I woke this morning to the sound of rain. What can you do…can’t blame the rain. It’s just the weather. So of course I started coming up with all kinds of solutions – plans. Rent a car. Leave today instead of tomorrow. Go down to Grenoble so I can catch the first train in the morning to Venice. Tear down and pack up the bike so I have that chore over with. Then it dawned on me. I’m on vacation. I’m reading 2 great books right now why not just spend the morning with coffee, a comfortable chair in the library, and my stories.

By noon the rain had stopped and by 1:30 the roads were drying up. I got on my bike and headed up to the Col de Sarenne. Yes it’s Col “de” and not “du” like the other passes. I have no idea why.

I’m always amazed at how often when you least expect it … those days that you would rather stay under the covers, when you have no route planned and the weather looks fragile but you force yourself to go anyway more times then not you come home feeling how lucky you were to have that experience. Today was one of those days.

The Col de Sarenne was a tough 10 miles up hill but so stunning I was wishing the hairpins would never end. I thought if everyone in the world could breath this air and look at this sky the human race would be content.