Traveling in only the way we can....

Today is leaving day. I am still not feeling well, but we have to leave. Yesterday I woke after a day with a sore throat, and to accompany my sore throat I had a terrible headache, a runny nose, and a cough. Today I just have the sore throat and a cough which was in part the reason to delay our departure. We had everything packed so all that we needed to do was get breakfast and leave. We were on our way our of town at about 11:00 which is quite good for us. The going was slow while leaving the city and crossing the bridge, but after that we started making good time. Our destination was Rohnert Park, a town just south of wine country. We hadn't made reservations yet, but we had found a cheap hotel for about $36. We had decided to wait until just outside of Rohnert Park in Petaluma to make the reservations so that we knew that we would make it. The hills were the biggest problem. At about 4:30 we were both dead and had about 30 miles to go and three hills left: a small one and long sloping one, and a short steep one. All were very difficult, but we made it to Petaluma at about 7:30. Before I continue to the less fortunate part of our day, let me first mention something that we both noticed already but forgot to notice. Our saddles are both incredibly comfy, and we have Bart to thank. I wouldn't have imagined that these saddles, pricey as they were, would make such a big difference, but let me tell you that you should get your ass measured and get a saddle that fits. My saddle was just over a sixth of the cost of my entire bike at $60, but it was totally worth it. Thank you Bart, for the saddles along with everything else. Getting back to the story, we made reservations and set off for the town. We rode, and we rode, and we rode, and it got dark, and we rode. Then we decided that it was too dark, looked at the map, and realized that we had too far to go to continue. There was still 7 miles to the hotel, and we were on dark unfriendly road. We called taxis that had no room, and we looked for buses, but our savior was a man and his child who pulled over in the parking lot in which we had stopped to check our maps. How did we employ this poor man? I simply approached him, told him we had been foolish, and would pay him at least $20 if he would take us and our bikes in his truck. He obliged and refused our money. Lucky us, and we promised ourselves that we would never do that again. It figures that we learn nothing from our last trip. The fault was, admittedly, mine due to switching between maps with different scales. After arriving at the hotel we, relieved, laughed at our stupidity and exhausted, ordered Mexican food to be delivered and fell asleep looking forward to our complimentary breakfast which we have earned.