Presearch Continued

Upon our return from Bari, presearch continued and we even (somehow) received a compliment from our regional manager about how much work we fit in to our 10 days. "You have had a VERY productive presearch!" The ultimate deception = success.

Here are a few more photos from our continued adventure and some from Tanya as well from the first half of the extravaganza. The set is called Tanya's retirement because this was her last year with Backroads. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but she is a wicked smart doctor who just finished school and is about to start her residency. A great new adventure!

ps. This is a hottentot fig. Or as I call it: the hot-to-trot fig. They close up at night time or when it's raining. They are my favorite.

"Presearch"

Every year we have to approach the season looking ahead 2 years. If we are lookinginto trip changes that are several years out we call that research, but for THIS year's trip preparartion we call it Presearch. We visit all the hotels, restaurants, and subcontractors to confirm dates and times. We drive all of the bike routes and hike all of the hikes and then modify all the notes to the leaders so they can find any answer to any question they could possibly have in document form.

We have been scheduled a 10 day presearch in Croatia because in order to accomplish the above goals we have a lot of ferries to catch. We also had a special guest appearance from our Swedish, friend Inga. (Her name is actually Tanya and she's from Switzerland. Whatever...minor details.)

It can, at times, be difficult to break through the shell with Croatian locals BUT once you know them on a more personal level, they are the most sincere, hospitable, and loving people. Because "we" have been leading in Croatia for quite a few years now, we have many wonderful friends that we look forward to seeing during this time of year.

I can't tell you how many times I took a step back this week, looked around and though, "Wow. This is my life. How did I get here?" I know this may sound like a reoccuring theme, but it has never been more true. Stopping in to say hi doesn't happen here. It generally starts a long (and welcomed) chain of events including food, drinks, stories, and finally discussing the upcoming year's plans.

For example: we hire a private boat to do the transfers from island to island. The first night of presearch we drove to Omis to meet the owner and captain of our boat. He insisted we stay on the boat that night, greeted us with rakija and raffiolis, took us to dinner at the local pizza joint, invited us to the birthday party of a friend where they sang traditional klappa songs for hours, shuttled us back to the boat and then fed us breakfast in the morning. We finally talked about work mid-day...the next day. This is just proper etiquette.

Another prime example is after a long day of hiking, eating a delicious lunch at Mate's restaurant and then continuing our hike into Hvar, we were met by Mara who hosts the "Q&A night" for our guests. She announces that she has the "perfect evening" planned for us. One hour later we had changed clothes, downed some cappuccinos, and were on a speed boat bouncing across the water toward a private island for artichokes. The memory of us slowing to an idle and turning the corner to see the lights glisten on the far side of this hidden cove is permanently burned in my mind. The artichokes were prepared the "right" way...the Croatian way. The heavy handed owner of the island/restaurant not only fed us, but brought over a heater midway through dinner, found a turtle for a centerpiece, and gave us long sleeve t-shirts with his logo on them as a souvenir. On the way home we stopped to troll for 10 minutes under a full moon.

I will say this: Croatia makes me miss Florida a bit. It reminds me of my brother daily and all the good times we had in St Augustine. I miss that. I miss him. But I'm also glad that I left when I did so that I can now look back with such fondness and love. I was on a fast track to stagnant resentment and I know if I had stayed any longer that frustration would have overshadowed all the great times that I had there. As it is, I can just look back and smile.

How can you choose between the mountains and the coast when both are so exhilarating for so many different reasons? A little time with both each year is good. I'll get my water time in now.

PHOTOS

Another unit drive

Far from a burden. If I ONLY got paid for driving vans all over Europe with a co-leader buddy like Lynny I would be a happy woman. The idea that this is only the start of my season is baffling. We joke about "Backroads time" often. Last year I led one trip with Lynny and then saw her on staff ride, but meeting back up to drive our van and equipment from France to Croatia feels like I have been reunited with an old friend. As if we have known each other for years.

This job is so unique and all the people that work for this company are so interesting that it often accelerates the standard friendship timeline. It's a process that is hard to describe. Within days of meeting someone you are often sharing responsibilities, a room in a hotel adn hours and hours and hours of conversation.

This year we drove about 8 hours to Toscana and met up with Lynn and Levi (lots of Ls in my life) then the following day we were onward to Puglia. I have been "through" Italy a number of times, but this is the first time I've been able to really explore beyond driving the autostrada northern route from one border to the other. We went clear down to the boot to hang out with Scotty, Paolo and Jill and it was worth every second of drive time.

I discovered that I love aperitivos, good coffee, pesce crudo, and dancing with friends till the wee hours of the morning. Dancing till I blister my feet type of dancing. This new route to Croatia (capped off by sleeping in the van for an 8 hour overnight ghost ferry to Dubrovnik) has reminded me that I love the job beyond description and it is all attributed to my co-leaders. I could not wipe this smile off my face if I tried.

Hence the beginning of Team Awesome Adriatic and the 2011 Snuggle and Snore Tour.

Instead of photos we took a lot of moderately poor quality but highly entertaining videos. Well, at least we think they are kind of funny. More memories coming soon...

Out with a bang

My last days in Pernes were spent with great friends, incredible rides, breathtaking sunsets, beautiful markets and delicious food.


I rode Gorge de la Nesque with Bronwen and Lynny. Two strong, independent women with an inspriring zest for life. Both have such bright and contagious energy...to say we shared a few laughs is the understatement of a lifetime.


As discussed before, I have a rule about playgrounds. If you have the time and see a good playground, I strongly believe that you should always stop. There isn't a bad day that swings can't cure. And if you can get off the merry-go-round without giggling and stumbling around...well...I'd say you are a bettre woman than I, but that's not really true now is it? Not that I'm better than you either, but I do think I am better off for enjoying the silly things. Enjoy ALL the little things. They literally can make the world a better place and every day a little brighter.

