Repairs

I have only had to do a few things to the Versatile so far. The first problem(besides the tail light) was the drive train sounding loud after hitting a particularly hard bump. I had pictures of the chain chewing through the body somewhere. As it turned out, all that was wrong was that an O ring on an idler sprocket had let go. While I was not able to find an exact replacement, I found something that worked easily enough. To check out the chain I just needed to remove some aluminum plates from the bottom of the VM. The fasteners are standard Torx sizes.

The only major problem I have had, was with the shifter for the Rolhoff hub. There are two tubes, one inside the other, which depend on superglue to transmit the torque forces from the outside to the inside. I was still able to shift, if I grabbed low enough, and squeezed hard enough, but had brushburned knuckles by the time I made it back home.

Since the shifter is on the right control handle, I needed to remove the right wheel, and loosen the brake cable, so I would have room to get the top of the control handle off to access the shifter. The scary part was using a torch to heat the brake lever mount. This was necessary to break free the loktite which secured the mount in place. I had to heat it long enough to get things smoking a little. Once the brake lever mount was removed, it was just a matter of pulling the two shifter halves apart, regluing them and reassembling everything else.

This is a cutaway view of the 14 speed Rolhoff hub which the shifter controls. Rather than being biult into a wheel, it is installed mid-drive at the front pivot of the swing arm on the Versatile.

The only other repair I have had to do was the right brake cable. The life of this cable was no doubt shortened by my getting it too hot when repairing the shifter. It is interesting to note that while I knew something was wrong, I didn't lose the brakes, since the reversing wheel, which ties the left and right brakes together, continued to pull the lower half of the right brake cable even though the upper half at the handle was broken. I took the time to radius the point where the cable passes through the lever, as Elrey Stevens ( the first American Versatile owner)
had recommended. This will reduce stress at the lever and extend cable life.

Commuting

I live in Eden, and work in Depew, which gives me a commute of about 23 miles. I imported my Versatile with the expectation that it would be faster than a standard bike. This did not prove to be the case. Riding in took me an hour and 45 minutes. I used to go around an hour 20 minutes on a bike. The first night in, I came to realize that my tail light was not working. This proved to be a broken wire inside the Aluminum handle on the top rear of the VM. There wasn't much room, so I ended up extending the wires, so I could get a good solder joint.

The return trip the next morning took over 2 hours, being more uphill on the way home. Every time you stop, you have to run through the gears, like on a tractor trailer. It takes significant effort and time to get the Versatile up to speed. Of course this information must be tempered with the fact that I am not particularly athletic, and the performance of the VM improves greatly when used by a rider who is.

By the time I rode back and forth the second day, I was ready for a break. I ended up riding two to three times per week, because of the physical drain, and even more so because of the 4 hour per day time commitment. Working nights, there are times when you just don't get to bed early enough to get up 2 hours early.

While I don't think I ever left home in the rain at night, I did have several occasions when I left work in heavy rain in the morning. You DO get wet. You don't get the road grit stripe up your back like on a regular bike. In very heavy rain, the upright position of your head ( from being recumbent) means drink it , spit it out or drown. I pretty much used the first two.

This is a picture of our first snow of the season...one day's accumulation. With the snow, came an end to commuting for a while. I did, however, continue using the VM for running errands, usually 10-20 miles round trip, when weather permitted.

Light snow is rideable, but does require additional effort with the loss of traction. On this particular trip, I was headed to Hamburg for Diet Pepsi. The trailer was purchased from "Bikes at Work" and has been pulled behind my first $275.00 mountainbike for years. You can stack another four 18 gallon Rubbermaid bins on top when needed, and I often substitute a large Coleman cooler for one of the bins when grocery shopping. This keeps the milk and stuff cold, as the extra weight slows you down on the climbs no matter what you pull it with.

This was taken 5 days after that first snow, when I made the 23 mile round trip journey to the pet store for 10 lbs. of parrot food, and 25 lbs. of dog food. Being as short as I am, the dog food fits behind the seat. A taller rider gets less cargo space. This was a warm day, with clear streets.

I have ridden in temperatures as low as 10 degrees F. Clothing for such weather includes a ski mask for my face, neoprene booties for my feet, a light pair of polypropylene glove liners ( brake levers remain cold) and a long sleeve jersey. You just can't wear a coat in this thing. You generate too much heat. It's toasty warm inside within minutes.

