One thing I've been a bit worried about is driving around France. We have rented a car for a week, and will be doing a considerable amount of driving. Unfortunately, I will not be able to use my phone for navigation because of the ridiculous cost of data roaming, and I have no other form of navigation for the car available. I do have a Garmin eTrex HCx GPS unit that I got for geocaching, but it does not have detailed street maps loaded, and certainly not for France.
Because of this, I bought a giant Michelin road map at Barnes & Noble for $12. This was what I planned to use until I remembered that Avis allows you to rent a GPS unit for your car. For some reason, I thought I remembered it being about $3/day, which compared to a $12 map was only a few dollars more for a week's rental. Unfortunately, when I went to the Avis web site to add the GPS to my car, it turned out that the units cost $13/day! Over $90 for GPS maps?! I don't think so!
Stymied there, I thought I might download a map of France for my Garmin. Turns out they cost $70. Stymied again!
So it looks like I'm stuck going old school, although I think there is a way to set up a route on my iPhone's Motion X Drive app and cache it over wifi so that it will still work when you don't have phone service. I will try this out, but there's a good chance that Nathan and I will be driving all over France with him in the passenger seat trying to figure out where we are on our giant $12 map.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Nice blog posts from the Tour
Ray, the blogger at DC Rainmaker (www.dcrainmaker.com), is moving to France, and was therefore in a position to attend a couple stages of the Tour earlier this month. If you are into cycling or running, and especially if you are tech geek into cycling or running, you should definitely check out his blog. In fact, you should probably stop reading my drivel and immediately go check out every post he has done over the years. Only after you have spent some quality time with a quality blog should you come back here. I'll be here when (if?) you get back.
Okay, thanks for returning. As I was starting to say, Ray and his wife, Bobbie, posted a number of excellent posts about their time at the Tour. If you are interested in what it's like to be at the Tour, as opposed to just the racing, these posts are required reading.
Ray and Bobbie's posts are here:
Okay, thanks for returning. As I was starting to say, Ray and his wife, Bobbie, posted a number of excellent posts about their time at the Tour. If you are interested in what it's like to be at the Tour, as opposed to just the racing, these posts are required reading.
Ray and Bobbie's posts are here:
- 2012 Tour de France–A look at the Caravan/Parade - Bobbie's post of their experience watching the Publicity Caravan in Liege
- 2012 Tour de France–Prologue/Day 1 - Ray's coverage of the Prologue in Liege
- 2012 Tour de France–Stage 1/Day 2 - Ray's coverage of Stage 1
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Additional preparation
I'm taking care of some stuff that needs to be done before we leave on Thursday. First off, I realized I should probably find out about power plugs in France. As I suspected, I need an adapter, but fortunately I already had one in a kit of adapters I had from a previous trip to the UK. I tossed that in my laptop bag along with a 3 plug power thingy that should allow us to plug in a couple laptops and a phone at the same time.
I also dropped $8.00 to unlock my son's old phone cell phone. As much as I'd like to unlock my iPhone and be able to get a SIM over there for it, I was not prepared to spend the $150 to do it. We'll take my son's old phone with us and pick up a prepaid SIM to pop in when we get to Paris. That way, we'll be able to make a few calls and send a few texts if need be.
I also made sure that my wife and I were both set up with Skype on our mobile phones, as is Nathan. This will be our primary way of calling home as all of our hotel rooms have wifi.
I don't want to have any issues in France with my credit card, so I sent them a note over the Internet telling them of my travel plans. Hopefully, that will ensure that we have uninterrupted access to our cash while in Europe.
I also figured that I better pick up a map. In the US, I wouldn't need to do this, but in France, especially without a live iPhone, and travelling on lots of little roads all over the south of France, I figured it would be a good idea to have a quality map. I picked of a Michelin map of France (#721)
at Barnes and Noble just in case. I suspect we will get some use out of it.
Finally, I know that many people in France speak English, but many don't. I don't want to be totally screwed when having to try to communicate with the second group, so I picked up a Berlitz Just Enough French Phrasebook
while I was at B&N. Hopefully this won't get too much use, but better safe than sorry.
I also dropped $8.00 to unlock my son's old phone cell phone. As much as I'd like to unlock my iPhone and be able to get a SIM over there for it, I was not prepared to spend the $150 to do it. We'll take my son's old phone with us and pick up a prepaid SIM to pop in when we get to Paris. That way, we'll be able to make a few calls and send a few texts if need be.
I also made sure that my wife and I were both set up with Skype on our mobile phones, as is Nathan. This will be our primary way of calling home as all of our hotel rooms have wifi.
I don't want to have any issues in France with my credit card, so I sent them a note over the Internet telling them of my travel plans. Hopefully, that will ensure that we have uninterrupted access to our cash while in Europe.
I also figured that I better pick up a map. In the US, I wouldn't need to do this, but in France, especially without a live iPhone, and travelling on lots of little roads all over the south of France, I figured it would be a good idea to have a quality map. I picked of a Michelin map of France (#721)
at Barnes and Noble just in case. I suspect we will get some use out of it.Finally, I know that many people in France speak English, but many don't. I don't want to be totally screwed when having to try to communicate with the second group, so I picked up a Berlitz Just Enough French Phrasebook
while I was at B&N. Hopefully this won't get too much use, but better safe than sorry.
Boy did I get that one wrong!
