because my mind can't slow down enough to allow me to fall asleep; it seems to want me to go to sleep while I am up writing or reading.

Last night I slept in a field inside a big highway intersection where the field meets a sparse grove of trees. You could totally see me from the road, but the cars are driving so fast no one would look over in my direction. The next day, yesterday, I rode into Paris. When I got 25 km away I had a feeling it was illegal for bikes to be on the highway, so I got off only to discover that no roads but the highway went into Paris. I asked some girls and then later a group of kids and they all said I should use the metro, but said it was legal at to ride my bike on the highway so I got back on. About 15 minutes later a cop pulled me over and said something, So I said I was American and he said “oh, American”, and told me to get off the highway at the next road. I started riding and then noticed he was following me. I worried he might give me a ticket, but when I got off he waved at me and took off on the highway. I tried to find a road in the direction of Paris and asked a guy where Paris was and realized it was futile to try to ride, so I paid 3 bucks for a ticket on the metro for the “Champs Ulysses”.

When I got to the center I went to the top of the Champs Ulysses and took some pictures. I had to pay ten bucks to weight in line for a couple of hours to go to the top of the Eiffel tower and take some pictures. Then I had dinner at a McDonalds that seats like 500 people and paid six bucks to take the metro about a half hour to the southernmost station, which was way out of the city. I only had to ride for about 10 minutes before I found a forested area to camp. It was on the side of a hill that looked like it just went up, so I camped about 20 feet from the road, too close because people could see me if they looked. That night I took my socks off because they were feeling itchy and I thought to myself, “am I going to be cold tonight?" because of this my feet could feel the wetness of the bottom of the bag and sure enough I was drifting in and out of consciousness all night because I was so cold. The next day I went to buy some shoe laces so I could tighten up the top of my sleeping bag. I kind of wish I kept my Therma rest because I could feel the roughness and coldness of the earth. I heard a dog barking harrowingly last night in the distance and thought it might be because of me, so I opened up my knife and thought to myself "maybe I don’t want to go to Africa after all".

Now I am thinking it isn’t a good idea, but I want to go to the rock of Gibraltar and ride down the coast of Portugal. I could go to Rome via Morocco and Tunisia and take a ferry to Sicily, or ride through Andorra and France.

I had market food this morning and then stopped in a restaurant which was the first thing I saw open for like 5 villages. I asked the garcon if I could have some water and he said I would have to buy something just like it was all over France. I can piss people off here just by asking for water. I was really thirsty so I asked for a sandwich and he said, "What kind?'' and I said turkey and he said "you are in France'' So I said ''well balony'', and he said "do you want a drink?" and I said no, and he said ''you usually get a drink”, so I said orange juice. When I got the bill it said 15, so I thought three bucks not bad an paid and went to my bike and unlocked it and he said you misread the receipt, it is 48, so I said sorry and paid it and rode off, and then I thought to myself "I paid nine bucks for a sandwich and a drink". I got ripped off. That was when I finally decided I didn't like France. Next time I will just buy a drink and then ask for water. They would have to be ridiculous to refuse that deal. Actually from now on if I am just thirsty and I can find a public toilet which there are very few of in this county, I will fill my water in their sinks. The waiter said mostly the water is good, but not always. I will take my chances. But from now on in order to avoid these French people from closing off their bathrooms and water and giving me weird looks and snapping at me I will try to only eat at Mcdonalds and pretend I'm in good ol America for a few minutes each day.

I am now in a McDonalds in Tours. I rode 145 miles so far today, the farthest by 35 miles on this trip. I definitely feel a little feverish from it. I am on the north side of this big town and will have to probably ride all the way through it and out the south side. A considerable distance if I am to find a super bomber camp sight, which I want to because I will probably want to sleep in tomorrow.

I will be at the Spanish boarder by the end of day after tomorrow. I will have to ride through the Pyrenees, which are going to be big. I don’t like this country because they are always trying to get money out of me, and stuff is more expensive here than in America. I think its kind of pathetic that they can't speak English here when most of the songs on the radio are in English. I can tell how they are in a little self righteous cocoon, feeling left out is probably why they don't like Americans and have all these archaic cultural selfish mores. The cars yield to me more here and give me more room than in American though.