Found This...

I just found a more complete grouping of NL photos and had to put this up....

You can just make out the narrow wooden bridge I am about to cross as I come out of the woods. It exemplifies for me the beauty of The Netherlands from my view, and the mystique of never knowing where the fietsroute would take you.

Back Home

The Versatile was being airfrieghted from NL. In order to get it insured, about200Euro, I had to have it crated 500Euro. Altogether I spent about $2700.00 to get my velomobile home. Erik helped out alot with getting everything finalized and making the cash payment which the shipping company required, while I was out touring the country. Without all his greatly appreciated help, none of this would have been possible.

I got an Email from the shipping Agent, telling me to go pick up my VM at the Buffalo Airport. I was instructed to go to the Lufthansa cargo area and was given a tracking number. When I got to the airport, I learned that Lufthansa has absolutely NO connection with the Buffalo airport. I went to every airline at the cargo terminal, but no one was able to use the tracking number. I called airlines, I tracked it on the computer through two different alleged routes with flight numbers no one could find. A second day at the airport yielded the same results.

On the third day, a man at Fedex actually tried to help me, and when he couldn't, he took me down to a different office wherein worked a guy who had been there for 30 years. He put me in touch with the right people at Lufthansa, who explained that my VM was at King's Express, a trucking company. The man who had called Lufthansa for me knew right where it was, and I was there in 15 minutes.

One of the fork truck drivers helped me load the Versatile into the Aztec, tail first. I used a piece of the packing foam to protect the hood, and ratcheting tie down straps to secure it. The paperwork people told me I had to take the crate with me, or pay to leave it, but another worker was happy to take the 3/4inch sanded both sides plywood off my hands. And so Versatile #24 made it's way home to Eden.

I had originally planned on riding it home from the airport, but with the big search, and customs and all it just proved not to be feasible. When I got home, I enlisted the aid of a neighbor two doors down to unload, and filled the tires up with air. Then I went to bed, so I would be able to get up early to ride in to work.

Here is the beautiful crate it arrived in. Of course first I had to wait half an hour for paperwork to take to customs near the airport, where I paid three hundred some dollars duty and waited a couple hours for the customs agent to locate and complete the necessary forms. Paper work from customs in hand, I headed back to King's Express, and started decrating my VM.

Last Day

This is the last day for me to spend in NL. My suitcase and trusty traier are loaded into the Van Schoot's bike trailer, and Franz, Marianna, and Hans ( who worked on the assembly of my Versatile at Tempelman) lead me off to the train station. They gave me the folding bike to use, which would replace my luggage in their trailer for the trip home.

By the time I realized we were leaving and tried to get some quick pictures, Franz was disappearing on his Challenge.

I did manage to get Marianna on her Flevobike, as she made me realize we had to go NOW to get me to the airport in time. Hans has had his head obscured by my ineptness, and the rushed nature of our departure, but the bike trailer is visible. So is the bike that Guus used to whisk me home yesterday.

I got my ticket, and made the train with minutes to spare. about three of them. I brought my bike trailer back as luggage, with the wheels, pit pin axles, and drawbar zipped inside. I wiretied the zippers closed, and put wireties in the suitcase incase I had to redo it. As soon as I got in line, security from Continental took me aside, and searched my suitcase. The only problem was that I needed to take the batteries out of the two mini mag lights inside. They didn't bother cutting the wireties.

At the gate, everyone has to talk to a Dutch Customs Agent. I had to explain why I came, and how long I had been there, what I was bringing back etc. The flight was long, but uneventful. When we got to Newark, we had to circle waiting for a runway, and consequently landed 5 minutes after my connecting flight departed. I also missed the NEXT connecting flight back to Buffalo by 5 minutes by the time I rechecked bags and made it through customs and security. Now a three hour wait for the next flight. Luckily my ride waited for me, but I had to drop her off at work right from the airport,take her car back home (yech) and unpack, and be there in the morning to pick her up. Makes for a long day.

Day Thirteen

Today Franz is leading me to the shipping company at Schipol. It's a 70 KM ride, and he expects to be there alot earlier than I think I can be. Leaving in the morning, the bike traffic on the fietspad is the heaviest I have been in, but never seems clogged like car traffic. The only thing keeping me from passing is my legs. Franz stops to wait for me to catch up often, so I never feel lost or abandoned. What a patient man he must be.

