Monday June 13th to Louftemont, still Belgium

Got up early to work on the bike before breakfast. Having trouble with the brakes and shifting.

Leaving Han Sur lesse we retraced a few miles of yesterday's route and headed south. The rain started shortly after we did, and fell continuously almost for the whole ride. Ironically, it was cold enough that we could wear rain jackets and even rain pants without being too hot. Today's route 65 kilometers, which doesn't seem too much by Florida standards but was actually a long day. Our route was hilly but none of the grades were more than eight or 9%. We are still having trouble with the brakes. The front brake grabs and thumps even though there is no distortion in the rim. The rear brake is largely ineffective. For starters, I think we need new brake pads when we can find a bike store. Fortunately we have the drum brake controlled by Sandy so we were able to slow down on descents and stop when we wanted to. Shifting continues to be a problem. When we started today we could shift into any of the three chainrings but very soon it would not shift out of the smallest chainring. That meant we could climb butt had to Coast on even a very slight downhill. Very frustrating and I have not been able to figure out what the problem is. Touring is hard on a bike, especially a tandem.

Our stopping point for the day is a B&B in the countryside, and we could not ask for a better place. The view is terrific - see picture. Our room is large and has plenty of places to hang up wet clothes. Our hostess cooked up a delicious meal for us for the evening. Better and cheaper than most of the restaurants we have sampled on this trip.

It was a long hard day, but we were never discouraged and actually enjoyed ourselves. After a shower and a rest and a good dinner we are doing great.

We learned today of the terrible shooting in Orlando.It's a sad waste of lives and leaves so many broken hearts. It is beyond comprehension that anyone could harbor so much hate, and I have no realistic idea what could be done to prevent these things.