I rode on the rural D roads today for the first time and loved it. I can really get into a rhythm when there are no cars to constantly distract me. I am looking forward to my time on them tomorrow. If I liked the people in this country more I would take my time and ride on the rural roads the whole way. The old rural people here are seriously homely looking and don’t smile at me at all. I think one of them yelled at me to slow down today.

This morning I saw about a hundred bikers, all older, and only one female, riding sporadically within a 20 mile area. I also saw about 5 carriages of what I thought might be Amish people and took a picture of one. I also took pictures of Napoleons get away castle in Douron (I think that is what it is called) where all the Amish people are. The castle, the Moab, was huge and it looked like it suffered a battle.

The younger people in the McDonalds are real nice about getting me water and don’t make me feel like a spectacle, so I like to go here, my American Oasis, as much as possible.

I had a dream last night that I was I think in France hanging out near a restaurant in a rural area with green grass and Vanessa Meyers was on a bridge and we were crossing and she said “I think I will jump off this", and jumped off and fell about 30 or 40 feet to the grassy bottom.
While she was falling, which was a long time, I thought "oh no", she is going to be hurt", but after her hard impact landing she got up unhurt and came back to us. We were all, "Wow, you are amazing, that was at least 35 feet", and she said "oh no big deal" and went into the restaurant with the other girls we were with who I don’t know. That is all I remember.

I woke up in the morning to two men talking across the street on the other side of the fern-strewn fence that I couldn't’t see through, but cars were driving by and could totally see me if they looked over, so I go up and left even though I wanted to sleep in. I looked up and saw that there were terraces just up the way that I could have slept on no problem, so I will scout more from now on. Another lesson I learned today from that water episode from the snooty waiter was to ask how much something costs before I buy it so they don't rip me off. I could have had another Big Mac meal and a half for sure. I am not cold and will get a good nights sleep tonight.

I have such an opposite feeling about McDonalds as I did a couple years ago when I thought it was just another multinational corporation. But it is so convenient and ensures that you don’t get ripped off and is priced well and the food is actually not bad at all, and they are always easy to be in. Now I think efficient multinational corporations like this are good, they just have to use their power for good instead or raping the earth. I dished for that sandwich and orange juice, oh well, a lesson I needed to learn. I will sleep inside the survival blanket tonight in the rain suit.

I got up pretty early this morning. I don’t have that all too familiar feeling like I need to sleep in. I bought breakfast at a local supermarket at 8:30 and had a big breakfast and stretched and started riding at about 11:00. I tried to get on the intracity road but got lost and had to find my way back to it; finally getting going at about noon.

I was extremely tired today; on the verge of a fever, so I stopped riding at about 3:45, after 75 miles. I am in the northern end of another big city now so I will have to ride for a while to find a place to sleep.

I am in a McDonalds now. I looked in my calendar to find I was supposed to call my mom yesterday, so I went to a phone and couldn't’t figure it out, so I will either wait until I am in Spain or buy a phone card. I will probably make it to Spain in a couple days. I will try to call later tonight, maybe the phone lines are tied up.

I just figured my finances. If I spend 20 bucks a day from here to the end of the month I will have spent about a thousand bucks, with 224 for extra expenses that I didn't’t foresee. I was just reading the bible and it is good.

Europe is definitely more expensive than America. England and France are about equal, with Holland slightly less and Luxembourg more and Belgium little less than Holland as far as I can tell. For example, a McDonalds meal in France (France is more expensive than England) with a sunday, burger, fries and a drink is about $7.50, which is a lot. I have been eating at restaurants too much; my habit of having big breakfasts in supermarkets will help a lot. Spain and other countries will be less expensive.