Here's a picture that Franz took during our rest stop. He had coffee, I had cigarettes. Compare this photo to the one where I am first climbing into the Versatile and the difference in my stomach is incredible. I lost almost 20 lbs in the brief time I have been here. We left at 8:00 and got there at noon. I rode as hard as I could all day. I entered the biulding and found room 214, while Franz stood guard over our velomobiles. His ride home took 1.5 hours. I provided my name, address, phone number and Email address to the shipper.( Aphotocopy of which became the shipping label for the crate which was biult around the Versatile.) I received no paperwork or receipt from the shipper, and was whisked downstairs, where I let the air out of the tires and helped load the Versatile in a van.

Having been relieved of my charge, I grabbed a free bus ride to the main terminal at Schipol, while Franz, likewise relieved of his, pedaled his quest back home. At Schipol I used the bathroom to change out of my bike clothes, and went downstairs to the train station. Bought a ticket to Amsterdam's Centraal station, and rode the train into Amsterdam. The city was much different on a Thursday afternoon than on Saturday at 8:00 AM like last time. I bought a few gifts for people back home, and without even trying, stumbled upon the one coffeeshop I had really wanted to visit. Two reasons: Frank Zappa, and Jack Daniels. Very few coffeeshops are also licensed to serve alcohol, but the 4:20 Cafe, or DeKuil as it used to be more commonly called does, and it is the only place (perhaps in all the world) that features the music of Frank Zappa. I sat at the bar, had a couple Jack and cokes, and visited with Snow White till I felt like one of the seven dwarfs. Here's a picture of the pivot point the Versatile shares with the Green Machine to break up the monotony of all these words.

I tried to call home (the Van Schoot residence ) to see which train to take from Almere Buiten, but ended up getting a wrong number, and trying to get a guy from some energy company to tell me what train to take. To where? well to your house. Well who are you? Kind of amusing in retrospect. Anyway, back outside the train station having a cigarette, I found a digital info sign that cleared things up for me, and I took my train back to Almere. I called home (Van Schoot residence) and this time did it right. I talked to Marianna, who said to stay right there, and Guus would come pick me up. Guus came and got me with an upright 2 wheeler with a heavy duty carrier on the back. I had to ride side saddle on the carrier on the back. There was nothing to hang on to, and it was hard to stay on. Guus is strong, and we were weaving throuh pedestrians, and flying around corners. A few times my legs scraped on things which we were cicumnavigating. A kid in the NL has been doing this since infancy, but for me, it was a new and wild experience. A totally unexpected layer of icing on a many layered cake, if you will. When we got back, I found out the reason so many people had been pointing and laughing was that this form of transport is usually how boyfriends carry their girlfriends. How humiliating it must have been for Guus to have ME on the back of his bike.

When we arrived "home" dinner was waiting. Franz's dutch rendition of chinese food was awesome, served with koekbroek, thin crisp wafers of bread that complimented the meal wonderfully. Franz and Marrianna told me of the trip they are planning to ride the Great Wall of China next year. What wonderful people. I have met so many many wonderful people over here.....In the velomobile community, at my campsites, and out on the fietspad. I left Snow White and all my supplies on the bar at 4:20 cafe back in Amsterdam, but had a peaceful evening drinking beer out back with Franz.

Day Twelve

Ate lunch at a roadside Snackwagon where niether the owner, nor his young teenage son spoke English. We were still able to hook up though, and his son took the Versatile for a spin. It was neat to watch from the bystander's perspective. The multicolor paint is quite impressive. It can be a dark blue, or a purplish shade of red, depending on the way the light hits it, and even has a range of bronze under some lighting conditions. The special effect paint was an extra 350Euro.

I had about 50 KM to cover to get to Almere. The ride through Aserbos was fun, a narrow reddish fietspad just wide enough for the Versatile. I continued on to the Knaarbos, which started off OK. I saw a raptor drop a mouse, and fall from the sky after it like rock, land neatly beside it, and spirit it off once again into the sky. Then things turned nasty. The picture above shows the very deep, very loose pile of seashells that had become the surface of the fiets pad. I was in my lowest gear, struggling just to keep moving. After I finally hit pavement again, I got on LF20, another route like the zuiderzeeroute, and followed that to the city of Almere.

