Pictures and Stories About Bicycle Adventures

Morning Comes

Above Left: First, a good breakfast.

Above Right: New treats to us.

Above: New treats to us. There are about six cycling couples eating breakfast with us, some are on a group tour and a few were riding on therir own. We met with one couple riding on therir own and exchanged information and parted with a friendly goodbye.

Exiting Córdoba (NOT Easy for Us)

Above Left: We unchained and unlocked the Bee and we are ready to go.

Above Right: We were in the shade and we had to photoshop this image to see Terry and the Bee. Just as we had to walk the tandem bicycle into downtown Córdoba, we needed to walk it out of downtown Córdoba.

Above Left: Crossing the Roman Bridge (we are now riding the tandem bike).

Above Right: A view up river into the rising sun.

Above: We are not supposed to be anywhere near these views, we were already lost. We missed a Key Turn because the Road was Moved. A curb was added and it blocked off a T-Intersection since the instructions were written and we cannot find ourselves on the GPS.

We had a little Adventure
(An Adventure happens when a person Screws-Up and they live to talk about recovering from their Great Mistake)

Above: We figured everything out, it cost about 45 minutes of time. We had to back-track and we found the correct exit road and we finally found our position on the GPS. We are new to GPSs, in fact this trip is the first time that we have used a GPS on a bicycle. Apparently on this particular Garmin Model, it is possible to display the route but not yourself if you are 'off-the-course', or visa versa. We learned that it is a matter of scale, but scale is tricky when the display window is 2 inches by 2 inches.

The exit's street sign was missing and it was removed (because the road was physically changed and blocked off now as a dead end, we rode over a newly installed sidewalk curb to get to the old street that leads the way out of town). We could not validate the street name until we were about a 300 meters down the road (we finally saw a street sign - Yay). Also, I should mention that we also enlisted the help of an elder man; we could not understand each other's language but we understood that many bicycles use this road to go into or out of Córdoba.

We're Now Heading for Castro del Rio, for Lunch

Above Left: There it is.

Above Right: We were in farm country rather quickly.

Above Left: We stopped for a back picture and this couple rode up on us. We greeted one another but they kept on going.

Above Right: With all of our issues, we are only now 1 kilometer out of Córdoba proper.

Above Left: A cyclist out for a morning ride is returning to Córdoba, we waved.

Above Right: We will get to see many Poppies today.

Above Left: The dashboard is in Miles and MPH; we're off to a good pace.

Above Right: Olive Groves.

Above Left: We are riding into the sun.

Above Right: Olive Trees.

Above Left: We're in Hill Country and in Farm country.

Above Right: Another local rider greets us, he is heading back to Córdoba after a long morning ride..

Above Left: Blue Flax.

Above Right: Poppies and Daisies.

Above Left: It is getting warm outside, I'm guessing 30c. We're on the road to Castro del Rio.

Above Right: Kilometers of Sun flower plants.

Above: The road has become the lowest quality for automobiles but the road is a super highway for bicycles.

Above Left: A loan Sun Flower blooms amongst its fellow plants.

Above Right: That hilltop structure appears to be Castro del Rio, or very near.

Above Left: Purple flowers.

Above Right: Spanish Broom (smells heavenly).

Above: Dennis Struck and the Bee on A-309 (just now), heading for Castro del Rio (Andalucia, Spain).

Castro del Rio

Above Left: Left turn ahead.

Above Right: We're in Castro del Rio.

Above: The Sheep Dog is herding sheep through the town, the Sheppard is driving the nearest car and giving orders to the dog.

Above Left: The Sheppard can be seen in the car, he's driving the car and giving his dog hearding orders.

Above Right: We're riding through Castro del Rio.

Above Left: The bridge across Rio Gualdalos (I think that was the name). I briefly saw a Pharmicia Temperature indicating 35c (95f).

Above Right: We arrived at a city park and ate our just purchased lunch.

Above Left: We're enroute to Baena, we still have a series of quick left and right turns to perform.

Above Right: According to the Written Turn-By-Turn Instructions we were supposed to turn right here (the right side is actually straight road, not a turn, and the left side is a true left turn). No signs are pointing toward the town of Baena and it is a major city. It is possible that Baena may be a left turn away from Doña Mencia (way before arriving there). None of these roads or road signs match our meager little map. None of the Written Turn-By-Turn Instructions match this scenario in front of us.

What about the GPS? After lunch we could not get the GPS to show us where we were and we could not get the course to appear (just like what happened this same morning departing Córdoba). Later we would learn that the batteries in the GPS were going kaput. We had new batteries with us, but there was no indication that this is a battery issue, so we did not change the batteries (a big mistake).

None of these displayed road route numbers are indicated on our provided map.

We took the Nueva Carteya road - An Adventure Begins!

Another Adventure Begins;
To Baena, the Long Way

Above Left: We're climbing out of the river (rio) valley.

Above Right: It is hot but dry, the land looks baked.

Above Left: The road to Baena.

Above Right: We now think that this was the town of Nueva Carteya, although we never saw a Village Name-Sign. We took the Right Direction Sign as the distance was shorter.

Above Left: Ladies with umbrella sun protection (it reminded us of Africa).

Above Right: Lots of Sun, lots of heat.

Above Left: Wild Turkeys! Seeing Turkeys really surprised us. Turkeys are a North American animal, to see them roaming free was quite the delightful surprise!

Above Right: Kilometers and kilometers of Olive Trees.

Above Left: Agave or Aloe Vera? It is an Old Plant.

Above Right: The went straight toward Baena. We just ran out of water.

Above Left: Kilometers of Olive Trees.

Above Right: The city of Baena.

Above: We dropped into the first Restaurante and requested Agua y Cerveza.

We Checked Into Our Hotel and Returned for Supper

Above Left: We checked into our hotel, cleaned up, and returned to the same restaurante for supper. We has Sangrias to hold us until dinner.

Above Right: Terry had a Lobster Bisque appetizer.

Above Left: Dennis has a Tuna Salad (Spanish Style).

Above Right: The waiter wanted Terry to try a local Orange Liquor and Terry liked it!