Mountain top experience

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Today was Mt. Ventoux (say “von-too”) day. Cylists everywhere apparently have it on their “bucket list,” and it seemed most of them were trying to cross it off today.

This is Brad’s 5th climb of the mountain -- and you should see the faces of other cyclists when I tell them this. He whipped up there like he was being chased by angry villagers and when he got to the top, he looked as refreshed as if he’d gone for a walk in the woods.

That -- a walk in the woods -- would have been quite impossible on top of Mt. Ventoux, as it is devoid of any forestry whatsoever. It’s u-g-l-y. It looks like someone took a huge section of the Mohave Desert and dropped it on top of a lump-o’-something and then made a road to the top (at which point they simply put up a bunch of microwave and television towers.) It was a very boring experience for me, but Brad was quite pleased with himself, so it was worthwhile.

BTW, Mt. Ventoux is the first mountain with a recorded history of a tourist climbing to the top -- back in the 1300’s! Brad told me it was the philosopher Petroch, but when he was telling me I thought he said, “Pet Rock,” so naturally I said, “Oh, you mean the guy they named that silly gift for oh-so-many-years ago?” This earned me a blank look and, if I’m not mistaken, it is a look that easily translates into “where did I find you?”

Only kidding. We’re having a great time and tonight we have what the tour leader euphemistically refers to as “dinner on your own” -- which simply means he’s not paying for it. There are all kinds of cute restaurants in town, so it should be fun to have a nice quiet dinner out by ourselves.

Here are a couple of photos of Brad on the top of Mt. Ventoux...