As I neared the city, I stopped for a break, and studied my maps to try to figure out the best place to get across the kanal and into the residential section that I needed, a teenager rode up in a Quest. It was Franz's son Guus. He lead me back to their home, where this picture was taken.While I am without question the slowest velomobile rider on Earth, Guus may well be the fastest. He had just won first place in a velomobile race. Not just in his class ( I mean this is a kid) but overall. So if he isn't the fastest velomobilist on Earth yet, he most likely will be in time.

The garage of the Van Schoot residence is a beautiful place. Four quests, a mtn bike, a folder, challeng hurricaines and a flevobike center steering recumbent,tires, tubes, battery chargers...a beautiful place. Franz got me set up for a shower, and fed me beer and a delicious dinner. He is retired, and his wife, a school teacher. The whole family speaks English very well, so I am able to learn alot about Dutch life. The Van Schoots somehow make me feel like a member of their family, and I am euphorically comfortable here. I slept on a matress on the floor in Guus' room, which is every bit as good as a bed to me.

After dinner, Franz had to go to a meeting 80KM away. Round trip that's like a hundred miles folks. He used his Challenge recumbent for transportation. Could you imagine being so fit that a hundred mile ride after dinner is no big deal? They don't have a car. They gave it away 12 years ago when it broke down. No wonder Guus rides like the wind, he's been doing it since he was 4.

Day Eleven

Yesterday I also got to see the prototype rain hood for the Versatile at Flevobike, but I can't seem to get a picture of it from their website to upload here. If you are curious enough, just go to www.flevobike.NL and check out the Nieuws. It looks as though it has just become available for sale at 199Euro.

Today I went back to Ligfietshop Tempelman and picked up my suitcase, and some heavy duty tires. The suitcase fits on top of the trailer ok, but looks rather odd.

Come to find out, the bar/restaurant is closed today, so I went to the market and bougt some rolls, ham and kaas (cheese) , some Pepsi light ( There are no "diet" pops in NL) and since there was a liquor store next door, a small bottle of Jack to go with it. Another relaxing afternoon and evening at Wissenbos.

I met a police officer today. Apparently there had been an altercation acrooss the way, which I was presumed to have witnessed, but I assured him that I had neither seen or heard anything. What was so unusual about the meeting was that when he started asking questions, and I asked if he spoke English, he stopped mid sentence and said: "switch." He then began again, speaking English as fluently as you or I. ( Most Dutch people, when asked if they speak English get this look on their face like you are testing them, and say "a bit." They invariably do so quite well.) I tried to learn some Dutch before coming here, but I really had insufficient vocabulary to be functional.

I stopped at the VVV yesterday as well, and picked up maps of Dronten and Almere. The one of Dronten got me to Flevobike, and the one of Almere will hopefully get me to Franz's house. I planned a route that would take me through some wooded areas on my way to Almere.

Day Ten

Feeling better rested after a couple nights in a row of sleeping in a bed, I headed to the centrum of Zwolle to find the VVV and acquire a map of zwolle to plot my way out of the city. It is surrounded by water, and was once walled off with four entry points that were closed at night to protect it's inhabitants.

The architecture here was stunning.

The streets were narrow cobblestone, and the biuldings ornate. So different from the modern residential section that circles the centrum.

I left this beautiful place, and headed off to Dronten. I needed to pick up my suitcase from Ligfietshop Tempelman. I took it slow and easy, planning on camping in Elburg again. As it turned out, I found a place right in Dronten to camp...Wissenbos. ( a bos is a forest or woods) The campsite had a bar/restaurant, so I decided to stay there two days. While I was checking out the centrum part of Dronten, I decided to call Flevobike to see if I could visit. Whoever I talked to on the phone was very nice, and said to come on over.

Visiting Flevobike was very special to me. This biulding had been my wallpaper for close to a year. It is where the Versatile was designed, and at the time I ordered mine, was still being produced in it's entirety. It's abeautiful place with a biological lawn management system.

Andre Frielink showed me around. They have CNC lathes , a large CNC mill, and the standard machine shop fixtures, and more interestingly, the mold for the Twintex bottom half of the Versatile. The clothlike Twintex, cosisting of fiberglass and polypropylene, is spray glued to the mold, made thicker in places by the application of additional layers for strength, vacuum bagged, and heated in an infared oven. While this is much faster than a fiberglass lay up, it still limits production to one body per days work.