In a previous post, I hypothesized how Fabian Cancellara could conceivably get the yellow jersey back in tomorrow's time trial. Boy was I off on that one! Cancellara was either having trouble today, or he was conserving energy for a massive effort in the time trial tomorrow (I pick the latter). Either way, he finished way behind the leaders today, and is now in 39th place, a mere 13:36 behind Wiggins. I know Spartacus can turn in an amazing TT result, but I think even he will have trouble making up 13+ minutes on Wiggo!
On a more positive note for RSNT, the team had a great Stage 8, finishing 3 riders in the top 10 and 5 in the top 15! That is a pretty impressive result!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
I wonder how many of these they are selling?
Tradition states that anyone can touch the Stanley Cup, but only a person who has won it can hold it over his head. As for people who actually plays hockey, they won't even touch the cup until they win it. Yes, there is some superstition involved here, but bottom line is: you've got to earn it.
On the other hand, there's this on the TdF web site:
Buying a maillot jaune and wearing it on a bike would be like a hockey player not just touching the Stanley Cup. It would be like touching it, picking it up, holding it over your head, then attaching a strap and wearing it around like a hat.
I guess they are selling this jersey so you can put it in a frame and hang it on your wall. Or maybe not...*
*At least Lindsay has the sense to not wear her maillot jaune while actually riding a bike!
On the other hand, there's this on the TdF web site:
Buying a maillot jaune and wearing it on a bike would be like a hockey player not just touching the Stanley Cup. It would be like touching it, picking it up, holding it over your head, then attaching a strap and wearing it around like a hat.
I guess they are selling this jersey so you can put it in a frame and hang it on your wall. Or maybe not...*
*At least Lindsay has the sense to not wear her maillot jaune while actually riding a bike!
All good things must come to an end...
Well, Fabian Cancellara's time in yellow came to an end today. I was hopeful of a miracle but that last climb was just too much for the big man. It was a great week for Spartacus in yellow, and you could tell that he loved it. Obviously, I don't know him personally but he seems like a truly nice guy and well deserving of the maillot jaune.
There's a chance that Cancellara could be back in yellow on Monday. Clearly Wiggens and Evans are the cream this year, but I'm not sure that either BMC or Team Sky want to defend the yellow jersey for the next two weeks. Since Bradley knows he can get it back from Cancellara at any time in the mountains, and because he is most likely riding the time trial last, he might just make sure he stays on level terms with or slightly better than Cadel and the other GC contenders and not go out to ride his absolute best TT. If this is the case and Spartacus can turn in the type of TT he is known for, he could be back in the yellow jersey.
So far, it's been an intriguing Tour, and today separated the GC contenders from the GC wannabes. I was sincerely hoping that Frank Schleck, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden were going to be in the top echelon, but perhaps this just isn't going to be their year. Of course there's much more Tour left, so we'll just have to see...
There's a chance that Cancellara could be back in yellow on Monday. Clearly Wiggens and Evans are the cream this year, but I'm not sure that either BMC or Team Sky want to defend the yellow jersey for the next two weeks. Since Bradley knows he can get it back from Cancellara at any time in the mountains, and because he is most likely riding the time trial last, he might just make sure he stays on level terms with or slightly better than Cadel and the other GC contenders and not go out to ride his absolute best TT. If this is the case and Spartacus can turn in the type of TT he is known for, he could be back in the yellow jersey.
So far, it's been an intriguing Tour, and today separated the GC contenders from the GC wannabes. I was sincerely hoping that Frank Schleck, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden were going to be in the top echelon, but perhaps this just isn't going to be their year. Of course there's much more Tour left, so we'll just have to see...
Is it just me or is cycling getting more popular in the US?
I got up at my normal 5:00am to watch the Tour, but when I switched to NBC Sports Channel, there was no Tour. It took me a bit of investigation to realize that they were showing the Tour on NBC. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time that NBC broadcast a stage of the Tour that wasn't the final one. This makes me wonder: is pro cycling getting more popular in the US, or is NBC just trying to make pro cycling more popular in the US?
Nowadays, either NBC Sports Channel or Universal Sports show pretty much every major pro race, including the 3 grand tours, the Tour of California, the Pro Cycling Challenge, the Dauphine, the Tour of Switzerland, and quite a few other races, either in whole or in excerpts. This could be because so many people in the US are clamoring for cycling coverage, or it could be a nefarious plot by NBC to try to get us hooked on the sport by feeding us a steady diet (kind of like a drug pusher!)
Either way, I did a bit of searching online to see if I could find out something about the ratings that all this cycling coverage is getting and couldn't find anything, so I guess the question will still remain in my mind: is NBC Universal showing so much cycling because of customer demand, or are they showing so much cycling to try to generate interest? I hope it's the first, but either way it's a great time to be a fan.
Nowadays, either NBC Sports Channel or Universal Sports show pretty much every major pro race, including the 3 grand tours, the Tour of California, the Pro Cycling Challenge, the Dauphine, the Tour of Switzerland, and quite a few other races, either in whole or in excerpts. This could be because so many people in the US are clamoring for cycling coverage, or it could be a nefarious plot by NBC to try to get us hooked on the sport by feeding us a steady diet (kind of like a drug pusher!)
Either way, I did a bit of searching online to see if I could find out something about the ratings that all this cycling coverage is getting and couldn't find anything, so I guess the question will still remain in my mind: is NBC Universal showing so much cycling because of customer demand, or are they showing so much cycling to try to generate interest? I hope it's the first, but either way it's a great time to be a fan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)