The Sacrificial Shoe

.. Next morning, packing up our *units ( pipers new name for our bike/trailer/body combo,) I didn't deem it necessary to strap down my hiking sandals properly, and of course didn't realize one was missing until 8 miles (uphill) and three hours later- DOH! I can feel all the dad's in the world reading this, shaking their heads at my improper strappage.... And you better believe I went looking for that sucker (sans BOB of course) NO DICE! But if I had to sacrafice my Chaco so that the biking Gods would be satiated- so be it! $2.50 thongs work just fine. The bike ride was great though, we passed through the ancient town of Megalohori, passed countless wineries and had a sweet descent into town.

Next stop, Fira- idyllic Greek island town with white washed buildings and colorful accents, built on the side of a cliff, overlooking the Med. From Fira the view of the volcanos caldera is epic and you are pretty much standing on the edge of volcanos mouth. Fira has a sweet open-air theater, but we had a bit of trouble finding it, so no DaVinci Code for us! Our ferry to Crete (Kriti) departed at 4:40 am, so we decided to treat ourselves to an adventurous midnight ride back down the crazy switchback to the port. It was a "white knuckling" experience (for me) to say the very least, and Tim had a poop-eatin' grin, "best ride of my life". A 90lb unit plus body weight, travels really freakin' fast downhill!! But, maybe it just seemed fast because it was pitch black- gotta fix that headlight! The hair pin turns wouldnt come into view until about 20 feet before hand, and since tour travelling at about 20 miles an hour ( at least Tim was ) the turns came up fast!! The farther down the hill that you got the more the Port came into view, and out the side of your tearring eyes you could see the reflections of the boats lights in the water down below. Truely unique.

After riding around so much looking for my shoe earlier, sleeping on the concrete (waiting for the ferry) never felt so good!! (insert shameless Big Agnes sleeping bag plug here) The ferry to Crete was .... interesting; crying Gypsy babies, diesel fumes, and sticky carpet to sleep on- thank god for our... you guessed it, Big Agnes sleep-systems!!