This is a prototype recumbent they were working on at the time. It is currently available as a production model with some changes that further improve it's already impressive looks and performance. It uses the Rolhoff hub like the versatile, installed at the pivot point at the bottom of the rear seat support. The entire drive train is completely enclosed, minimizing the primary maintenance issue of any bike, the chain. I noticed this work of art on the way into the factory, and when I commented on it, they wheeled it outside, and forced me to take it for a ride. ( not that it was necessary to use extreme force or anything) Three words: Smooth, light, fast. This thing was awesome to ride. Like riding on a cloud. It's very short wheelbase makes getting started a little tricky at first, but once you get this thing rolling it is absolutely heavenly. They call it the Green Machine, but I think they should call it the Dream Machine.

I left the factory, and headed off to find Wissenbos. Had a burger at the bar while I enjoyed the company of the establishment's African Grey parrot. I also had a couple whiskey and cokes, and a nice relaxing evening with snow white.

Day Nine

It was so nice to sleep in a bed last night. Many velomobilists ( not that there ARE THAT many) are listed on a map. You can click on a red dot on a Map of NL and get a list of all the participating velomobilists in the area, and how far from the dot they are. Click on an individual's name, and you get their phone number, a map to their house, and a description of how many people they can put up for the night. Now tell me people are we missing it or what? It's like heaven over here.

This is just the bikeroute's way of getting bike traffic under the highway. It was so nice to experience a total lack of competition with cars for roadway. Riding my Versatile home from work in the morning can be pretty scary in some places. Today, I am riding North with Robert to Vries, then South with the Hunneliggers all the way down to Zwolle. A long ride for me. Nothing for them. Robert is kind enough to pull my trailer behind #13, since he has the same kind, and already had the trailer hitch in place. This way I should slow the group down a little bit less. I really worked hard to keep up with these guys, and started to see how fast you could take corners with some setting up. No doubt the pace was somewhat lethargic for a seasoned group of riders, but they never took off and left me behind.

In our group there were two Mangos ( the yellow VM in the foreground) Two FAW's ( one orange one natural) and Robert's and my Versatiles. In a group we got alot better reception on the bike path than I seemed to alone. At times I think people out in the boonies who had never seen a velomobile felt uncomfortable having it on their fietspad not knowing what it was. As at home, reaction to the Versatile was quite varied. Mild amusement, enthusiasm, wonder, disapproval in different degrees, and total lack of reaction.

This is Robert (facing away) with his Versatile#13 and one of the Mango riders in conversation.See the vegitation in the background? Yep, stinging nettles. That stuff is everywhere. I learned alot from Robert about better tires, elevating the seat( which I will show you later) and the smaller sprocket Flevobike made up for him to lower the gearing in his Versatile. I will probably look into one of those when the prototype rain covers for the Versatile become available. As the day wore on, one by one the riders dropped out and returned home.
Only the rider of the Orange FAW, Arjiel was with me when we finally reached Zwolle. He went to the door, and returned with Paulus, with whom I would be staying tonight. Arjiel didn't seem to mind my slow pace, or my frequent cigarette breaks to cool my flaming feet. I got sandals with SPD capability as soon as I got home. Arjiel rolls his own cigarettes with stringy looking tobacco from a pouch he just purchased. It's pretty common to do so over here. There aren't too many brands of pre manufactured cigarettes in the stores. The imported Marlboros were 4 Euro a pack.

I was going so slowly that Robert made me stop and get lunch. I had an Americanische burger met petat. The Americanische burger had of all things, a fried egg, sunny side up on the top. It wasn't bad really, and the petat (french fries) are really quite good served with mayo as they do over here. Arijel and I had a beer with lunch, and a cigarette after, while Robert, the vegetarian( not that that's a bad thing) chastized us for the harmful effects of the alcohol on my already snail like performance. It was at this stop that I took back the trailer, and Arjiel and I headed off to find Paulus' house in Zwolle, while Robert headed back home. He took some photos with an expensive looking camera, but I never did find his website to see them.

