German GPS Fiasco

Day 1 of our 90 day European Bike Tour

Who takes 5.5 hours to cover 37km on a tandem?  We do.  For a bit of perspective, 37km is less than a marathon.  When Oprah Winfrey ran the Chicago marathon (I’m not making this up) she finished in 4 hours, 29 minutes and 15 seconds.

But all she did was follow the butts of others.  We were the only asses on our route. 

We blame our new cycling GPS.  Rule #1.  Never blame yourself.

We were supposed to be taking an easy cycle from Oberursel (near Frankfurt) to Weisbaden.  At one point, it took us up a steep, wooded  goat path. I had to follow the left side of the track, then the right, then back to the left, to keep traction for the rear wheel.  

The gradient was about 12 percent.  We stopped, after about 15 minutes of climbing.  The GPS suggested a U-turn.  Then it went blank.  Pele said, “If we turn around, I’m not coming back up here.”  Tough call.  The GPS had suggested U-turns before.  We had taken those turns.  But then the device brought us back. 

Pele meant it.  This had every fresh ingredient (with the exception of rain) for a really good meltdown.  The gradient lessened to about 6 percent.  We kept climbing.  Then we came to a junction.  There was a sign that named two towns to the left, two towns to the right.  We were on a high flat ridge in the woods.  I figured we should take the route to the right.  We could get to the next town and ask for directions.  No more cycling paths.  We would set the GPS to “road mode” and make a beeline for Weisbaden.  But there wasn't a signal.

Then we saw life.  A lone runner came towards us.  We needed to get to Weisbaden because we had booked accommodation with warmshowers.org.  It’s where cyclists open their homes to cyclists.  Our new Internet friends, Tine and Matthias, were expecting us at 6pm.  It was now 5pm.  We had been on the road since 1:30pm.  

“If you keep going in this direction,” the runner said, “you’ll be back at Oberursel.” Embarrassed and exhausted, we would have limped back up to Devin​ and Dianna Pratt​'s–where we had stayed for the previous week.  The great conquerors of Europe get spanked by a GPS.

I thought we were now 5km from our destination.  “No,” said the runner.  You have about 20km to go.  He gave us directions.  We ignored the GPS.

One hour and 45 minutes later (figure out that average speed) we reached our destination after 20 schizophrenic kilometres. I've run 20 kilometres in 74 minutes. 

Our host couple is awesome.  In 2011-2012, they cycled for 15 straight months:  Iceland, Canada, the United States and Central America.  They convinced us to buy some maps (duh!) and head northwest along the Rhine.  It’s not where we intended to go.  In fact, it’s the opposite direction.  But they said it’s beautiful.  So…the plan is to ride 80km along the Rhine and find a place to camp.  Then we’ll ride back and stay with our new friends again.  Warmshowers.org is really cool.  But don’t go to warmshowers.com, unless you’re looking for porn.  You just tried it, didn't you?