Arles to Montpellier - Day 102

Date: November 28th, 2009
Distance: 93km
Country: France
Song of the Day: Master Fade - Andrew Bird

Well, the patch on my tube didn't hold. I should say it had a very slow leak. By the time I got up in the morning it was pretty well flat again. I could have kept going with it for a while, but I really didn't want to spend all my time pumping that thing up. So I replaced it with a new tube. I must remember patch kits are only for getting to the next town. I know other people like them, but for me patches seem like more trouble than they are worth most of the time.

So it was another late start to the day. I was hitting a slight headwind too, so that didn't help any. It didn't slow me down that much, but just sapped all my strength. The countryside was boring as well. Flat farm fields or vineyards. Nothing really to look at. Today just seemed like a grind getting from one place to another. I couldn't help thinking that I had left my office job to get away from the grind. Now I was off on this adventure doing the same thing. Just putting more miles behind me. Oh well.

I did get to Montpellier before dark though. Checked into the hostel and decided to continue my boring life. It was time to do some laundry. I found a place just up the street from the hostel that was entirely automated. There wasn't anyone around. This turned out to be a bad idea. First the laundry soap dispenser didn't work. That cost me 1 euro. Then the first dryer I tried didn't work. That cost me another 3 euro. When I got done it was only about 15 minutes to closing time so I figured I would wait for the person who would come and close up. Then I would demand my money back. I was wrong. The door was on a timer. As the clock struck, click, the latch released and closed the door. It was all run by machines! Argh. You have won this day Automatons. Word to the wise though, if you see a laundry place, and no on is there, flee. Otherwise the machines will get you.

Back at the hostel I wanted to get some internet and plan my route and post a little. This wasn't quite as easily done as I thought. It turns out that their wi-fi doesn't actually hand out DHCP addresses. (I don't know why anyone would set it up this way...) So I had to set the wi-fi address and DNS and gateway myself. It took a little while to figure out how to get Ubuntu to do it, but when it worked I felt very good. (For the non-geeks out there, solving little problems like this is the reason we think computers are fun.) So on the day machines 1 me 1. Lets call it a draw.

-Dravis