Paulus was cool. The whole situation there was. We had a beer, and he showed me where to park the Versatile, gave me a key, showed me the shower, and made me feel right at home. He explained a little bit about the group of biuldings that formed the community in which he lives. The people here all share a common garden area in the center of the biuldings as well as some common facilities, like the visitors rooms where I stayed, and the huge bike garage. All are responsible for some aspect of the care of biuldings and grounds, and the sense of community is amazing. Paulus had made dinner, but I was too full to eat from the Americanisch burger, so he shared his meal with a couple of his neighbors. I used Paulus' computer to send an Email back home, and he gave me some historical background on the city of Zwolle.

Paulus doesn't use a car. He commutes daily in his Quest, and told me of the time a strong wind blew his VM up against the curb and rolled it right over. This maneuver resulted in his head being the primary support member for the vehicle, as it ground to a halt on the cobblestone sidewalk. Hospitalization followed.

Although Paulus offered me the opportunity to stay another night, I had already decided to press on in the morning. I wanted to get to Dronten, and visit the Flevobike factory before my trip was done. I went for a walk, and got better acquainted with Snow white. When I returned to my room, I noticed that there were literally hundreds of insects perched all over every wall, that looked like mosquitos. Since not a one left the wall to feed on me while I was writing in my journal, I decided they must be something else. Turning off the lights turned out to be the catalyst for change, as the ravenous hoarde sprang to life in the darkness, and started to attack. In a matter of a couple minutes I had more mosquito bites than in the cumulative time I had spent camping, and had to go douse myself with Deepwoods Off to sleep.

Cats are quite popular here, and the structure you see affixed to the biulding provides easy access to upper apartments for them.

Day Eight

Packed up wet, paid the owner4Euro and was on the path again by 8:00. I was on my way to Assen to find the home of Robert,the owner of Versatile #13, where I would be staying that night,previous to riding with the Huneliggers ( a group of Velomobile riders ) the next day. Not that groups of velomobile riders are referred to as Hunneliggers, but that was the name of their group. I found more Big KIT KAT bars at the Tank station, and an excellent map of Assen as well. Not only could I tell right where I was for a change, I could also see how to get to where I was going. I found the home of Robert. He wasn't expecting me till that evening, and I was way early. He took off to fly RC aircraft, and I took off for the centrum of Assen, in search of a coffeeshop to replenish supplies. The secret word for today, boys and girls: snow white. They don't spell it like that, though. I just went into the city, found a main street, and followed it till I found the nearest coffeeshop, and picked 5grams of the best they had. WOW. We ARE missing the point of it all in this country. I sat by the window to keep an eye on the Versatile, and enjoyed a bowl before returning to Robert's house, where I leaned against his back fence in the carport and relaxed till he returned. I had lunch while I was in the city as well, at what would compare to a diner over here. Robert cooked up a bunch of Pasta and veggies for dinner that went real well. The map of Assen I had purchased was very helpful. There are red bike paths that lead from the city centrum to the surrounding residential areas. Even those were on the map. It was nice to know where I was for a change.
Not too much pictoral input for today, but here's a shot of my beautiful Versatile at one of my many rest stops on the fietspad. I pulled out the tent and let it dry in Robert's back yard while I was in Assen in the afternoon.

Day seven

My journal calls this day six, but I finally figured out that I lost a day traveling across the Atlantic. or something...I woke up feeling more tired than refreshed. Just too sore to sleep well. Ended up sleeping on my stomach, which is something I couldn't do when I arrived here and it was the size of a basketball. I wrote in my journal:"The secret word for today is: sheepshit." And the secret word for yesterday was slugfest.....

While I slept, my tent was surrounded by these huge slimy dennisons of destruction. The picture fails to convey how big they are. As for the sheepshit.....I entered into a section of my route where the entire Fietspad surface was covered with the stuff. Not a square foot of clean pavement to be seen for miles.

My progress was also hampered somewhat by the nature of the beasts. They didn't want to get out of the way. I didn't want to start a stampede by spooking them so I crept along so as to minimize my disturbance. I packed up wet in the morning, planning on drying things out during the day, but ended up just setting up wet that evening and allowing the breeze to dry the rainfly out a bit. I rode all day without stopping for lunch or dinner. All day I rode through open sheep grazing with no viable place to stop. I camped around 6:30. It was a small place adjoining a farm, and though the owner wasn't there at present a camper assured me I could set up for the night and get squared up with the owner later.

I had some unsolicited assistance in setting up from this young feline, who was all over the top of the tent underneath the rainfly, and very curious about my velomobile as well.

