Last Training Day by Eric Adolphe

So today was our last training day.  Are we prepared?  Who knows?  We did have an interesting ride though.  I've been telling the kids for a few weeks now that we might encounter animals in France (dogs, cows, sheep, etc) and they would have to be prepared.

Today, it became reality.  We encountered a set of wild animals - the American Teenager (Anglo Unsophisticus) in its natural habitat.   The American Teenager is a particularly dangerous animal.  You never know what it will do.  There are a lot of books about what to do when encountering this animal, but I don't think that any of them do a good job preparing you.  The encounter can be terrifying.

Today, we ran into a pack.  It was hard to discern which was the leader.  Clearly one of the two in front were the alpha males.  The teenagers sped through the trails with complete disregard for anyone else on the trail.  I took this as nothing more than a territorial display designed for the female of their species. However, this theory may not hold up because I could not see a female.  But you never know, sometimes it could be difficult to tell the male from the female.  Only trained zoologists are capable of accurately identifying the male and the female.

One of the males attempted to pass in front of us at full stride.  It was obvious to me that he could not have enough room for this maneuver.  Cyclists in front yelled for him to stop, but he continued. The Cyclist then called the teenage animal a "darn fool."  The teenager yelled back at the cyclist telling him to "go fart."  I don't think that the teenage animal is yet capable of understanding the human language.

The teenager fell flat on his face and crashing into another cyclists.  I was proud of my guys.  They maneuvered perfectly to avoid the fallen beast.  We all escaped unharmed and watched as the animal licked its wounds.  He continued on his journey while using language that we could not understand.   But with further observation, I believe that some day we will be able to communicate with this animal.

Anyway, we also visited a quarry today, we've been here twice before.  For those of you who've never seen a quarry - it is a big hole in the ground.  Got that feeling that this is apropos.

Today is our last day of training.  We are all very excited!   We depart Thursday and will spend two days in Paris before taking a train to the Loire Valley.

Then, we are biking for about 150 Miles give or take a few through the Loire Valley.  We will be staying in Castles, Wine Tasting (not the boy), fencing and doing a lot of other cool things.  Our next post will be Thursday on our way.

Love you all.

Eric Adolphe