I rode 109 miles today. I slept in until about 8:30 this morning because I was beat yesterday. I felt fine today and have a feeling I will be fresh for tomorrow. I breezed into this town at 5:17 and saw a sign that said McDonalds and figured I might as well make it 3 days in a row.

There was a deviation today so I got some good time on D roads. I am in Saints tonight. I saw signs that said ''camping'' and I checked it out, but it closed eight days ago for the winter. It was nice and warm last night in my nice campsite inside a ditch near the highway shielded from sight. I had some nice dreams last night but I cannot remember them.

I had some nice thoughts while riding today. The Bible is good to ponder. I am circling the good parts and reading it so slowly (only 30 pages yesterday) that I might be working on it for a long time, like months, which is weird to think about considering the copy I have is so small.

When I stop and ask directions people are nice, but they don’t know a lick of English which is weird because most of their music is American. They seem very nationalistic in a positive sense, but stuck in the old European train of thought in another sense which I can't even begin to explain. I can feel the workers looking at me here in McDonalds. I wonder if they will kick me out, probably not. I detect a very strong feeling in the air that these people know they are in their own world that is closed off to the cultural leader of the world, America. This county seams less important to me while I am here than it did when I was studying French back home when it seemed very romantic, stylistic and beautiful. Now it is just another weird country.

I can feel that when I eat processed food I don’t feel good, like when I eat potato chips with preservatives or these sugar biscuit crackers. Candy, soda and McDonalds food doesn't make me feel bad though. I rode 109 miles today but by looking at the map I didn't go very far, but I don’t care.

I need to balance the reading and writing with the riding, and make sure I don't keep physically burning myself out which I have been doing a lot of so far in this trip. If I run out of stuff to read and write I will ride all day long every day. Plus, I will probably be strong enough to do that in a month or so. I am not immersing myself in the culture much, just riding, reading, writing and keeping to myself. I don’t want to stay in this country any longer than I have to.

The bible is such a good book it is hard to believe that people can twist its truth. These principles are so simple and straight forwardly put; like to be more polite to people than they are to you no matter what. Being here reading and writing I get a feeling from people that instead of being like "look at that smart guy" it is like "look at that weird guy". It probably has something to do with this bright green spandex ski suit I have on. These people don’t make as much eye contact with me. I find that kind of strange.

On second thought I do feel a little tiredness in me. I am just now getting into the French music and will record the songs I like. I want to record a direction asking or conversation with someone, I haven’t done that yet.

I have been so blessed with weather so far, its been great. There hasn't’t been a single rainstorm yet, and there have been sunny skies ever since I got to the mainland. It was overcast a lot in England but it never rained. I spent less than 100 Francs today.

I don’t want to buy any more processed food. It gives me a headache and I feel dehydrated. I want to write down everything I think of. I have noticed that stuff gets cheaper as I go farther south in this country. I think I am being too harsh on the French. They are nice people.

I didn't ride very far today, only like 70 miles. I got up at 8:12, had a Mcbreakfast and took off early. I had like 36 miles under me by the time I am usually off. I think I like this way of starting early better. I don’t need such big breakfasts, they just waste my time. I could have ridden like twice as far today if I wanted to, but I did my laundry instead, learned how to call mom and got two big mac meals and a bag of candy.

I am still reading the Bible which I like a lot. I don’t want to go back home until I can ride all day long with out a single negative thought. Mike and mom think I am going too fast but I am just right. This is the fourth night in a row in a McDonalds; I am on a roll.

People honk a lot when they come up behind me to pass which is nice. They don’t honk here like they do in America with a long honk, but with a series of short honks. They yield more to bikes here also, but bikers are expected to stop at stop lights. They do it even when there are no cars coming, which I have heard before somewhere not too long ago and here I see it is true. I am learning to comprehend French more.

Eric says women are more subordinate here, but I don’t detect that. I do detect that sexual relationships are more settled in here than in America.