I had exhausted my Appelbotter cookie supply during the day, and wished I had bought more of the big KitKat bars I found at the TankStation (gas station) That's where I stopped for pop and cigarettes (Marlboro) Mostly Coke. Pepsi was rare out in the boonies. It was the easiest choice for getting something quick without leaving the VM unattended for too long. A quiet, uneventful evening. Found the showers, and rested my tired old body. I was lost alot today; am I missing the signs, or are the signs missing? Lots of riding through the woods, sometimes on gravel. Tough going in the Versatile, pushing the two front tires with the rear drive wheel, while pulling the two trailer wheels through their own freshly formed furrows. I would ride for five miles through the woods, and come out in the middle of nowhere with no signs to tell you where to go, or help you figure out where you were. But hey, that's why it's an adventure. Somedays you eat good. Other days you go to bed a little hungry.

Here's a shot of one of the beautiful places I cycled through on my route. These are mapped out bikeroutes that can lead you all over the whole country. We are really missing the point of it all in this country.

Day Six

Never should have drunk all that coffee last night. It took forever to fall asleep, and I awoke feeling tired and sore. The older you get, the less comfortable a thermarest pad is to sleep on.No shower here, but I washed my hair with cold water in the long troughlike sink. No where enroute to replenish my pop supply this morning, I rode the 25 miles accross the Aufsluitdijk.(Yawn) I then worked my way down the West coast of Friesland to Markum where I had lunch.
I ate outside to keep watch over the bike, and sat next to a lock with a rotating bridge that closes the main road through town when it rotates out of the way to allow a boat to pass. The lock keeper uses a wooden shoe on the end of a thin rope tied to a long pole to collect the toll from the boat below. The people in the boat are busy keeping it from getting scraped on the walls, and when the lockmaster lowers the shoe, they toss their toll in, and get back to the task at hand. Notice the canine first mate on this sailing vessel.

I was routinely passed by old women like the one in the background as I traveled.
I believe this is the town of Hindeloopen, where I was able to get a nice cold coke from a vending trailer near a public toilet. The Coke was 1.50Euro, but the lady filled my camelbak with water for me. I often ran out of pop or food on my trip, but that was the only day I ran out of water. The streets were exquisitely narrow in this old fishing villiage.

Not long after my camelbak refilling, I came on this bridge. I had to wait for it to clear of active pedestrians, but was cheered on by people lingering to the side as I labored up and over. The Versatile just clears the red and white posts.

I had dinner in Stavoren. The best fried fish I have ever eaten, with french fries. I picked up a few cans of pop to go, and headed the wrong way out of town based on directions from someone passing by the streetcorner vending trailer where I got the fish.After a while of not being able to find the Zuiderzeeroute signs I backtracked to town, found the last sign I had seen and started over. It started to sprinkle a little as I headed out of Stavoren the second time, and it was easy to promise myself to stop at the first campsite I found. It didn't rain alot, but I had lots of wet fresh mown grass in the tent with me that night.

Here's a choice view of the second departure from Stavoren. I stayed at de Weyde Blijk campsite. 10Euro the shower house was new and big, coin operated, and free of toiletpaper as are all such facilities. I would suppose it must be a matter of personal hygene that people wish to supply their own paper. "Ik ben moe." I wrote in my journal. I am tired. My legs, my feet, my left hip my lower back. Could use a day off, but I had to be in Assen by Saturday night, where finding the address I needed might take a while, so I wanted to camp the next night as near to Assen as practical.

Day Five

Today was absolutely awesome. I broke down camp this morning and tried to get a close up of this lady bug with white spots instead of the black I am so used to seeing at home.

Camp Opertje is right on the water, and I took this shot last night right outside the campsite. I was a little confused about how to get to the bikepath that would lead me to my first dijk crossing, but asking around, I found the appropriate bike path started right at the entrance to the campsite. Many of my pictures are of the beautiful Fietspadden, that narrow strip of pavement that leads me through this awesome land.

The Netherlands is pretty flat, but you still have to climb once in a while. I emerged from the wooded section of fietspad that lead me from the campground, and climbed to the top of yonder hill which put me on the road to the first dijk crossing.

