Soon we were back in the car headed to the next stage

Soon we were back in the car headed to the next stage. We had a little trouble finding our hotel because by the time we get to the next town the Office of Tourism is always closed and we never know if our hotel is going to jump out at us or play hide and seek. After a couple of stops we found our hotel. Angie found the bathroom since we had been in the car for hours and I started torturing the hotel clerk with my bad French. She smiled and interrupted me with, “You speak English!” The room was great, as French hotels go and the dinner was good as well. The funniest thing happened when Angie was in the lobby bathroom. She was looking for something to push or pull to flush the toilet. Sometimes there is a button or knob on the toilet top or side, sometimes on the wall above or beside the toilet, it never seems to be in the same place twice. Anyway she found a button and pushed it. Suddenly an arm extended from the toilet, the seat raised up and rotated under the arm wiping off the seat before retracting out of site. Never seen one of these before, but American women would love them!

We’re fixing to crash for the night. We’re going to see if we can find another room in this town tomorrow so we can catch the Postal team warming up before they start here Friday morning. If not we’ll move on and catch them at the end of the stage Friday. “Make firm plans and stay flexible”, my dad used to say. Four days until Paris and Lance picked up some more time. Number 4 is looking real good!

25 July

(Jerry)Slept great last night. Thought we’d get up, shower, eat and head to town. First surprise of the day was no water. Angie got in the shower, turned it on, it ran about 15 seconds and stopped. We decided maybe we should go eat first. Just before we left the room I reached back and turned the water on to see if it worked. We went back to our shower first plan as Angie dove in the shower while the water was still running. The water pressure lasted long enough for both of us to shower then we went in search of our surprise breakfast. As I have mentioned, we never are sure of what the menu will bring us. Sometimes we have a choice for breakfast and sometimes they just bring us something. Today the restaurant breakfast room was empty with several dirty tables, indicating we were the last ones there. There was bread, of course, some rolls with chocolate inside and cereal. The dry cereal wasn’t so strange, but their milk is kept as hot as the coffee. Hot milk on dry cereal was different, but not bad.

As we checked out, we talked to the hotel clerk that had been so helpful. We found out she was born in Atlanta, but her parents were French. She was working through the summer and moving, with her horse to Kentucky to go to college in Lexington. Angie made me go look at the self-cleaning toilet seat before we left. We need to market these in the states!

We drove into town and ended up driving on the route for the day and pulled off about 200 meters from the finish line and parked. Angie turned French on me and changed clothes in the parking lot. The finish line wasn’t crowded yet, about 9:30am, so we set up camp about 20 meters from the line. We felt good about getting the LAF sign on tv from here. A few Americans stopped to talk to us. A guy from Chicago and his mother, who was a cancer survivor. Another guy from North Carolina, a man and his daughter from San Francisco and several more. We looked past the finish line and Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin, the OLN announcers were taping some pre race comments. We were directly in line with their taping so I raised our sign high in hopes of getting in the shot. Every time Phil or Paul looked back at us, Angie would shake her pom poms and I’d wave our sign and scream for them to come see us. Paul finally waved back at us. They either finished their taping or got tired of us waving behind them because Phil and Paul left, but sent the cameraman down to get a shot of us. We acted crazy for them and they got their b-roll shot, Angie the USPS cheerleader and me shaking the LAF sign screaming USA and Go Lance! We’ll see if they use the footage after we get back home.

Once again Angie’s cheerleading took center stage as every photographer that pasted us took her picture. I got one of the broadcast camera’s attention to get a shot of our sign again. I know I’ve mentioned a lot about trying to get our LAF sign on tv. It’s part of our commitment to LAF. More awareness, more free tv time may get someone’s attention that can make a difference somewhere down the line in fighting cancer and/or supporting survivors.

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