Girl on a bike going nuts

Day 7, Monday: 95 km, Aubusson to Bellenaves
What's new: Ok. Halbzeit. First half!!! Enter Biarritz, Bellenaves and Heidelberg in Google Maps and you see what I am talking about.
Tool of the day: Tried the "click"-shoes today for the first time! They are awesome!
Hero of the day: Jacques, who offered me a place to sleep (70th km) when it started to rain. No, I have mission, I needed to keep going. "I'll come pick you up with your bike if it rains harder, here's my number." How should he have known that I love the rain.. :)
Soundtrack (listen to this while you read this post): Ed Sheeran - I see fire

Do you want to know what's going on in my head all day?
It wasn't as foggy as yesterday, so I could see far, and all I saw was: Mountains, hills, elevation. I literally sang in my head: "I see fiiiireee... inside of mountains... I seee fireee... burning my knees." As my head was empty and bored today, I sang that song a lot. It got to the point that I decided I needed some new engagment.

"Biking is the most exhausting way to look .. bad." Elke sent this to me from the doctor's waiting room.
(Please - someone suggest a better transalation).

Wouldn't half way through this trip be a good time to try these fancy click-bike-pro-shoes I carried so far already?
They were the only thing in my saddle bag I hadn't used until now (next to the bag full of repair equipment which I really hope I will never need). Last night, my pro-biker sister Anna had encouraged me to try them, and Martin, the 70-year old Londoner I met last night, explained to me why they make sense.

Elli, who has helped me over the phone to get them off the pedal the first day (I had just wanted to see how they fit on there and didn't get them off anymore) said that I should practice to click in and out leaning against a wall with my bike.
It was good advice, because I had no idea what I was doing. I practiced a little bit, fell twice, and then I decided I was ready.
So: saddlebags back on, and go.
It is quite scary, being so attached to the pedal. If you forget you are wearing them and you try to get off, you fall at once. Out of fear, I finally had a new mantra in my head: "You are wearing click shoes, you are wearing click shoes, you are...".

Problem: I forgot they were on both feet. When I wanted to get off the next time, my new earworm reminded me:"You are wearing click shoes" and I clicked out. On the right side. But I forgot the left side and fell anyway, right on the street. Ouch. Mama.

The new song needed to be adapted: "You are wearing click shoes on both feet, you are wearing click shoes on both feet."

On I went.

As you can see, some days are more exciting than others. All I do is cycle, from the morning until night, bike and eat, counting kilometers and sweating nonstop. My knees really did hurt today, but I had to be quick because I didn't know where I would be sleeping (which means: trying to get to the final destination as early as possible) and I was just really bored up there on my bike. But that's life. Even the greatest adventure has its routine.

Tomorrow, I'll get up early, as I am trying to go 115 kilometers - to get to this cute little place in Millay. Sometimes, booking ahead and having a place to go to is amazingly motivating.

If you know someone in/close to:
- Fresnes-sur-Apance
- Miloy
e-mail me: rosarollt@gmail.com :)