Our famous Rocky Mounts bike rack has been replaced with a Thule that is apparently ok for off road which is great since, no surprise here, we are always on such roads searching for a campsite.

One issue was what to do with our $$$ bikes during the non functional rack period. We knew Mme. JP and M. RP had hidden theirs in the forest many times to use as shuttles after backpacking, and so decided to follow their lead. Om Nama Shivaya, right?

We bought the rack at Mcghie’s. The staff were very helpful, with two actually coming out to practically do the entire assembly.

Speaking of Mme. JP and M. RP, we have been happily using the solar lamp all over the place. Very handy!

Now hungry, we saw good reviews of T.K. House of Bread and entered to get some groceries. Wow, it was as if we entered another country. Many fermented foods and drinks. There were even music videos playing for our entertainment. Asking about a substitution required a 3 person conversation in Armenian.

The reviews were easily surpassed: the food was great.

The woman who helped us was from Armenia and explained that, aside from differences such as adding saffron to rice (or not) or sour cream (or not) most Middle East cuisine and Mediterranean are similar.

We stopped at the convenient campground to wash some clothes and ourselves and get some tap water for dishes later, and headed back to where we’d stashed the bikes.

The facts are that, outside of summer camp with the Scouts, I’ve never camped this much. Today is day 6; I believe 3 was my prior record. In the past, crappy sleep and feeling grimy were the show stoppers. We have a comfortable bed and thus far have stayed clean (ish). Many spigot showers.

Another purchase of the day was a new stove. The one we had didn’t shut off, which made unscrewing the propane container dangerous. Not good. Our new stove has amazingly adjustable burners and looks super cool. Yay!