Last saturday was another big delivery day in the Van. Is anyone else out there starting to think I am spending an aweful lot of time in a car for a bike related job...well I am! and thats ok, cause despite the fact that I would have driven bikes distances equal to that of San Diego to Ventura and back on most of the deliveries, the roads are such that it never feels like the highway, and there certainly is not the kind of traffic you see on the highways of Cali. And I'm in Italy man, and even though some of the routes are getting so familiar I dont even look at the maps (I can find Arezzo and the E45 in a snowstorm man!) the familiarity has yet to be accompanied with the hum drum feeling of driving a same old road to make a same old delivery with the same old bikes. There is so much to see. And this weekend so much to do!
So, with the amount of driving I have done I think there was some concern from the managers that we are going to burn out on it all. Which is good, cause the driving is perhaps the biggest reason I can see that past mechanics have not returned to do the job again, and Im hoping they would like me to come back. There was a more collaborative approach to these particular deliveries, and suggestions on what previous mechanics have done. I decided to dig into some options out in Umbria where I was to be for the two deliveries. I found some mountain bike trails, in a guide book called MTB Umbria - pretty easy, and I found some camping along the shores of Lago Trasimeno via google maps. DONE!
I set out early Sat am to get to the offices of our competitor Backroads to deliver the first of the two tandems I was delivering. Backroads is an outfit that offers tours all over the world, and from what I saw of their offices in Saan Giovani Valdarno, they are doing alright this year. The tour-guides live in a posh apartment flat converted into offices and rooms, and they drive vans with trailers (a set up I'm really glad we don't use!) and have a sweet little garage space to "prep" the bikes. It was nice to see and talk to some americans but after the interaction I was left feeling much more like a capable and traveled local than a visitor. I had insider knowledge they wanted to know, they couldn't believe I drove that far to deliver a bike, and had alot of questions about how much tips I get. I assumed they are from the San Francisco Bay Area (as in Bay Area Backroads - nice tan!) and was sad to hear all the talk about cash money exchanging hands. The tour-guides were wrestling the tandem to get it on their "custom" roof rack that they "own the patent on" and talking about how the folks renting it better be good tippers. Nice. Like a little slice of the Bay Area right here in Italy, while the "bike prep" I witnessed included wiping the bike down, holding the handlebars, and making sure the wheels spin, I never saw an allen wrench, or heard a shift - but maybe they are in such good shape they don't need it. It was not so unlike Kubrick's opening scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey entitled, the Dawn of Man
which if you didn't see the similarities then you will now to this loving tribute in Zoolander sorry for the spanish subtitles.
Can anyone detect my sarcasm...seriously, visiting the backroads offices and bike staging area was a huge eye-opener to the kind of summer I could be having. These kids, and I say that due to their lack of experience not their age, were in it to see Italy while making tax free money, probably the summer between graduating undergrad and going to professional or graduate schools somewhere. Not my Peeps, I can assure you that! And it left me with another bad taste in my heart for American travelers. So much entitlement and so little humility, or even curious wandering for that matter, its like conquering Italy instead of trying to experience it as an Italian. They were happy to offer me a diet coke and refer me to the "New York Deli" across the street from their place. I didn't bother to tell them to story of how, because the address they gave me was absolute crap, that I had to struggle though asking directions from an old dude who smelled of beer and sweat, wearing a three day old tank-top that barely fit who was gardening in his yard, and was finally led to the correct street by another dude who happened to be headed that way in his car - a true Italian interaction as they debated among themselves where it was for like a half hour of passionate hand gestures before agreeing to just take me there, down streets made for little scooters, me in my giant van! I feel like the Backroads kids would consider all that a distraction, a waste of time and money, and would be furious about not having correct directions because they spend a lot of money on this and...blah....blah....blah....same old San Francisco rich kid entitlement! Thankfully the second delivery was also a pick up of people, a couple who needed a lift from the train station to the beautiful Borgo Tre Rose.
The train was a little late, it was hot and I was really hungry, I hit the little cafe in the train station, and wandered a little bit before Melissa and Ed Baltes showed up with roller luggage, amazing tans, and smiles! These were happy tourists, nice people, from the south, who originally lived in LA and never waned to go back. I liked them. Teachers, bikers, Ed has a single speed back in HotLanta where they live. Good southern transplants, who talked like they were tapping into their life saving to do this trip and so far it was totally worth it! They had been on a cruise from Veneza, and were now going to ride around on the lovely big blue tandem through the wine country of southern Tuscana and northern Umbria, and although a little beat from a long day of traveling by boat and car and train and now car again, they were super nice and excited. We got to their hotel, I let them check in while I checked the bike, we did a quick fitting and then left them with all the self guided tour info that Bea had put together for them back at the Farm. I think they were a little overwhelmed. When I split they asked if I knew where they could get cheap local food cause the dinner at the hotel was 35 euro a person and they wanted to tip me. What a neat coincidence. After listening to the Backroads kids talk so much of money I of course told the Baltes they were crazy for a) not treating themselves to the dinner at Tre Rose cause its legendary in the valley and they should spoil themselves after a long day of travel, and b) that they are school teachers, who do bike outreach, and are on a limited budget. I told them that my reward is to get to meet people like them and build my own story this summer all over the Italian country side, and as much as that did to ensure them it was ok not to tip me, it also did wonders for me, to reassure myself that, that is exactly what I'm doing here!
I left them and headed down to the lake, to buy some supplies at the store and get settled into my campsite right on the shores of Lago Trasimeno.
BELISIMA!!! Camping was cheap (8 euro a night with the monster van), and the people there were friendly. The little country store had draft beer and excellent coffee in the am for cheap, and locally baked bread. Quite a different experience than buying an old dusty can o beans at the country store in Borego Springs, or somewhere near lake Shasta.
The local trail system is well marked with signs (still got lost but in the beautiful farmland nearby) and offered a lovely ripping 6KM section of singletrack on the way back to the campground. All in all I think I rode about 4 hours about a third of the way around the lake. Its huge! It was hot and time for a swim, a nap, and another sandwich of salami and cheese on that fresh bread, then a pedal up the hill to the middle of the castle where I had a gelato and was joined by the town crazy dude. We had a lovely conversation about how great the ice cream was and about all the pretty ladies walking through the courtyard, especially the one that was way too old for the dude she was with and I explained that's what we called a Cougar, and I think he liked the Cougar, or used to date her in highschool...of course neither of us understood one another but I'm sure he appreciated the conversation as he patted me on the head when he left and yelled (town crazy remember, maybe a little too much lead in his diet as a young kid) CIAO!! I got the much needed rest I was looking for, a cool night under cloudless stars, a chance to read and write and again to be absolutely head over heels in love with this experience. Time away from the Farm well spent.
S.
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