May 21: Trento to Riva del Garda

Today was yucky. Rain was threatening in the morning.

Kurt and I started out with Patty, Bryan, Faye, Mary, Walt and Nancy. Shortly after getting back on the bike path to continue from where we left off, I got a flat tire. A nice dagger of glass sticking in the tube. Kurt made quick work of the tire change and we were on our way again within 10 minutes.

The drizzle started and then the rain. Not a heavy rain, but rain nevertheless. We decided to just get to our destination as soon as possible, so Bryan, Patti, Kurt and I took off, taking the most direct route possible. The route had very little climbing, and soon after we cut over towards Riva, we reached the top of a pass and readied ourselves for the descent to Lago di Garda.

The rain made the road slick, and although we were descending carefully, my tires slid out in the last hairpin turn before the cobblestones of Torbole. As I was picking myself off the pavement, a car came around the bend and it took me a little while to find the right words in Italian to tell him I was okay. My brake lever moved and the handlebar tape was torn, but that was about the extent of the damage to the bike. I had some nice roadrash on my left thigh and my right forearm, and a sore left shoulder but was otherwise okay. And my camera wasn't damaged (phew!).

We rode into town to our hotel Hotel du lac and du Parc, without a doubt the nicest hotel we have stayed at (just beautiful rooms).

It turned out that today was the day we were supposed to find something along the road, and there would be a contest to see who had found the most interesting thing. Well, since it was raining, we had all forgotten about it, so I decided to use a pebble as the thing I had found (in my thigh, of course!). The first story I told was that I had crashed headlong into a Smart car (basically a roller skate with a motor), and had totalled the smart car and sent the driver to a public hospital in Italy, but done very little damage to myself. This got a big laugh... for my efforts, I was rewarded with a nice little pocket swiss-army knife, which I lent to Faye for the duration of the trip since she has misplaced hers.

Kurt brought me some ice, and I iced my wounds after having gotten settled into the room. We got to watch a little of the Giro on TV... it's so cool to be able to watch it live!

Tomorrow is a rest day, and not a day too soon!