Ps. Irises are ditch weeds in France. Who knew?

Kind of biking

When I went on my first ride back here in France I was so in love. "Oh my gosh! This is IT! This is THE place to be!" Since day one I have been on two worthwhile rides. A few runs too, but only 2 rides.

Yesterday Tomas and I set out to add to that overwhelmingly huge number, but because we brought our cameras and decided it would be more "leisurely" we really only rode a few meters (maybe up to 200) before we would stop and want to take another photo. Nothing stellar. I'm just learning a new camera and that is exciting in and of itself. "How does that work? What does THIS button do?" I learned two things from this "ride":

1. I don't really care if I only make it into Pernes when I set out to do an epic 50k. We only have one life and if, there is one thing I learned by living in the dirty south, it is to take things a little slower at times. If I don't do ANY exercise because I sat on the porch and have a glass of wine over looking the olive groves, listening to the ponies talk to each other across the street...well then so be it. That's ok with me. I don't plan on making it a habit for good (although tempting). But sometimes, taking it easy is just better for the soul.

2. If Tomas is going to be my new riding partner, I better lay off the cheese. "Ok lady, put the cheese down! Well...maybe just another slice." Damn my (very, very tasty) achilles heel. I'm never going to keep up to him at this rate. Oh well.

Horsing around.

Across the street from our villa is a horse track. Literally across the street. We call it the Poney Club (which here is pronounced like Pony Cloob). It is not huge, but large enough to draw the whole village out on a Sunday afternoon. Sometimes they do regular horse racing and sometimes it is harness racing where they sit in these little bucket seats with their feet in stirrups out to the side and they race their chariots(?) around the track. This Sunday they did both.

The track isn't beaten in either. Slightly worn down grass, not dirt like in the states. Which is surprising because sometimes it's not horses, but go-karts. They love going “karTEEN” and for us it sounds like a gigantic swarm of killer bees is about to attack the house.

After contemplating the best way to watch it from the house and climbing on the roof to discover that a big tree blocks our view (Please note that we also could have learned this by looking out the bathroom window, but adventure is always more fun!) we sucked it up and decided we would pay the fee to watch it from "le hippodrome" like everyone else.

Good news! Il est gratuit! (free, free, free!)

Another funny occurrance, walking there a group of security guards was organizing themselves to take a group photo. The one guy saw I had a camera and gestured that I should take a photo. So I did. I announce obnoxiously, "un, deux, trois..." and they respond with "Cheeeeeese!" In unison. How appropriate. I like the guy on the far left the best. It's like I can read his mind.

Lesson #2 with my NEW camera. My timing isn't very good yet. Practice makes perfect! You'll see what I mean...if you click here.

Well isn't that Nice.

This year heading back to France was different. I was going to an airport that I have travelled through before, then to a train and a house I got to know quite well. I was even going to scoop up an old friend in the baggage claim along the way. While getting on the plane was less exciting this year, a not-so-quick 17 hours later, I was back in a familiar place surrounded by amazing people.

BUT there is one thing I forgot about this year: I am still so new to Europe! I am (for all intents and purposes) still a rookie with this company and I have so much to learn. Not to mention, until last year I had only been to Ireland one time...there is still so much to see! How could I forget something so obvious?

Not to mention, I knew I would be seeing so many friendly faces, but I completely forgot one of my favorite things about the Provence Villa: you will always, always, always meet someone new while you are here.

Enter Paolo (you can call him Paul from Canada if you want to).

Paolo picked us up in Avignon this year (since we missed our first train and therefore our planned ride was out mountain biking). From that moment on I'm pretty sure Paolo rued the day he met me. Devin and I yacked his ear off with jet lagged ramblings for at least an hour, probably more. But he just sat patiently. Smiling and nodding. Maybe he no speaka the english...

The next day was a lazy day around the house, shared by all, and by the time Monday rolled around we figured out pretty quick that we were going to be spending a lot of time together. Not always by choice. We were assigned to an awesome task: unload ALL the trailers, count everything inside, and then reload them. We also hosted a hiring event for new hire candidates which meant we went grocery shopping together, washed vans together, got diesel together, prepped the food together, made the coffee together, cleaned together and picked up baguettes together. Then the next day we drove to Avignon, picked up the candidates, brought them back to the warehouse, wrote on our clipboards in front of all the new candidates to freak them out (which was me last year), fed them, waited, drove them back to Avignon and then came back to clean some more...together. But sandwiches, the sandwiches I made alone...what happened there? Then Friday we were back to trailer un/loading.

With Paolo, comes his best friend Tony and his girlfriend Jill and they were staying at another house with Scotty O'Nair (who are ALL also Backroads leader extraordinaires). We went on bike rides and enjoyed wonderful meals...all together. Sprinkled that combo with a little flavor from the end of season maintenance crew, it was a fantastic week and just the right level of new and old to help me acclimatize to being back in France.

Saturday was the beginning of the end with another first: a mini-road trip to Nice. I've passed by several times, but never had the chance to wander through and actually see the city. Jill and Tony were flying out in the morning, so we loaded up some cruisers and hit the streets for a few hours before driving home. (All these photos are from our excursion with my NEW camera! Whoop whoop!)

So, in conclusion, I would just like to say: Paolo- thank you for all the laughs and sarcasm and good music. If I had to do that work by myself all week, I very well could have gone insane. Keep smiling and go get a hot shave. But don't smile while you get the shave. And Scotty-I'll be seeing YOU in Ireland in two shakes of a lambs tail. Not a bother now.