I got up at about 8:30 this morning. I was awake before and even though it was warm enough to immediately put on my shorts, but it wasn't light enough for me to get up. Today I had breakfast at McDonalds for the second morning in a row. After breakfast I got bread and fruit at the supermarket next door because I wasn't full and I am going to go to another Mcdonalds for the fifth night in a row. I wonder if there are McDonalds's in Spain and if I will keep the tradition alive. I love knowing I can go to a place and get a meal that I know won’t be a rip off and I can have a well light place to read and write until eleven at night. These burgers are good also because they are nice and filling and taste great. Two years ago I was slamming McDonalds because they were a multinational corporation and used beef, but these burgers are half soy and the beef is filling. Beef isn't a good thing to eat too much of because cows use up so much land that can be used more efficiently growing other things.

My bike computer didn't work today but I rode well over a hundred miles. I didn't get the earliest start and lost my way a little, but I rode flat terrain on smooth roads and a highway. The highways really help you cover serious miles, so overall they are as good as the back roads that go the same way as far as I am concerned. I will try to set a balance between the two, maybe half and half.

I got another flat today; from glass this time instead of a thorn. It also ripped a big tear in my tire, but not so much as to risk the tube coming out. I feel kind of beat today. I rode very fast, usually averaging 22-25 mph . I wonder if I will be tired tomorrow. My days of exhaustion seem to be behind me. I tried to take a picture of the road signs in Bordeaux that say where stuff is, but the battery was dead. I should have bought another one yesterday. This battery only lasted two roles. I haven't kept track but I think I have had about a half dozen flats so far this trip.

This culture of paying for something before hanging out there does annoy me, and is overall bad because it instills paranoia and a selfish attitude. Maybe their just treating me like this because I'm American though. I am getting good at writing fast, it is great. I can write faster than I can think right now. Maybe that's not quite such a good sign. I sat at a place today that served coffee and such near the supermarket in an indoor shopping mall and the woman asked me what I wanted so I had to go. Maybe I should just tell them I'm American and in America people can sit down at places without buying anything. That's not true though; I'm just being overly frugal. I could at least get a coffee but they are so expensive and all I want to do is sit down.

I did 40 pushups in a row this morning and stretched. I want to do 200 a day, but I am too rushed. Maybe I will remember to do more tonight. I want to be able to do a hundred in a row.

I was thinking how auspicious my fathers death was today. He died at 4:20 in the morning two days before Wyndham was set to leave, less than a week after my birthday which he was conscious for. It was neatso how my mom knew exactly when he was about to go and got us. But I couldn't stand to stay and he was very warm, so I left and he died. I wish I stayed. It makes me feel sick I couldn't be there but my mom was. While I was thinking this I thought about how very much he loved me, and would do anything for me. He gave me most of his money and was more happy and distressed than me when good and bad things happened to me.

Food is very expensive at stands and gas stations. I paid 80 cents for an apple at a total gas station today which is an American chain I think. The only fast food chain I can detect here is Q-quick which I went to in Belgium. In England the only one is the little chef, which has a big breakfast of cereal, two slices of toast, bacon, egg, tomato and E.G. for 5 pounds which is like 8 bucks. The bacon in England isn't as fried, small and hard as it is in America. I like it more in England, even though it is pure blubber. Speaking of blubber, on me, I think this will be my last segment of life where I won’t have to watch the fat in order to not get a spare tire.

I did another 50 curls with my handle bar bag today. I want to be able to do a hundred at one time. I am not craving things as much now which is good. I don’t crave to be stoned and eat ice cream and drink alcohol, which is great. I am not being distracted much at all.

What looked like wilderness on the map turns out to be a big tree farm; fields of full grown trees as far as the eye can see and patches of clear cut. The trees look healthy. I have a feeling of trust for the forest service now. I feel like I have turned 180 degrees since my dready days of environmentalism

I would probably be going like 1, 2 or 3 miles per hour faster if I had my road bike, but flats would be more of a problem, especially in third world countries. I think I will be glad I took the mountain bike.

I heard "many rivers to cross" twice so far in Europe. They also like that song "I'm a bitch I'm a mother, you don't wan't it any other way" by Natalie Imbruglia or somebody.