There is a museum just before you get to the dijk, and this rugged old vessel is parked outside. I had wanted to cross the dijks because I thought it would be neat to ride for miles with nothing but ocean on both sides. As it turned out, the roadway was usually elevated above the bike path, so you only saw the one side. I grabbed an ice cream cone ( healthy breakfast) from a vending truck at the beginning of the dijk, and headed across. It was kind of boring, actually. Just a long straight road with water on one side.

Here you can see the break in the original dijk where the German's blew it up on their retreat from the land. Halfway across, I enjoyed lunch at Checkpoint Charlie...hot ham and cheese on a toasted sub roll with iced tea. So good. As I neared the end of the dijk, the bikepath climbed to the roadway, and changed from old and weedy to a beautifully new paved red color. It was so incredible to be slogging along for hours and then come upon this beautiful scene.

The concrete stucture off in the distance is a trough full of wter that boats travel through, and the fietspad passes underneath. Then, as I was taking all this in I ran into a cyclist I had met on the way to Apeldoorn the second day. His name was Mike, and we chatted for a while and had a snack together. It was so neat to run into him again, especially in this surreal environment. That is part of what was so incredible about this trip. You will be riding along, and never know where you will suddenly emerge into a totally different environment.

This is Mike, with his BOB trailer writing down his email address. Woefully I took all too few pictures of the people I met there. I took way too few pictures period. I guess I'll just have to go back. Having crossed the dijk I headed into the city of Enkhuizen. I followed the Zuiderzeeroute through the narrow cobblestone streets, following route signs at every intersection.

The zuiderzeeroute took me all through the city, along canals, and over this bridge that only left inches on each side of my Versatile.

You would just never know ( or expect) what was coming. There was a zuiderzeeroute sign with an arrow pointing across the bridge, and here I was. There were places where the street was so narrow I would hve to pull between parked cars to let moving ones pass, canals with narrow shop lined streets, and always the Zuiderzeeroute signs to guide you through the city.

This spot was so steep and sandy that I had to disconnect the trailer, push the Versatile up, and go back and drag the trailer up. I cycled from 9:30 till 6:30 PM today. After traveling through the city, the zuiderzeeroute took me into a wooded section, paved with seashells just wide enough for the Versatile. It was getting dark, the only food I had was some appelbotter cookies from the ladies in the park back in Appeldoorn, and a tube of Pringles sourcream and onion chips. I had no clue where I would sleep that night.

Here is one of my beloved route signs, which proved to be more difficult to find after leaving Enkhuizen.

Now here's a sign that I would hope translates into something to the effect of curb your dog. As the day continued to grow darker, I finally came out of the woods, and while taking one of my many breaks, found a sign for nature camping on the fietspad. There I was, hungry and tired, wondering where I would sleep, and I just turned around and it was there.

I needed a little help filling out the form I needed to use to enclose with my payment in an envelope. A fellow camper spoke English, and was happy to oblige. It was 4.55 Euro for the site, but no showers. (or toilet paper ofcourse) . I started setting up my tent when a nice lady came over and started inquiring about my versatile. I agreed to stop by for a cup of coffee, and finished setting up my tent before it got fully dark. When I went over to their campsite later, I learned that she was disabled, could only walk a short way, and used a scooter for transport. A little three wheel thing which she called skooby. They asked what I had with me to eat, and when I told her about the cookies and potato chips, her husband cooked me up a nice hot dinner.During the course of eating dinner, I learned that she had traveled all over Europe on her little skooby, using the many cycling paths. As it turns out she had been on TV was kind of famous, having inspired many other people with handicaps to get out there and live life to it's fullest with her many skooby journeys. Such a fool am I, that I didn't even get their names, though we spoke well into the night, and I was so very impressed by both her and her husband.Their open friendliness and kind spirits were genuinely uplifting.

I did get their picture, however, and their toilet paper as well. This was taken the following morning as she was preparing for the 75KM skooby ride back home alone while her husband pulled their camper back. I am not what you would call religious, but I had prayed for God's providence that day, and He had come through in spades all day long. ( whole trip actually) It was definitely the most memorable day of my journey, and still brings chills to my spine a year later to think of it in depth as I have today. From the head of the bikepath to the dijk that started right at my campsite that morning to lunch on the middle of the dijk, whizzing through the well signed streets of Enkhuisen to finding camping and an unanticipated hot meal, a day with very sketchy planning had turned into the adventure of a lifetime.